About a month ago I heard Jeremy Vine interview a management consultant discussing the demise of FAREPAK and what could have been done. Towards the end they started discussing LEAN and the consultant stated that LEAN is nothing new, just a renaming of Time and Motion Management which has had many different iterations over the years.
Speaking of a front-line unit I think the use of this management tool has been necessary, we are so busy we do need to be smarter in the way we do business, we are so strapped that we cannot conduct our sustained ops and effectively operate back at HQ with our current assets.
The small adjustments so far have made us better:
Best use of aircraft.
More efficient line operations.
More engineering personnel freed to carry out their primary role
These are just a few examples.
We have not spent a great deal, if any cash, just hard work planning and tailoring the plans.
The only thing I would suggest to guard against is allocating people with no knowledge of the LEAN principles to carry out the work - those involved must be properly trained and briefed in.
In our case LEAN has been a trigger to step back from the 'way things have always been done' and take a fresh look at how we can do our business, nothing more than that.
We all need to do this now and again.