If you’re old enough to remember The Lone Ranger, Tonto and Silver (the Lone Ranger’s trusty horse) you’ll also remember the famous silver bullets. Unfortunately, silver bullets only exist in Hollywood, not in the real world. I’ve had several conversations with people whose companies are using lean transformations to pursue the magical silver bullet.
Some people seem to think that continuous improvement is about finding that silver bullet and they engage in multiple kaikaku (the Japanese word for radical change) events looking for a quantum leap in performance. Meanwhile, some of the most respected companies in lean manufacturing continue their steady pursuit of improvement using mini kaizens (the Japanese word for continuous improvement), performed by small teams of personnel in their work areas to achieve value-adding changes.