Much of the operational progress quietly erodes in the background, and frontline teams are left thinking, “Here we go again.” The root issue isn’t leadership turnover. It’s the fragility of how Lean has been implemented. In operations, this cycle of reinvention creates what we call “initiative fatigue”—an exhaustion from constantly shifting priorities, metrics, and improvement slogans. To break that cycle, manufacturers need more than a good Lean program. They need a Lean Operating Structure designed to withstand leadership changes, unify teams, and anchor improvement into the fabric of daily operations.
Think of your Lean Operating Structure like the power grid of your factory. Leaders may come and go, but the power must stay on. Sustainability starts by shifting Lean from a leadership initiative to an operational infrastructure. This means moving beyond tools and kaizen events toward a management structure that governs how decisions are made, how performance is reviewed, and how accountability is created and sustained at every level.
This is where Operational Performance Management (OPM) becomes critical. It isn’t just a set of routines. It’s the backbone of Lean governance. It clarifies what good looks like, defines the rhythm of performance, and ensures that improvements do stall when leadership rotates.
At many sites, daily huddles and weekly reviews happen like clockwork. But structure without intent is theatre. To build resilience, meetings must evolve from habitual rituals into platforms for decision-making.
Start with clear terms of reference for every recurring meeting. Define who participates, what gets reviewed, and how decisions are made. Use a consistent cadence—daily for local issues, weekly for cross-functional alignment, and monthly for strategic integration.
But here’s the crucial part: define and document the rules for how participants engage. Are the right metrics being challenged? Are actions being closed before the next review? Are the same problems surfacing without resolution? The outcome of every recurring meeting should be: ACTIONS, ACTIONS, ACTIONS.
A Lean Operating Structure is only as strong as the discipline with which it is applied. A healthy structure is recognizable by how rapidly actions are resolved. Such a structure creates what we call “muscle memory” in the organization. Over time, teams stop waiting for direction. They know how to respond when performance slides and how to escalate when it can’t be solved locally. The structure is kept alive by the combined energy of the participants.
If you have to pour energy into every meeting it is not sustainable. It is the difference between people coming to you with problems or people coming to you with their resolutions.
There’s a subtle danger in metrics that don’t move. In a stable operation, flatlining KPIs are often seen as a win. But if your improvement engine is working, why isn’t performance improving?
A mid-sized food manufacturer recently faced this very scenario. Output was steady. Downtime hovered at acceptable levels. But profitability was slipping. A deeper investigation using a true root cause approach revealed that corrective actions weren’t being executed. Problems were logged but left unresolved. The operating rhythm existed, but the system was inert.
The turning point wasn’t a major initiative. It was a reset of ownership. Meeting participants were re-briefed, action tracking was enforced, and outcomes were reviewed with rigor. Within six weeks, OEE began to rise, and margin recovery followed. This isn’t about dramatic overhauls. It’s about operational fidelity.
When a new leader joins, the instinct is to make their mark. But if the Lean Operating Structure is functional, their role isn’t to start over—it’s to enhance. The best leaders don’t rewrite the playbook. They ask sharper questions, raise expectations, and model behaviors that reinforce the system. They use the existing OPM framework to probe where accountability might be thin, where cross-functional coordination and collaboration are missing, and where improvements are stuck.
A well-functioning Lean system frees new leaders to focus on growth, innovation, and market strategy—because the day-to-day discipline is already in place.
It’s easy to mistake compliance with sustainability. A factory might tick all the boxes—visual boards, daily meetings, red-green KPIs—but still struggle with stagnation. Resilient systems don’t just follow procedure. They evolve.
To build that kind of resilience:
And perhaps most critically: invest in coaching people. Different people have different coaching needs, one size never fits all. If the structure is robust, the people will adjust. The system shouldn’t have to.
Even the most disciplined Lean Structures can appear healthy on the surface—until something disrupts the status quo. The real test of sustainability is in moments of pressure, ambiguity, or leadership change.
Here’s how to assess whether your Lean Operating System can truly stand on its own:
This stress test is about identifying if and where your structure still relies too heavily on personality or heroics. If performance continuity depends on a few key players, it’s not yet built to scale—or to survive change.
The goal is to make operational excellence the natural rhythm of the business, not something that needs to be reinvented with each new leader or crisis. If your structure system can pass this test, it’s not only scalable: it will sustain.
The goal is to create a Lean program that suits your organisation. To build a Lean Operating Structure that sustains, adapts, and grows under any leader. When Lean becomes part of how your business runs—not something it does—you escape the reset cycle. Instead of launching new initiatives every 18 months, you drive sustained performance every day. Leadership changes should mark the next chapter, not the first page. And if your system is built right, the story will keep moving forward. Want to see if your system is ready for that level of resilience?
Explore how a robust lean management system can anchor your progress and protect it from disruption.
Private Equity Operational Due Diligence + Value Creation
Operational Excellence
Don’t miss industry expert insights.
Join a community committed to excellence.
