• “Have responsibility, a sense of ownership, satisfaction in accomplish- ments, power over what and how things are done, recognition for their ideas, and the knowledge that they are important to the organization.” 11 Taken together, these definitions offer a very complex view of empower- ment and its impact on employee performance. Beyond giving employees the authority to make decisions, their decision must be made with forewarning of the likely outcomes, and employees must feel that their informed decisions will benefit the entire enterprise. This means that the employees must feel sat- isfied that they are consistently instrumental in making decisions that impact the success of the whole enterprise. Empowering employees suddenly looks more and more like a very big job! But let’s break it down. Bradley Kirkman and Benson Rosen 12 do just that. They offer a framework for considering the complexities of the empowerment process and a definition of empowerment with four key dimensions. (a) Employees Who Believe in Their Competencies First, employees need to believe that they can be effective in performing tasks and reaching their goals. The bottom line is that higher employee com- petence and skills lead to better decision processes and ultimately to decisions that move the enterprise forward. Employee competence and skills are inex- tricably tied to performance. When a team tackles a problem, team members consciously and unconsciously take inventory of each other’s skills and ex- perience to determine whether the team has the critical skill set to accomplish the job. Team member confidence increases when the team collectively per- ceives that it has all the necessary skills. However, confidence plummets if the team is missing crucial experience or a critical skill. By the same token, team members also look outside the team for ways that the enterprise can support their perceived needs. Support may take the form of access to information, supervisory encouragement, resources, and (espe- cially) training. Again, when the lean team believes that it either has the nec- essary support or can get it, confidence increases. However, when teams observe that valid requests have been denied by budgetary constraints, teams become more discouraged and lose confidence. The result, of course, is less effort, less participation by the people who mean most to lean success, less innovation, and poorer performance. 104 Lean Accounting ch05_4772.qxd 2/2/07 3:39 PM Page 104 Two management practices get lean teams off on the right foot. First, assign projects to the right team. This means a deliberate evaluation of team mem- bers’ prior experience, training, and accumulated knowledge before assigning them a project. Properly matching skills and experience with a project is of pri- mary importance. A mismatch dooms a team to failure and the demoralization that undermines all lean enterprise efforts for transformation from conven- tional thinking and behaviors. When teams review their process and select their own project, many traditional companies on the transition to lean encourage teams to first tackle small projects that can be quickly accomplished. The second way to increase employee confidence in their competencies is to consistently acknowledge an awareness of the resource needs of the value stream or cell team. Communicate. Comunicate. Communicate. Managers who frequently interact with their teams and offer assistance are better positioned to recognize resource needs, provide help as needed, and give sound, timely reasons when resources are not available. (b) Employee Perceptions of Authority and Independence Lean employees need to be given a clear degree of authority to make decisions and the freedom and independence in choosing their actions as those actions align with lean principles. Being told that you can make a decision is very dif- ferent than being allowed to make a decision. The traditional control structure surrounding decisions and actions often becomes so burdensome and threat- ening that employees feel betrayed by financial goals as they make honest ef- forts to improve the operational processes that improve enterprise performance and lead to financial success. In these environments, the team does not have sufficient authority to carry out its enterprise-mandated mission, and members becomes unsure about the team’s authentic authority to carry out the enterprise mission. The pivotal understanding in any transformation from traditional cost ac- counting and performance management systems is that control is never eas- ily relinquished. After all, management’s traditional job is to steer the ship and preserve the future of the enterprise for all its stakeholders. It is difficult to do so without assurances that the people making these decisions are considering the best interests of the enterprise. How can a member of a small cell team re- ally understand the import of their decisions? Is it really a matter of giving up control? Certainly not in a lean environment! But it is a matter of articulating Motivating Employee Performance in Lean Environments 105 ch05_4772.qxd 2/2/07 3:39 PM Page 105 a very clear structure of authority for decision making—a structure based on meeting customer demands, not on conformity to artificially contrived struc- tures of organizational control designed to meet shareholder expectations. In The New Why Teams Don’t Work, Harry Robbins and Michael Finely de- scribe these decision authority dilemmas between teams and managers in tra- ditional organizations. 13 Redefining authority structures is very confusing and at times requires arbitration or at least some kind of negotiation. Traditional solutions propose that we think in terms of boundary management, which is a process of agreeing to a set of constraints or boundaries within which lean work teams are free to make decisions on their own. Susan Mohrman, coauthor of Designing Team-Based Organizations, agrees and calls the constraint a re- sults framework. 14 This method provides the team with decision parameters, as well as an idea of available resources for potential solutions. The point is to communicate any parameters the lean work team needs up front so that there is no confusion or disappointment on the part of the team and so that manage- ment can rest easy knowing that the team understands applicable limits. (c) Employee Perceptions of their Work Contributions Employees must perceive their task as meaningful. People want their efforts to mean something. In a work environment, employee job satisfaction and com- mitment grows as they see the impact their work has on the success of the en- terprise. Performance measurements play an important role in communicating this kind of value to employees. For example, a lean production work cell in a manufacturing facility uses carefully selected process measures visibly dis- played on the cell’s metric board. The cell team members themselves are re- sponsible for updating the metrics throughout the day. As the cell team members make decisions, they can see how those decisions affect the metrics. This gives the team immediate feedback to validate prior actions or to institute changes. (d) Employee Perceptions of Value to the Enterprise One of the greatest lean performance challenges is to support employee per- ceptions of their value to the enterprise in service organizations. Employees must perceive that the organization values their work. This appreciation is communicated through recognition programs where employees are rewarded for their performance by either remuneration or public recognition. For exam- 106 Lean Accounting ch05_4772.qxd 2/2/07 3:39 PM Page 106 ple, Delphi uses a Web site version of a “Hall of Fame” to recognize accom- plished inventors, and many companies use bulletin boards to highlight ac- complishments. 15 Plante & Moran, a regional public accounting firm, instituted a philosophy of “rerecruiting” designed to continuously encourage and rec- ognize employees with the purpose of making them feel valued by the com- pany. 16 P & M can boast that their turnover rate is half the industry average. Remember what it felt like to be recruited for a new job? The prospective com- pany went out of its way to make you feel valued, convince you that your con- tribution was valuable, and demonstrate that you had a future right alongside theirs. For many employees, this is the only time they feel quite so valuable and wanted. The core philosophy at P & M is to “continuously rerecruit staff so they con- stantly feel important, valued, and part of a team.” 17 The key to rerecruitment is frequent and consistent communication. The company regularly holds infor- mal meetings and frequently inquires about employees’ satisfaction with their career paths. It includes a buddy system that teams up a new employee with one who has three to five years’ experience. The company also ensures that per- formance measures and rewards support enterprise objectives. Basically, P&M holds the philosophy that to keep valued employees, you must treat them as valuable. The result is not only higher retention, but higher morale leads to bet- ter teamwork and a better bottom line. To summarize, employees feel truly empowered to perform when they (1) have confidence in their abilities to succeed; (2) are given a clear degree of authority to make decisions; (3) perceive their work as meaningful; and (4) perceive that the enterprise also values their work contributions. Employee em- powerment is the trigger that nurtures the development of intellectual capital. Empowerment practices improve enterprise performance by increasing em- ployee competence and commitment. Competent and committed employees channel their work effort into strengthening external relationships and improv- ing processes. The more meaningful an employee perceives his or her contri- bution, the more satisfaction with the job that employee will experience. This in turn fosters a desire to excel and further motivates employees to improve their performance and processes. This is the intrinsic motivation that sets the stage for lean thinking and a smoother transformation. The lean principle of respecting employees for their creative potential and for their collective ingenuity can launch many organizations into significantly higher levels of performance. Empowering employees unlocks their creativity and encourages them to continually reach for new and better ways of working. Motivating Employee Performance in Lean Environments 107 ch05_4772.qxd 2/2/07 3:39 PM Page 107 Together, these first two principles encapsulate why employee motivation is so critical. Without complete awareness concerning what makes people work at their highest level, it would be easy to overlook critical aspects of the per- formance environment. The third factor that motivates employee performance in the lean environment—support—supplies the how. The conditions necessary to foster creativity and truly empower people sound so logical and reasonable that just about everyone can identify with and buy into them. The difficult part is how to adapt the management system to nurture these conditions. This is where ac- counting can step up to the plate and help to develop the information systems that support a creative and empowered workforce. 5.6 MANAGEMENT CONTROL SYSTEMS AND LEAN REGULATORY SYSTEMS In essence, control is the traditional word for enterprise-wide guidance— structures that help to ensure that members of an organization work toward a common preestablished goal. Whether an organization is structured and man- aged traditionally or has transformed to lean operations, it is desirable to have guidance systems in place that make sure that all the horses on the track are still heading in the right direction for the benefit of the organization as a whole. Traditional control systems rely on punishment and incentives to guide be- havior and decisions. Decisions are primarily made by a small group of man- agers. Periodic accounting reports are a main source of the information used to determine whether actions are appropriate. Traditional accounting informa- tion provided to management for control purposes includes departmental ex- pense statements, manufacturing variances, and numerous other bits of financial and operational information. These reports are compiled using data that has been collected on the production floor and communicated to accounting, where it is aggregated and summarized in formats consistent with financial re- porting. The unfortunate part of this information is that it is “too little too late” and the wrong type of information for decision making in lean organizations. The need for current information in lean organizations means that relevant information needs to be generated from the bottom up on a real-time basis. As this bottom-up information is relied upon for operational decisions, less re- liance is placed on traditional financial reports, making them not only irrelevant and muda in and of themselves, but they become insufficient as a management 108 Lean Accounting ch05_4772.qxd 2/2/07 3:39 PM Page 108 guidance system. Does this mean that lean organizations do not need guid- ance systems? Some may say that control systems are no longer necessary be- cause once employees are fully trained and operating with lean principles they are guided by the process and intrinsically motivated to make the right decisions. In reality, there is still a guidance system in the lean enterprise made up of mechanisms to motivate behavior consistent with lean principles and op- erational standards. There are three types of guidance systems in all organizations that interact and reinforce each other to increase the probability of attaining goals and ob- jectives. The first of these guidance systems focuses on output. This system includes the reporting of historical information discussed previously and is often tied to incentive systems. Traditional organizations rely heavily on this type of system. A second type of guidance system focuses on employee behavior. Simply put, these structures are traditionally policies and procedures that have been for- mally established and documented. In traditional environments, these manuals are usually located in manager offices and are typically used to troubleshoot when questions arise. Lean environments use standard operating procedures, or SOPs. SOPs document the steps in operational processes and can be ob- served posted in manufacturing cells as both pictures and text. These help to not only standardize work but also to establish boundaries and frameworks for decision making. SOPs are particularly useful in an environment where cell employees are extensively cross-trained. The distinction is important. Tradi- tional managers use policy books to control employee behavior; lean enterprises use process standards to guide and regulate employee behavior. The third type of system focuses on social coordination. These are infor- mal structures that help ensure that behavior is both desired and aligned with organizational goals without the need for constant supervision, and they are most highly developed in the lean enterprise. Three social mechanisms com- bine and interact to produce reinforcing social coordination: training, visual- ization, and peer pressure. Training is an essential part of working in a cell, as is cross-training on other cell members’ jobs. In addition to technical process training, lean employees are also trained in scheduling customer orders as they come into the cell, basic machine maintenance, quality assurance, and accu- mulating and interpreting information. This training increases employee com- petence in several areas and gives employees the tools and framework to make aligned decisions. In traditional organizations, this structure is undeveloped and is restricted to technical training on a need-to-know basis. Motivating Employee Performance in Lean Environments 109 ch05_4772.qxd 2/2/07 3:39 PM Page 109 Visualization is the second social coordination structure, again underutilized in traditional organizations where it is restricted to displaying general infor- mation on bulletin boards or other easily ignored platforms. Lean processes, however, thrive on visualization! Visual metric boards, kanbans, and other platforms are examples of the extensive use of visual coordination methods. Lean practices use visual cues not only to display information, but also as a trig- ger and to regulate work activities. In his book on the visual factory, Michel Greif argues that “a visual workplace is a work environment that is self- explaining, self-ordering, self-regulating and self-improving—where what is supposed to happen does happen, on time, every time, day or night.” 18 The third social coordination structure is peer pressure. Some may consider this a subtle form of guidance, but it is a powerful one. Evidence of the effects of peer pressure can be seen in different areas in a lean environment, again built into the operational processes, not the manager’s policy book. For example, one-piece flow reduces staging before individual process steps, making the ef- ficiency of the cell team member visible to coworkers. If one cell team mem- ber slows down, the result is a similar slowing of the entire cell, which becomes very visible in the following empty staging areas. Another example where peer pressure influences desirable behavior is in visual cell metric boards. Pro- duction and quality information is visible for employees external to the cell. Better performance results on the board instill pride in the cell team members. The cell’s training matrix can have a similar effect. The use of color dots to signify level of expertise motivates cell team members to ask for additional training. To summarize, traditional command-and-control thinking has left an almost universally accepted linguistic legacy that undermines lean and is very difficult for most people to relinquish. Guidance systems do not go away in lean environments—they take on a different dimension. It is easy to see why this change occurs. In a traditional environment, managers make all the decisions and direct employees. In the vertical, highly controlled environment, output controls have been designed to dominate decision making. In the transforma- tion to lean, organizational structure flattens and managers should no longer make all the decisions. Organizations need assurances that decisions and process changes are directed toward accomplishing the correct goals. Lean or- ganizations leverage behavioral and social coordination structures based on work processes to operationally regulate activities and motivate appropriate behavior. 110 Lean Accounting ch05_4772.qxd 2/2/07 3:39 PM Page 110 5.7 SUPPORTING LEAN PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT There are five guidelines that both accountants and nonaccountants must keep in mind when developing information systems that support the lean organi- zation. These five tenets build upon the five principles of lean thinking: value to customers, value stream, flow and pull, empowerment, and perfection. Ex- hibit 5.3 summarizes the tenets of lean measurement. First, lean measurement systems capture the voice of the customer. Tradi- tional enterprises set goals with respect to historical performance. Internal benchmarking does little to identify and promote innovative value for the cus- tomer. Instead it can even perpetuate spending in wrong areas that add to the cost burden but not to value. The lean enterprise continually questions value Motivating Employee Performance in Lean Environments 111 Process Excellence Voice of the Customer Visibility Shared Commitment World Class Culture Quality—defect rates and product complaints Delivery—line item fill rates and on-time delivery Service—overall customer satisfaction Pull production—day-by-the-hour and operational equipment effectiveness Quality—scrap rates and standardized work processes Employee skills—employee training, 5S, and safety performance Continuous improvement—inventory turns, average actual cost per unit, and efficient use of space Understandable information—value stream statements Capacity use—people and machine utilization analysis Accessible information—visual metric boards Cooperation—team-based measures Shared destiny—enterprise-wide measures Internal reference point—actual historical performance External reference point—world-class benchmarks, competitors’ prices EXHIBIT 5.3 The Five Tenets of Lean Measurement ch05_4772.qxd 2/2/07 3:39 PM Page 111 delivery to the customer in all its activities. Tracking measures such as on-time delivery, defect rates, cost of poor quality, and overall customer satisfaction highlight delighting customers as a priority. Using target costing methods dur- ing product development and product management can lengthen the useful life of products as well as selectively include features the customer desires. To- gether, these measures define the extent to which the enterprise is meeting cus- tomer expectations. Second, a lean measurement system tracks measures related to process excellence—the guiding principle of lean management. Traditional measures are outcome oriented, focusing only on volume and efficiency. In a lean mea- surement system, cell team members are responsible for smooth work flow as measured by day-by-the-hour and operational equipment effectiveness (OEE) of the bottleneck resource. Quality is monitored through cross-training, defect rates, and most importantly, SOPs. At the value stream level, team members are concerned with monitoring flow through the entire value stream. Measures such as value stream costs, average cost per unit, cost of poor quality, inventory levels, days’ supply of inventory, dock-to-dock days, and customer satisfac- tion focus attention on the larger flow of goods from supplier to customer. Third, lean measurement systems provide visibility. Traditionally, most reporting is accomplished through paper reports distributed to managers pe- riodically. More immediate operational information is accessed through pro- duction computer systems. In other words, key information is hidden and can be accessed only on a need-to-know basis before the lean transformation. In a lean environment, hidden information is considered useless and muda. When- ever feasible, information should be compiled and maintained by the people who need to use it. This creates employee buy-in and increases commitment to performance goals. All metrics at the cell and value stream boards should be prominently displayed and easily accessible. This ensures that information is current, available, and relevant. Fourth, lean measures build shared commitment. Traditional systems are all about managing the individual—individual goals, individual performance mea- sures, individual appraisal ratings. With these types of measures in place, it is difficult to build a collaborative system that pulls people together. Lean orga- nizations are flatter in structure because they require collaboration across func- tions to succeed. Reorganized into cells and value streams, enterprise goals and performance measures established for cell and value stream teams may also fac- tor into recognition programs. In addition, supporting initiatives, such as cross- training and 5S, promote interest and commitment across all cell team members. 112 Lean Accounting ch05_4772.qxd 2/2/07 3:39 PM Page 112 Fifth, lean measures motivate a world-class culture. In traditional environ- ments, budgets and standard costs are used to gauge progress toward financial goals. Conversely, in a lean environment, a world-class culture is encouraged by creating two points of reference. Lean culture is a shared mind-set that de- mands excellence in providing customer value. The first point of reference is actual historical performance within the enterprise. Rather than striving to barely meet an internally established budgetary or financial standard, the lean goal is to continuously improve the actual performance of the overall system and its processes at the fastest rate possible. The second point of reference is external indicators such as world-class benchmarks and competitor prices. The logic is simple—if a company’s actual historical performance is improving at a rate of 5 percent per year but external indicators suggest that its competitors are improving at a rate of 10 percent, then 5 percent is not good enough. Striv- ing to exceed world-class benchmarks should be the goal. These five tenets of lean performance measurement guide the development of specific metrics. Chapter 4 discusses more thoroughly the process of strate- gically linking measures with company goals and offers a useful starter set of measurements as well as implementation advice. 5.8 ACCOUNTING, LEAN PERFORMANCE, AND THE EMPOWERED WORKFORCE The transformation from a traditional to a lean workplace begins with a keen un- derstanding of the power of the intrinsically motivated workforce and a good idea of what it takes to develop an enterprise culture that supports innovation and empowerment. The five tenets of lean measurement support the transformation by providing guidelines to ensure the development of appropriate lean measures. Now, what is the accountant’s role in this emerging lean environment? Lean ac- countants can help build an organizational culture of intrinsic commitment by promoting five enterprise-wide behaviors (see Exhibit 5.4). First, lean accountants enable process ownership. They do this by provid- ing timely information that is actionable and easily understood by nonfinan- cial coworkers. The accounting traditional enterprise language that uses terms like absorption costing, variances, overapplied overhead, and month-end close is useless to employees who lack accounting training and who need to make decisions in the moment rather than after the month-end close. Lean accoun- tants also encourage process ownership by developing performance measures Motivating Employee Performance in Lean Environments 113 ch05_4772.qxd 2/2/07 3:39 PM Page 113 [...]... 55 2,422 22,1 85 5,962 % Direct Cadet Benefit $ 52 , 657 , 653 $ 44,691, 653 108,261 22,026 214,176 28 ,51 5 303,269 834,703 71 ,50 8 45, 634 646,221 188,788 $ 3,707,617 $ $ $ $ $ $ $ 1,377,721 $ $ $ $ 45, 686 922,490 $ 266, 451 $ 727,977 $ 451 ,463 $ 214,1 15 $ 2 45, 183 61,788 268,348 74,063 252 ,57 8 $ 52 3,673 393,367 $ 1,268,007 89,877 $ 118,061 $ 176,381 $ 289,193 $ 54 8,099 418, 757 114,6 25 431,289 194,834 96, 651 % Acad... improvement and change 15 16 $ 52 , 657 , 653 $ 21,320,427 100.00% 40 .5% 180,7 45 590,984 220 ,53 2 % Direct Cadet Benefit $ 52 , 657 , 653 $ 6,033,439 $ 11.46% $ 3,311,819 $ 6.29% $ 774,804 $ 1.47% Total Process Cost Budget $ 44,691, 653 127,813 50 1,197 $ 9,831 ,51 9 18.7% $ $ % Acad Admin Operating Budget 373,986 $ 28 ,59 0 55 1,2 15 $ 10,414 ,51 7 $ 8,768,421 19.8% 16.7% $ $ 1 ,50 6,113 $ $ 1, 850 ,427 $ 1,900,493 % Indirect... Activity 0.3 0.44 0. 75 0. 05 0. 05 0.1 0.1 0.02 0. 05 0.01 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.1 0.3 0.1 0.01 0.02 0 0 0 3 “People” Equivalent Time 0.3 0.74 1.49 1 .54 1 .59 1.69 1.79 1.81 1.86 1.87 1.97 2.17 2.47 2 .57 2.87 2.97 2.98 3 3 3 3 Cumulative People Time 3:40 PM 128 N/A 30% 44% 75% 5% 5% 5% 5% 2% 5% 1% 5% 20% 30% 5% 15% 5% 1% 1% % of Their Time Spent on Activity Please identify key activities performed by this department,... 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 A Process Perspective on Costs 133 $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ 389,474 0.74% 813, 652 1 .55 % 2,014,872 3.83% 488,642 0.93% 2, 151 ,132 4.09% 10,866,769 20.64% 1,948,208 3.70% 6,279 ,52 0 11.93% 51 1,201 0.97% 792,767 1 .51 % 2,939,062 5. 58% 1,398,218 2.66% 11,944,076 22.68% $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ 4,609 ,59 0 180,739 131,324 323,427 278,938 5, 180, 351 1,383, 351 7,041, 154 600, 453 18,269 55 2,422... $ % Future Academy Value-Add $ 284,900 $ 306,900 3 gp $ 67,8 25 $ 3,069 $ 4 ,50 1 $ 15, 3 45 $ 4,092 $ 51 2 $ 1,023 $ 1,023 $ 614 $ 1,023 $ 2 05 $ 2,046 $ 16,368 $ 6,138 $ — $ 3,069 $ 8,184 $ 2 05 $ 409 $ — $ — % Acad Admin $ 22,000 3,069 4 ,50 1 15, 3 45 1,023 51 2 1,023 1,023 614 1,023 2 05 2,046 4,092 — 2,046 3,069 2,046 2 05 409 — — continues $ 42, 250 $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ % NonValue-Add Operating... $ $ $ 306,900 TOTALS 30,690 45, 012 76,7 25 5,1 15 5,1 15 10,230 10,230 2,046 5, 1 15 1,023 10,230 20,460 30,690 10,230 30,690 10,230 1,023 2,046 — — Personnel 0 131 $ 60,766 24 ,55 2 9,002 23,018 — 1,023 2,046 2,046 818 — — 3,069 — — — 6,138 — 307 — — — $ 72,019 $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ 64,040 $ — $ — $ 23,018 $ — $ — $ — $ — $ — $ 3,069 $ 614 $ 3,069 $ — $ 24 ,55 2 $ 8,184 $ — $ — $ 307 $ 1,228... Analysis 2/2/07 Process Code EXHIBIT 6.4 ch06_4772.qxd Page 129 Process Code 14 3 12 11 12 12 12 6 12 12 15 14 2 11 3 14 3 2 0 0 gp gp gp gp gp gp gp gp gp gp gp gp gp gp gp gp gp gp gp gp Quality of Education 50 % 50 % 50 % 50 % 50 % 50 % Cadet Responsive- Personal ness to Cadet Skill Needs Building 50 % 50 % 50 % 50 % 0% 100% 0% 0% 100% 100% 100% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 100% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% Shaping Develop Cadet Cadet... nonfinancial employees, and (5) adopt the enterprise view of lean These behaviors are essential for accountants to remain relevant contributors to lean enterprises What are the very first steps for accountants in an enterprise beginning the transformation from traditional to lean performance practices? Sometimes it is difficult to make the leap from describing necessary information and resources to a... whether this is still useful information for that decision If not, eliminate • Establish information gaps Identify what information is needed and what it should look like when the transformation is complete • Identify the actions necessary to provide that information • Assign responsibilities and estimate dates of completion ch 05_ 4772.qxd 118 2/2/07 3:39 PM Page 118 Lean Accounting NOTES 1 Bill Bufe... resources to free up people for lean accounting Lean Accountant Behaviors that link each employee’s actions to a unifying set of lean strategic objectives that support overall enterprise success Accountants should participate fully as value stream teams establish performance metrics and develop the data collection processes Chapter 4 also emphasizes the need for relevant and timely performance measures that . The unfortunate part of this information is that it is “too little too late” and the wrong type of information for decision making in lean organizations. The need for current information in lean. in a lean environment! But it is a matter of articulating Motivating Employee Performance in Lean Environments 1 05 ch 05_ 4772.qxd 2/2/07 3:39 PM Page 1 05 a very clear structure of authority for. less effort, less participation by the people who mean most to lean success, less innovation, and poorer performance. 104 Lean Accounting ch 05_ 4772.qxd 2/2/07 3:39 PM Page 104 Two management practices