3. Lean Management spirit

3.1 Lead-time target

As we have just seen, lead-time is particularly crucial to performance and competitiveness. However, this indicator is not a priority for companies, many of whom are unable to provide a reliable indication of the physical lead-time of their products.

This situation is partly explained by the "Scientific Organization of Work" (SOW) culture we inherited, whose aim is to maximize local efficiencies. As a result, we end up with resources with high instantaneous yields, but unfortunately with long queues. This focus on local efficiency leads to a number of postures and management rules which have the effect of considerably increasing lead-time:

• oversizing of material stocks, so that a resource is...