Lean Quote: Learning to See

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but in seeing with new eyes." — Marcel Prust

Lean is not about the destination but rather the direction or path you take toward an idealistic place. The journey towards Lean can be difficult and filled with obstacles. Developing the ability to recognize waste is an essential first step on the right path of the Lean journey.

In my opinion Leaning out the waste is not necessarily the difficult part but rather the identification of the wastes.  Waste is all around us yet many cannot recognize it. 

Through lean you will learn to look at things differently and develop an eye for improvement. Learning to see the whole picture (value stream) is the challenge. We need to stop looking at our work from within. This allows us to see the waste that accumulates between all our processes and how to improve. No matter how “Lean” we are, we’ll always need to continue doing that. The key is to get as many “eyes for improvement” as possible.

Do not forget that wastes exist in all processes. The important point is “to see, identify and remove them.”