Lean Leaders: The Cost of Not Knowing Your System

Many operations fall into a costly trap when lean leadership assumes their operational systems are working, but in reality, they lack true system visibility and engagement, jeopardizing operational excellence.

I’ve seen plants where the floor looks clean, dashboards are full, and meetings are on time. On paper, it all checks out. But when something goes wrong, no one knows what to do. That’s when you realize: the system only exists at the surface.

And the cost of that disconnect is massive.

A Story About Bumpers and Belief

I remember visiting a supplier that built a beautiful lean production line for Toyota bumpers. Everything about the line was clean, timed, automated, exactly what you’d want to see in a lean flow. It had all the right markings: standardized work, visual controls, balanced flow. It looked great.

When Toyota’s team arrived to evaluate the operation, they didn’t go straight to the presentation room. They asked to walk the plant.

They didn’t just inspect the bumper line, they walked every production area. And what they saw told a completely different story. Outside of that one polished line, the rest of the plant was a mess: overproduction everywhere, no visual management, high inventory stacked in corners, and poor process flow from station to station. It was obvious that the lean principles applied to the bumper line weren’t part of a broader system, they were part of a performance.

When they regrouped, Toyota declined the partnership.

They didn’t walk away because of the Toyota bumper line, they walked away because the leadership didn’t live lean. They weren’t aligned. They didn’t understand what lean meant beyond aesthetics. They had a symbolic system, not a cultural one.

When You Don’t Know the System is Lean, You Can’t Improve It

Too many executives think operational excellence lives on the floor. That it’s something their teams “do.” But the system is shaped by leadership decisions every day:

• How schedules are set
• How inventory is managed
• How roles are defined
• How problems are surfaced
  

If lean leaders don’t know how the system works, or what it even is, then improvement efforts fail. Problems get pushed downstream. Metrics get gamed. Leaders blame execution, when the real issue is structure.

Post-COVID: System Amnesia

Since COVID, we’ve seen a wave of turnover in operations leadership. New leaders came in with financial backgrounds or digital transformation titles, but no time on the floor.

They inherited systems they didn’t build and often didn’t understand. They made decisions based on dashboards, not flow. And slowly, the muscle memory of real operations started to fade.

I’ve had conversations with lean leaders who didn’t know how their lines were balanced. Who couldn’t explain why they batch or buffer the way they do. Who hadn’t walked the floor more than a couple of times a month.

This isn’t about discipline. It’s about visibility. You can’t drive improvement in a system you’ve never seen.

What I Recommend for Lean Leaders

If you’re in leadership (especially lean leadership) and you want a resilient, high-performing operation, you need to:

• Walk the process, regularly, not ceremonially
• Ask questions, especially when things “look fine”
• Connect dashboards to decisions
• Engage with the people who know the work
• Invest in learning the system you lead
• Learn how the production system should work
  

You don’t need to be an expert in takt time or value stream design. But you need to understand how decisions affect flow, cost, quality, and accountability.

Final Thoughts: Leadership Without System Knowledge Is Luck

Operational excellence doesn’t come from slogans. It comes from lean leaders who understand how their systems actually work, and how to improve them.

You can’t fake flow. You can’t delegate discipline. If you don’t know your lean system, you can’t lead it.

And if you can’t lead it, don’t be surprised when it breaks.