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When planning to improve by implementing Lean, management need to be very wary about what they are going to do with the people that are freed up by the effort. It is inevitable that in some parts of the process, fewer staff will be needed to complete the tasks. It is true that in some situations, letting staff go is necessary to get down to the correct staffing levels to complete the work. However, even in these rare situations, it should only be done once, it should be done in a short time frame and not drag out over weeks and months and it should be made clear to staff that it is a one time hit.

In truth, the situation where companies need to loose staff are few and far between. Lean improvement should be seen as an opportunity to increase capacity. If you provide a better service to your customers by reducing lead times, increasing quality and reliability and cutting cost, you should see demand for your product or service go up. When demand rises you will need all the increased capacity you can get. You should not be tempted to make a group of staff redundant, only to go and rehire staff a few months down the line.

The main reason for not firing staff, is not the capacity argument, but that the staff who are left will not want to continue to improve if they saw their colleagues and friends made redundant as a result of improvement activities. Why would they? Plus who would you rather made suggestions for improvement, staff who have been in the work for a while, or a bunch of newbies, still green to all the idiosyncrasies of your business and sector?

Don't sack 'em, use 'em.