Michael Bittner just published an article titled Technology Enablers for the Lean Supply Chain in which he discusses effective methods of moving toward lean usage.
The most important attitude in achieving a change that affects an entire enterprise is "we're all in this together". If you don't take an honest look at all of your existing systems and work on ways that they can be made better, you won't really succeed.
The most important capability when implementing a change is visibility. As Michael says "Bluntly stated: if you can’t see it, you can’t measure it; if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it."Â However, you must carefully select what is to be measured. If your metrics are unrelated to your corporate goals, you are just wasting time taking measurements. But when you develop metrics at each level (corporate, plant, department) that support the goals, you now have a tool to drive further improvements.
Employee buy-in to measurements is essential. Especially if the employees are being asked to participate in the measuring. In order to have buy-in, you must make the metrics presented understandable and relevent to the employee's job function. When we have implemeted systems we have seen the payback that comes from the employee working toward corporate goals.