If Lean will ultimately require less people, what happens to freed-up personnel?
In order to receive involvement from employees, it is crucial that they have no fear of job loss following a kaizen activity. In practice, this means that if a post-kaizen process requires less employees, the freed-up personnel should not be let go, but re-deployed elsewhere in the company. Having said this, it is fully understood that to obtain credit for a cost reduction, the company must operate with a net headcount reduction. This is usually solved by not replacing employees during normal attrition (retirements, voluntary leaving, promotions, etc…) or by not renewing temporary / part-time worker contracts. In most all cases, this practice which is communicated up-front during the kick-off communication of lean implementation, is acceptable to both managers and shop floor personnel.
