Implementing an improvement program like Lean is like cooking. Cooking is easy (if taste doesn’t matter).
First you decide what you want to eat. Get all the ingredients together then toss it about and out comes the food! In a rather similar manner, implementing Lean in businesses and operations is just like cooking. Put all the Lean tools together and out comes the result!
This may sound similar but it is not. Imagine implementing Lean tools such as Rapid Changeover individually without looking at an overall improvement plan. This is likened to cutting the carrots without knowing what you want to cook. You still achieve something that is an improved changeover process (or pieces of carrot) but there might not be overall improvement to the business.
So before embarking on any lean tools, the first step is to always decide on the flow of the process (from receiving to dispatch) , then decide what needs to be improved, only then select the tools to use. Don’t do it otherwise; selecting the tools first is like starting to cook without knowing what you want to eat. In the end plenty of work get done, but you are still hungry.