I had a side splitting moment this afternoon after receiving an e mail from a government agency, name withheld, telling us it was cancelling its procurement tender for a lean process review due to the new government cuts.
Why is this so amusing?
Well it all started before Xmas with a request for tender for some lean consulting work; having looked at the paperwork required to tender i.e. health and safety policy equal opportunities and the such; I and my associates decided to give this paper trail a miss.
Five months later we get a mail saying that none of the applying companies understood the requirement due to communication difficulties and they were starting the process all over again! Lean I think not!
The agency didn't understand what lean was, in our view, and when people who did know gave them advice it fell on deaf ears.
Would they indulge in dialogue with suppliers - no they followed their process; surprise surprise they got the wrong things offered to them.
Today the note says the process is now cancelled due to government cuts in consulting contracts. I spluttered all over the laptop screen in mirth.
So we have a Lean initiative procured in a remarkably unlean way and then it gets cut to save waste; but Lean saves waste and reduces costs how ironic is this.
Understanding of lean is not that good in this particular government agency. No wonder this country has financial problems!
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