Everyone is a Process Engineer

When people ask me what Lean is about, my answer is simple: respect.

Respect for people. Respect for time. Respect for resources.

Respect is fundamentally tied to the concept of value.

Because value doesn’t exist in a vacuum—it is always oriented toward someone.

Whether it’s a customer, a team member, or the business itself, “value creation” is about improving the experience, outcomes, and efficiency for that “someone.”

Let’s Start with the Customer

When you create value for a customer, we simply call it “value.”

It’s the product or service they’re paying for.

The solution to their problem.

It’s what keeps the lights on and the wheels of business turning.

But there’s another side to this equation that often gets overlooked—creating value for your team members.

What the Business Deems Valuable: Improvements

When you create value for a team member, it’s called an “improvement.”

And here’s the kicker: improvements are what your employer is paying you for, whether you (or they) realize it or not.

Why?

Because when you’re not creating value (internally or externally), you’re wasting resources—time, money, and energy.

And waste is the enemy of progress.

The Essence of Production

At the most basic level, the purpose a business is to produce value for the customer.

It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, that’s the fundamental point: you exist to deliver something your customers need or want.

But the best organizations don’t just stop at producing value—they get better at it.

Both qualitatively (by improving product quality) and quantitatively (by producing more with less).

This improvement in the way value is produced is where Lean comes into play.

Lean isn’t just about removing waste; it’s about creating a culture of continuous improvement.

You’re either producing value, producing improvements (that allow you to produce more value), or wasting resources.

Producing improvements helps you create value with greater effectiveness and efficiency.

It’s a reinforcing cycle that builds on itself.

Why Larger Organizations Invest in Process Engineers

Big businesses understand this dynamic so well that they often hire dedicated roles for it.

They invest in process engineers (typically manufacturing or industrial engineers—regardless of their actual industry) whose sole job is to improve processes, reduce waste, and increase efficiency.

These engineers are tasked with optimizing how the business functions from the inside out.

It’s an investment that offers a massive return on investment because every improvement they make compounds over time, delivering greater value to the customer and driving profits for the company.

The math is simple: by spending money on process improvements, these organizations reduce operating costs, improve quality, and speed up production.

The ROI on this investment can be enormous because every dollar spent on improvements reduces future waste, freeing up more resources to be reinvested back into the business.

How Small Organizations Can Do Even Better

While this investment is great for large organizations, smaller ones have the potential to do even better.

How?

By democratizing process improvement.

Smaller organizations can move faster.

Adjusting the culture of a 25,000-person business? It’ll take years.

Adjusting the culture of a 25-person business?

It can be radically transformed in a month.

Every employee can act as a process engineer—at least for a small part of their workday.

This concept of “everyone is a process engineer” is powerful.

Imagine a typical 8-to-5 workday.

Normally, it’s expected that from start-to-stop, everyone is focused on production—delivering value to the customer. But what if we broke that up?

Let’s say from 8:00 to 8:45, every employee focuses on process improvements.

They look at their own work, their tools, and their workflows to identify areas (no matter how big or small) of inefficiency and waste.

They fix what bugs them.

Then from 8:45 to 5:00, they focus on traditional production—producing value for the customer.

In this way, you can build a culture where everyone is constantly improving, and improvements are made relative to the value being produced.

This not only ensures that your processes are continually evolving, but it also ensures that your production of value becomes more effective and efficient over time.

The Difference Between Change and Improvement

One of the key ideas in Lean is that not all changes are improvements.

In fact, some changes can introduce more waste into the system if not handled correctly.

That’s why it’s important to make sure that every change you implement is tied to a standard and actually reduces waste.

Improvement, by definition, means you’re moving closer to delivering value more effectively and efficiently.

Change, on the other hand, is simply doing things differently.

But without a standard to measure against, you can’t determine if that change is actually making things better—or just different.

This is why Lean emphasizes the importance of standardization.

Standards give you a baseline from which you can measure improvements.

They allow you to see if the changes you’re making are actually reducing waste and increasing value or if they’re simply introducing new inefficiencies into the system.

Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement

The best organizations create a culture where improvement isn’t just a one-off project—it’s a continuous, daily activity.

It’s something everyone does, all the time.

When you adopt this mindset, improvement becomes second nature.

It’s not something you have to force; it happens naturally because everyone is focused on making things better.

And better yet, they’re given time for it.

This kind of culture not only leads to better outcomes for the business, but it also leads to a more engaged and motivated workforce.

When employees see that their ideas for improvement are valued and implemented, they take greater ownership of their work.

They become more invested in the success of the organization because they can see the direct impact of their efforts.

Practical Steps for Implementing Lean in Your Business

So how do you actually implement these Lean principles in your own business?

Here are a few practical steps you can take:

1. Create Time for Improvement: Just like we discussed earlier, set aside time in the workday specifically for process improvement. This could be as little as 15 minutes at the start of each day. The import thing is to make it a regular, daily, habitual process.

2. Standardize Your Processes: Create clear, standardized processes for how work should be done. This doesn’t mean that everything needs to be rigid, but it does mean that there should be a baseline for how tasks are completed. Once you have these standards in place, you can measure improvements against them.

3. Measure Your Improvements: Make sure you have a way to measure the impact of the changes you’re making. This could be as simple as tracking how long a task takes before and after a change is implemented, or it could be more complex metrics like production output or customer satisfaction.

4. Involve Everyone: Get everyone in the organization involved in process improvement. When employees feel like they have a say in how things are done, they’re more likely to come up with innovative solutions to problems.

5. Focus on Value: Always keep the customer in mind—externally and internally. By doing so, every improvement you make should ultimately lead to delivering more value to the end-user. If it doesn’t, then it’s not an improvement—it’s just a change.

Lean = Respect

Lean is about respect—respect for people, respect for time, and respect for resources.

It’s about creating value, not just for the customer, but for everyone involved in the process.

By focusing on both value production and improvement production, you can build a business that operations like a machine—a lean machine.

The best organizations don’t just produce value—they continuously improve the way they produce it.

And that’s the key to long-term success.

P.S. — if you’re ready to operationalize your business into a lean machine, and want help accelerating that process… click here!