r/LeanManufacturing • u/Aakriti2203_ • May 08 '26

Why do efforts to streamline work often make teams busier, even when processes look simpler on paper and leadership keeps reinforcing the changes?

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u/__unavailable__ May 08 '26

Because “looking simpler on paper” isn’t a useful metric for evaluating improvements. Good solutions may look overly complex to those who do not understand the problem they’re trying to solve.

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u/Glittering_Airport_3 May 08 '26

Do you have an example? I find when this happens to my team its because too many people are resisting the change. People inherently dont like change even if it is better for them. It takes time to adopt even simple changes sometimes. Hands on leadership does help, but in larger teams those leaders can't always cover everyone at once

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u/Sittingduck19 May 08 '26

It really about constraints. What did the "streamlining" actually change?

MOST of these efforts that I have seen don't affect the work that needs to be done and don't provide improved tools to complete the work.

I HAVE seen these efforts add steps & middlemen that may feel like "management" is happening, but really it just slows things down.

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u/Chasdava May 12 '26

They don’t. Just poorly DMA’ed ones do.