SB
My point exactly. A lot of the latest fad thinking comes from Business Schools. We are not a business and some of their teaching does not fit our model or should not be applied to a non profit making organization. We therefore implement partially thought through ideas, using business practices which may not be appropriate nor even current thinking, without providing the funding to achieve the long term goal. In the military LEAN has mainly been about manpower savings.
We have spent the last 10 - 15 years being hit with "savings targets". Logically there is a point where there are no more savings. In the NHS you close a ward and bleat to the press. In the military you close a sqn, scrap a frigate or disband a minor regiment. Once gone we do not get them back, unlike the NHS who will probably get the funding or be allowed to overspend their budget (of £88.8 BILLION in 05/06)