The document discusses the lean journey of Tata Steel Strip Products UK after being acquired from Corus. It describes how Tata implemented a business excellence model called the Tata Business Excellence Model (TBEM), which focuses on leadership, customers, and strategy. While Corus had implemented some lean initiatives like 5S and training, the TBEM approach led to a shift in thinking with a stronger emphasis on understanding customer needs. The TBEM process involves assessments of companies by business excellence professionals, exposing them to evaluating businesses holistically. This drove the leadership team at Tata Steel Strip Products UK to reflect on key business factors and how to better serve customers, laying the groundwork for a more successful lean implementation.

1. Staying Lean Professor Peter Hines
www.leanmj.com
1
Inthisissue:
Lacklustrelean– ChrisDaffy,TheAcademy
ofServiceExcellence,identifiesthemissing
ingredientinmanyleanprogrammesand
exploreshowleanarchitecturescanallow
bothforstandardisationandcreativity.
Theunionsandlean– ProfessorGregor
Gall,HertfordshireUniversity,explains
unionpolicyonlean.
Thelongandwindingroad–Fraser
Wilkinson,TataSteelEurope,giveshis
perspectiveonleanimprovement.He
explainswhylean‘failure’isrelativeandthat
themanyroadstosuccessarelongerthan
mostanticipate.
Issue08January/February2011www.leanmj.com
TheLean
Management
Journalissupported
bytheLean
EnterpriseResearch
Centre,Cardiff
BusinessSchool
Lean
extremes
Extendingeventhemostbenignof
ideasorphilosophiestotheextentof
itslogicallimitationswilloftenresultin
distortionsofmeaningandintent.
Leanisnoexceptionandsothisissue
investigateshowtoachieveabalanced
approachtoleanimplementations.

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L
ean thinkers always want to know how
much of a company’s success is down
to the application of lean and, more
specifically the application of the five lean
principles of customer
value, value streams,
flow, pull and perfection.
In 2006 the steel maker
Corus Strip Products
UK launched a corporate
programme called ‘The
Corus Way’ to build on
the ‘Restoring Success’
initiative that had
brought the parent
company, Corus, back
into profitability.
The Corus Way aimed
to embed a continuous
improvement (CI) culture,
based on lean thinking,
as defined with the help of lean consultants.
To help with deployment the organisation
employed and trained over 30 CI coaches and
engaged the senior management population in
lean training and awareness. During this time
the business continued to take huge strides
forward in many areas including safety, morale,
cost management and quality, but how much of
this was down to the systematic application of
the five lean principles?
If we were to assess the application of the
lean principles at Corus Strip Products back in
2006 there would certainly be a mixed picture
of the benefits being gained. The business was
definitely improving overall despite lagging
behind major European competitors, so we
Failureratesforlean
programmesarestill
staggeringlyhighifavailable
statisticsaretobebelieved, but
whyisthisso?FraserWilkinson,
businessimprovement leader
atTataSteelEurope, shares his
perspectivethat‘failure’ is a
relativetermandthat the long
routestoleansuccess are many.
Thelongand
windingroad

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Principlesand
purpose
the long and winding road fraser wilkinson
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were gaining improvement, but the experiences of the CI
coach population indicated little evidence of lean being
systematically deployed. We weathered the global financial
crisis admirably but, despite the training, the workshops and
the 5S activities, lean thinking was definitely on the decay
curve when Tata
Group took the
company over from
Corus in 2008.
WithTata Group
at the helm a
difference in
approach became
apparent, not in
the content of
the principles but
in the means of
applying them.
This difference is subtle.The takeover did not mean a massive
raising of the profile of lean, indeed to this day lean is very
rarely mentioned despite the fact that we are undoubtedly a
much leaner company than in 2006.
The secret is that Tata, as a global entity, has a powerful
unifying tool in its armoury and it is not lean or six sigma
or TQM but a simple set of questions wrapped up in what’s
known as the Tata Business Excellence Model (TBEM). This
model is based on that of quality professional and former
US Secretary of Commerce, Malcolm Baldrige, yet enhanced
immeasurably by the internal Tata improvement organisation,
Tata Quality Management Services (TQMS). As with most
lean implementations that ‘fail’ it’s not so much the ‘what’
but the ‘how’ and the ‘why’ in Tata’s approach that makes
the difference. Similar in nature to the Toyota supplier
development group TQMS provides the glue that binds this
conglomerate together and makes the whole far greater than
the sum of its parts.
The TBEM model is applied with enormous enthusiasm, vigour
and passion and it is driven from the very top to create a
fantastic cadre of business excellence leaders drawn from
all the geographies and sectors within the Tata family. This
group of senior managers, executives and business excellence
professionals are required to conduct assessments of other
Tata companies, not just to give the host company a thorough
examination of their operating model but, equally importantly,
to expose these individuals to the process of assessing a
business in a holistic but pragmatic way. The elements of
leadership, customer focus and strategy are the starting
We had a lot of worktodoin
getting a coherent viewofthe
market, its segmentation,the
product contributionandwhatthe
customer was reallyinterestedin
beyond, “I want my steelwhenyou
told me I’d get it”

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points and from a lean implementation perspective the
customer section forces the participants and the assessors
to fundamentally question the value proposition. All Tata
managers involved in TBEM are clearly focused,
as a group, on serving the customer first and foremost.
So, the first formal assessment of the Corus Strip Products
business in 2009 was a real opportunity to refocus on
the first lean principle and correct our alignment so that
we were in tune with the wider conglomerate, but also
with a better practical approach to lean implementation.
Although efforts were already being made to be more
customer focused we had a lot of work to do in getting a
coherent view of the market, its segmentation, the product
contribution and what the customer was really interested
in beyond, “I want my steel when you told me I’d get it”.
Our delivery performance had remained resolutely stable
despite some promising peaks and this can be related,
to a primary focus on volumes and plant utilisation over
customer requirements. Balancing these competing needs
is a tough act for a steel plant with a lumbering asset base
but the assessment process forced us to think hard about
the fundamentals of our operating model. In this context
the TBEM assessment process was the vehicle for creating
a shift in thinking.
Although TBEM is a ‘soft mandate’ for Tata Group
companies, there is an expectation that a newly acquired
business be exposed to the process. This creates the
compelling need for the leadership team to reflect on, and
make plans to address, the key business factors. The ‘what’
and the ‘how’ are important considerations in implementing
lean but of far greater bearing are the ‘why’ questions and
that’s the benefit of a process that asks the simple but
challenging questions first.
With Tata Steel Strip Products UK taking over from
Corus our recently instated MD, who is a disciple of the
If we weretoassesstheapplication
of the leanprinciplesatCorusStrip
Productsbackin2006therewould
certainlybeamixedpictureofthe
benefits beinggained

5. Principlesand
purpose
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excellence model, has further promoted the lean agenda. He and his Tata
associates espouse all of the lean principles without directly referencing
them, indicating that for the more mature Tata companies it’s just the
way they think about business.
For lean practitioners and the wider lean community it’s easy to forget
that there are many routes to becoming a world-class organisation.
For the Tata Group the chosen route is through developing a pool of
senior people who are taken through a series of intensive and real
life learning experiences via the assessment process. These people
are not lean or six sigma or TQM but they are, above all, business
excellence people and that is surely what the lean movement is striving
to develop. When organisations embark on lean it is often announced
via programmes of cleverly constructed plans and activities rather
than seeking to explore what the five principles really mean. So for
organisations where lean may be on the downward trend, it could be
time to go back to business basics. E N D
EblySanchezcomments
This is a great, real business example of a lean journey in an
acquisition environment and I believe key learning points are
as follows:
Top management are drivers for change: involving senior
management in hands-on leadership including leading
assessments themselves can make the difference between
success and failure with lean. This engagement brings knowledge
based changes but also support for the growth of a common
lean transformation culture across the whole organisation
Communicating in the correct way is key: a description of why
we are implementing lean will help support buy-in for the lean
implementation process. Participants need to know what lean
transformation means for them.
Implementing lean is a process not an end point: to consolidate
a lean journey, it is important to consider developing an
operating system to use in the day-to-day operations.
Assessment is an important part of the lean journey:
assessment is the ‘C’ of the PDCA cycle to check that the
system is in place and that it supports continuous improvement.
Assessments allow the initial identification of losses and the
corresponding improvement action plans.
References which might help readers consolidate the lessons
available in this article are: Becoming Lean by Jeffrey Liker
(Productivity Press, 2004) and the shop floor manual Implementing
World class Manufacturing by Larry Rubrich and Madelyn Watson
(WCM Associates, 1998).
the long and winding road fraser wilkinson

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