Management By Walking Around Reduces Waste

I read a short post on the excellent management blog, Curious Cat, the other day on the subject of Management By Walking Around (MBWA). MBWA espouses the importance of seeing what's happening in your business in order to know how to improve it.

Sounds like common sense, doesn't it? If it also sounds like Lean Thinking, it should. The Toyota Production System strongly encourages observation, for without it, your liable to miss kanban that could drive improvement. How would you know your workers are idle if you don't see them idling? I guess you could be told... but it's always good to see it without another's interpretation.

If you are a manager or employee in a company attempting to implement Lean principles, it's imperative to see what's going on. Management reports, Electronic Kanban, and spreadsheets with yellow, green, and red are vital management tools, but they're only part of the solution. A commitment to Lean is a commitment to change in all practices. So get out there, see and be seen.