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“…the company maintains that this week’s job cuts were not the result of off-shoring, but rather of positions that were made “redundant” when IBM merged the technology and manufacturing parts of its chip manufacturing operations.”

IBM has announced plans to expand in India. It’s a tough call when it comes to “redundancies.” If the place was really so inefficient as to have duplication of efforts, you might not have any choice but to reduce headcount. It’s a shame, though, that other roles are available for the “redundant” headcount, or that IBM can’t grow their way out of the mess.

Hopefully the layoffs would be a one-time thing… but companies like IBM seem to get into the never-ending cycle of layoffs.

The question is — do the ongoing continuous improvement Lean efforts lead to layoffs? They shouldn’t. Are these layoffs associated with Lean internally at IBM?

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Quoted from: http://www.edn.com/article/CA6464507.html

So IBM manufacturing does it right, eh?

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After nearly 12 years of helping companies implement Lean I have never been part of a Lean = Layoffs maneuver.

In fact, I always ask senior management to commit to a “Never Punish For Lean” policy before every new engagement. If I couldn’t get this agreement, I wouldn’t work with them.

“Natural attrition” will almost always take care of head-count issues if you give it a chance. Your employees deserve this patience; they helped improve the company after all.

Lean, however, should actually help your company “grow” which is more likely to result in more hiring rather than laying anyone off, (even with substantial process & organizational improvements.)

On another note: IBM, Dell, or any other company for that matter, who thinks we want to talk to a “customer service” person who calls himself “Fred” who speaks with such a strong Indian accent that we can barely understand him or her, is sadly mistaken!

American businesses need to be committed to America and US tax policies need to support manufacturing in America.

The quest for “The Almighty Dollar” must be tempered by decency, loyalty, and integrity. I, perhaps naively, think even shareholders would agree to these transcendent values.

All the Best,

Bill

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I was the one who left the original comment about the Cringely article. I also agree with you, what they are calling this (“lean”) is the worst part. It ruins all the progress people have made in bringing lean to forefront. It just drives home, what I’ve come to believe about US business. That it’s determined to drive itself into the ground until there’s no turning back. We just don’t care about the long term in our thinking, in this country.

Daniel

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————–

First let me state, I work IBM LEAN everyday and have for the past 9 months. We were part of the “inovators” at IBM and were on the line when the implementors out of Chicago hired by IBM for $6 million to come in and make LEAN work at our account. I lived it, breathed it so I know what I am talking about, I was there for the executive briefings with the fudged up numbers from the consultants and told what to say and when to say it, I was there when we pleaded with the consultants to give us the babsis for the numbers they were spouting, I was there when we told them it cannot work in a service organization as it is layed out, I heard the Toyota speach, I made a simple suggestion that we “don’t make cars, we provide a service” and was branded the rebel. As others have stated this is not true Lean, this is a bastardized, Frankensteined version of something that works that was brought in and molded to fit the ideas and perceptions the consultants wanted the IBM heirarchy to see and hear. No substantiations or metrics to prove the numbers were ever brought out and if we asked for them we were ignored. And yet it continues because the people that signed the contract and the checks to their “friends” at the consulting firm, can never be proven wrong or made to look bad and those 2nd and 3rd line managers that did found themselves on other accounts or out the door.
As for the layoffs it is 100% true, I am in the middle of it now and have been for a month, daily calls from the bean counters, “give me 20 people we can release”, “no give me 30″, now it’s all contractors, you provide support but do not work in a billable job you are gone, now or in the very near future. Regulars will be next on the block, 2nd line and 3rd lines already have been told they are gone, length of server, who cares, your gone, 1 performers who cares your gone, the knowledge booted out the door is just phenomenal.

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I’m sure the IBM manufacturing folks realize the difference between “L.A.M.E.” (Lean As Misguidedly Executed) and real Lean. I’m sure they aren’t thin skinned enough to take my harsh words as being aimed in their direction.

I *do* think the IBM GS folks are deserving of the harsh words and I stand behind them. If the IBM GS folks were calling their effort “re-engineering” or “Global Services 2010″ or something, I wouldn’t be as bothered by it. I’d feel for the employees, but I probably wouldn’t be posting about it here. It’s the use of “LEAN” that makes it harder for all of us, not just for the IBM manufacturing folks who ARE doing a good job with lean, it sounds.

Thanks for reading and, more importantly, thanks for contributing. I hope you and other IBM-ers come back to help show others what real Lean is all about.

Mark

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They started with the usual VSM and 5S projects, but have more recently been training in the true core of TPS…PDCA problem solving, TWI (they are probably one of the biggest users of Job Instruction in the country, 500+ people certified last I heard), strategy deployment, etc.

As the previous poster mentions, there have been no layoffs, and lean seems to have generated new business. They are running at capacity and hiring. From my viewpoint, they are doing a great job, and working very hard at it.

BTW, I’m no expert on IBM’s employment numbers, but only about half their employees are based in the US, so 150,000 layoffs would be almost the entire US workforce. That by any measure would put the company out of business. Cringely should do some math before publishing such foolish nonsense.

Also you should note that there are many IBMers that read this blog…your customers in a sense (they referred me to it). While this kind of news makes it hard for all of us to promote lean, think about how hard your harsh words makes it for those within IBM (including many managers) doing the best they can to do the right thing.

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