Lean manufacturing isn't about cutting jobs, it's about making work easier for employees. Quantify machine downtime costs to justify repairs to accountants and build buy-in from workers who need to see the real financial impact.
Manufacturers, employers have gotten a bad rap for trying to use lean to get rid of people or to reduce their headcount. And you really have to instill a culture that helps people understand, I'm not trying to replace you. I'm trying to make you more productive. I'm trying to make your job easier. You don't like that your machines broke down all day long, every other day? Well, if we can get data around that, it's, it's a lot easier to convince an accountant if I go to them and say, this is costing us X number of dollars. If we don't fix it. And sure, there's a dollar amount that we have to spend upfront. Without that data, it's just like, man, this sucks. My machine's broken all the time. And the accountant's like, so what do I get if I fix it? Right. And if you can't go to 'em with that, you don't have anything.
