IT Carlow: Lean Six Sigma - Respect for People in Lean Management

This report analyzes the 'Respect for People' principle, a critical component of Lean Management, as applied to Unilever, as outlined in an assignment from the Institute of Technology Carlow's Lean Six Sigma module. The report explores the five principles of lean management: identifying value, value stream mapping, creating continuous workflow, establishing a pull system, and facilitating continuous improvement, alongside the two guiding principles: respect for people and elimination of waste. It examines how Unilever can implement these principles, including seven key practices: going and seeing, challenging, listening, teaching, supporting, teamwork, and learning. The report details the importance of respecting frontline workers and lean leaders, emphasizing how respect fosters a positive work environment, employee motivation, and continuous improvement. The conclusion highlights how respect for people facilitates lean management and contributes to business success and growth.

Master in Supply Chain
Management
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INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
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 INTRODUCTION
Lean management is defined as approach in order to manage organisation which focus on
supporting concept of continuous improvement that is long term aspect so that they achieve
incremental change along with improving quality as well as efficiency (lean management, 2020).
Main aim of lean management is producing value for consumers for utilisation of optimum
resources and creating workflow which is based on demand and need of individuals. This seeks
in elimination of waste, time, effort, money through identification of single stages in process of
business and revising steps which does not add value. This leads in manufacturing of high
quality products and services in an effective and efficient manner. It will help Unilever in sharing
leadership, responsibility, continuous improvement and employee contribution towards
improvement process. Firstly, such concept was applied by Toyota production system while
producing products for their business.
MAIN BODY
There are five principle of lean management that are applied by Unilever such as:
Identifying Value- It is regarded as first stage in lean management which means to find
problem that has faced by consumer and provide them with better solution. Here, product is part
of solution where consumers are ready to pay for it (Alves and Alves, 2015). If any activities
which does not add value then it is useless and meaningless for business. In context of Unilever,
market analysis has to be done to identify value for consumers and provide them with solution.
Value Stream Mapping- This is regarded as procedure of mapping workflow of
company which includes all people as well as actions that contribute in process of creating as
well as delivering final product to end consumers. This mapping assists manager in visualising
about processes that are led by team and identifying people responsible towards measurement,
evaluation and improve process. Such principle is used by Unilever to know about system which
bring value to workflow in an effective manner so that better results are attained.
Creating Continuous Workflow- This ensures about workflow of team progresses and
prevents bottlenecks that come across cross functional teamwork (Chiarini, Baccarani and
Mascherpa, 2018). It is important for organisation to create continuous workflow of business for
maximum production. Unilever need to ensure about such principle in their workflow for better
results.
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Establishment of Pull System- It is also the principle which ensure about continuous
workflow to remain stable as well as guarantee team in delivering work assignment at faster
speed with less efforts. Pull system is defined as lean technique which decrease waste at time of
production procedure. This principle assists Unilever in minimizing overhead as well as
optimising storage costs in effective manner.
Facilitate Continuous Improvement- It is defined as last principle which ensure about
using of technique in order to improve continuous process of business (Coetzee, Van der Merwe
and Van Dyk, 2016). Unilever has to use proper tools and techniques so that improvement is
done on continuous basis for better results. All employees have to provide equal contribution in
attainment of goal and objectives in best effective manner.
Respect for people is defined as one of two guiding principle of organisation which helps
in attainment of business goal and objectives (Respect for People principle, 2020). It is very
important to respect all employees working in business to feel them happy, encouraged and
motivated towards work performance. This is possible through producing quality applications
through culture of respect, leveraging their talents, providing equal important and using culture
practices at workplace for enhancement of productivity and profitability. This is regarded as
important aspect for business to survive and sustain at competitive marketplace in order to attain
gain advantage in positive manner.
It is very important for organisation to follow steps in order to lead lean with respect for
people. There are basically seven practices or steps which are made to lead with respect. They
are described below:
Going and Seeing Yourself- It is better to go and see situation rather than reading report.
This is regarded as sampling approach which focus on qualitative than attitude of people (7 Steps
for Leading Lean with Respect for People, 2020). The leader of Unilever has to focus on
consumers and accordingly making values and contexts. Success depends on continuous
improvement so that people agree on same problem before they argue for solutions.
Challenging- It is the stage for leading lean with respect for people by providing them
with challenging activities so that they give their best efforts in solving it by using proper
techniques, seeking root causes, making work consumer oriented. Challenging work to employee
helps them to make step by step improvements along with attainment of organisation goal and
objectives.
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Listening- This means looking out at business place for particular obstacles for better
work performance and working beyond competence level as well as personal difficulties.
Unilever has to listen to their employees problems and issues so that they can provide solution to
them in positive manner.
Teaching- It is the responsibility of Unilever to teach their employees with different
types of skills such as improvement and problem solving (Emiliani, 2015). As employees are
expert in their jobs that their manager. Main work is to respect for people along with providing
them training and development in their lack field so that they can enhance themselves in most
better and effective manner.
Supporting- Whenever employees faces problems then they have to approach to their
manager so that they provide them support with improvement to work as per organisational goal
and objectives. This helps in leading lean respect for people so that they give their best to attain
positive outcome.
Teamwork- Quality of problem solving is linked to teamwork which helps in cross
functional boundaries for process improvement (Gao and Low, 2015). For establishment of right
grounds for process improvement, leader needs to develop teamwork through teaching them to
work with other team members. Unilever has to focus on teamwork so that lean is achieved by
respecting people in positive manner.
Learning- The gaining of experience in particular filed helps employees to learn new
things very easily so that they perform in positive manner. People have to focus on learning new
as well as innovative things in most effective way for lean management. Unilever is organisation
which provides opportunity to their employees to learn new things by providing them with
training and development session.
Respect for people is regarded as pillar of lean and culture of organisation which helps in
attainment of goal and objective in an effective manner (Gupta and Sharma, 2016). It is very
important for company to respect all people for lean principle so that they can work in diligent
way. There are different people who are involved in principle of lean management. They are
described below:
Front line Workers- These are the people who should be provided with respect so that
they perform better work for positive results. Lean thinker always focus on providing best ideas
in order to improve about how to work as well as delivering value to consumers who came from
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gemba (place where work took place). Such type of people comes from that area where every
day things are getting to be done. Lean respects all those workers for their work performance and
perspective they possess while they perform work (Respect for People: Lean’s Neglected Pillar.
2020). Front line workers are regarded as important person who perform different activities and
operations in an effective manner for better outcomes of organisation. They have good
implementation decisions for business where their main aim is to attain goal as well as objectives
of firm in better manner. Therefore, these people should be respected so that principle of lean
management is attained. In context of Unilever, they focus more on respecting their people who
are involved in their manufacturing of products and services.
Charge for Lean Leaders- As lean thinker believe that employees want to perform great
in their work which helps them to get them job satisfaction and natural desire in fulfilling need
and demand of business (Sartal, Martinez-Senra and Cruz-Machado, 2018). These people do not
require supervision on daily basis as they are expert in their field to achieve goal and objective.
Lean always focuses on their people to ask about effort and aligning those with maximum
effectiveness in proper way. Unilever lean leader has to assist their employees so that they build
proper system in their business for keeping things to be working in smooth manner so that
success can be achieved and attained. Also manager has to guide employees for maximum
productivity and profitability of business.
Therefore, these are the people who should be respected at business to deliver high
quality of products and services to achieve lean principle in management. They give their
positive efforts to attain better results at workplace.
There are two principles of lean management such as Elimination of waste and respect
for people. Here, respect for people is regarded as new idea for many management teams who
helps in success and growth of business (Trenkner, 2016). It has three segments such as key
characteristics, critical success factors and performance matrix. In case of key characteristic,
respect for people is performed with help of team environment, communication and self directed.
It is very important for employees working in Unilever to be respected by their manager so that
they perform in better manner for positive outcomes. Similarly, lean management achieve
success through lean behaviour, ideas cost, top management commitment, continuous
improvement, formation and so on. It is important to measure performance of their employees
through number of ideas generated, involvement of people and cost of project. For measurement
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of performance, likert scale is used for different items such as top management, lean behaviours,
perception of member of team capability, leanness level of company and many more. It is
important for Unilever to respect each and every employees of their business so that they achieve
lean management at their workplace which helps in success, growth and sustainability of
business in best possible manner.
Respect for people is regarded as crucial principle which should be followed by company
for successful implementation of lean management (Urban, 2015). Such principle is not simple
where company should be polite to their workforce along with providing them with respectful
work environment, proper working conditions, developing people and other aspects for them.
This could be sustained by Unilever through following ways:
 People should be treated as individuals as each individual is unique which should not be
included in group of workers.
 Machines are not operating people as people are operating them so they are liable for
goods and services produced by them.
 People are regarded as important asset in company. As capital, financial and technology
are essential but not more than people.
 This could be sustained through 3C’s such as Consideration, Communication and
Cooperation. These elements are implemented in proper manner then efficiency of people
will increase.
 It is very important to use abilities of people in effective manner and make them feel
better for maximum production.
 This is the responsibility of organisation to grow their people by appreciating and
motivating them for better work performance.
 People should be provided with challenging work which keeps their mind active,
productive and innovative for better work performance.
CONCLUSION
Respect for people could assist lean management because they will focus on maximum
production of business which help firm to attain success and growth at competitive marketplace.
It is very important for organisation to motivate and encourage their employees for better work
performance so they will give their best efforts in attainment of goals and objectives in effective
manner. This could also assist to accomplish set and desired target within given time period. The
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important things are to include employees in decision making of business so that they provide
new ideas to firm and work accordingly for maximum productivity and profitability.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Alves, J. R. X. and Alves, J. M., 2015. Production management model integrating the principles
of lean manufacturing and sustainability supported by the cultural transformation of a
company. International Journal of Production Research. 53(17). pp.5320-5333.
Chiarini, A., Baccarani, C. and Mascherpa, V., 2018. Lean production, Toyota Production
System and Kaizen philosophy. The TQM Journal.
Coetzee, R., Van der Merwe, K. and Van Dyk, L., 2016. Lean implementation strategies: how
are the Toyota Way principles addressed?. South African Journal of Industrial
Engineering. 27(3). pp.79-91.
Emiliani, M. L., 2015. Engaging faculty in lean teaching. International Journal of Lean Six
Sigma.
Gao, S. and Low, S. P., 2015. Toyota Way style human resource management in large Chinese
construction firms: A qualitative study. International Journal of Construction
Management. 15(1). pp.17-32.
Gupta, S. and Sharma, M., 2016. Lean services: a systematic review. International Journal of
productivity and performance management.
Sartal, A., Martinez-Senra, A. I. and Cruz-Machado, V., 2018. Are all lean principles equally
eco-friendly? A panel data study. Journal of cleaner production. 177. pp.362-370.
Trenkner, M., 2016. Implementation of lean leadership. Management. 20(2). pp.129-142.
Urban, W., 2015. The lean management maturity self-assessment tool based on organizational
culture diagnosis. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences. 213. pp.728-733.
Yadav, O. P. and et. al., 2017. Lean implementation and organizational transformation: a
literature review. Engineering Management Journal. 29(1). pp.2-16.
Online
7 Steps for Leading Lean with Respect for People. 2020. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.industryweek.com/operations/continuous-improvement/article/
21963635/7-steps-for-leading-lean-with-respect-for-people>.
lean management. 2020. [Online]. Available through:
<https://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/lean-management>.
Respect for People principle. 2020. [Online]. Available through:
<https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/Respect-for-People-principle>.
Respect for People: Lean’s Neglected Pillar. 2020. [Online]. Available through:
<https://blog.planview.com/respect-for-people-leans-neglected-pillar/>.
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