Re-Thinking the Shop Manager Role Greenville NC

In 'lean' organizations, the process itself is the 'manager,' freeing up your actual shop manager to be a leader instead - someone focused not on problem solving and putting out fires, but on building a better business.

By John Sweigart
12/1/2006

The single most difficult thing to change in an organization about to implement “lean” isn’t work habits or processes but employees’ minds. It’s a different way of thinking. Different, but necessary.

If you’re going to compete in the future, you’re going to need to find new ways to work. The old approaches no longer deliver. You see it happening every day in business – someone can do it cheaper with better results. The answer lies in removing waste. Identify and remove the waste, and you remove its cost.

Look at your own management structure. Does it provide value for the cost? Why not put these resources to use in building a better business? Competition for the collision repair customer is only going to get worse over the next few years, and it’s those of us who start working on new solutions today who have the best chance of being around tomorrow.

Change in Thinking
Lean thinkers see the world differently. They see things in terms of process rather than cost. They’re driven by capability, not by position or structure. For example ... 

• The lean world looks only at the whole or overall outcome.
• The cost world looks at each ...