Start Lean in 4 weeks

Pick one small area and the people who work in it. Start small, so you can show a win fast.

• Choose one pilot area. For example one cell, one line, or the stores. For example one team, one process, or one shared office.
• Ask a manager to back it (your sponsor).They clear blockers and turn up to the huddle once a week.
• Form a team of 4–6 people who do the work.Lean works best when the people doing the job make the changes.
• Take “before” photos of the area.You will want them in week 4.
• Hold a 30-minute kick-off. Explain the 4 weeks and the 8 wastes.

Done when: you have an area, a sponsor, a team and a date for week 1.

Clear out what you don't need and give everything else a home. A tidy, ordered area makes problems easy to see.

• Sort: red-tag anything you are not sure you need. Move it to a red tag area. Tools, parts, paperwork, broken kit. Old files, spare kit, stationery piles, unused folders on the shared drive.
• Set in order: give every item a place and a label. Shadow boards for tools, floor tape for bins and walkways. Labelled shelves, one folder structure everyone uses, a clear desk rule.
• Shine: clean the area together. Note anything broken or leaking.
• Standardise: take an “after” photo and post it as the standard.
• Sustain: agree a 5-minute tidy at the end of each shift or day.

Done when: the red tag items are dealt with, and anyone can find any item in 30 seconds.

Start a 10-minute stand-up meeting at a board, every day, same time. The team sees how yesterday went and what got in the way.

• Print the SQDCP board: Safety, Quality, Delivery, Cost, People. In an office, use measures like backlog, turnaround time and errors.
• Set one simple target for each letter.
• Hold the huddle daily: green or red for each letter, then problems and actions.Keep it to 10 minutes. Solve problems after the huddle, not in it.
• Give each action one owner and a date.
• Sponsor joins at least once and does a short gemba walk.

Done when: the team has held 5 huddles and has a list of problems to work on.

Stop running out, and stop over-ordering. Use cards to signal when to refill, so nobody has to remember.

• Pick 5 items that often run out. Fasteners, consumables, packaging, common parts. Paper, toner, stationery, kitchen supplies, forms.
• Set up a two-bin system: when the first bin is empty, its card goes in the post box.
• Make a kanban card for each item: what, how many, where from, who orders it.
• Put up a kanban post box and agree who collects the cards and when.
• Hold the cards in place with pockets or rails.

Done when: the 5 items have cards, a post box and an owner, and one refill has worked.

Pick one problem from the huddle board and solve it properly, on one page, with the team.

• Choose a problem that keeps coming back, and that the team can fix.
• Go and see. Write down the facts and the numbers (A3 steps 1–3).
• Find the root cause with 5 Whys (A3 step 4).
• Agree countermeasures and an action plan (A3 steps 5–6).
• Share the A3 and the before and after photos with the sponsor. Celebrate the win.

Done when: the A3 is on the board with a plan, and the team has shown it to the sponsor.