---
title: How Lean Manufacturing Strengthens Executive Decision-Making
description: Lean thinking can be an effective source of continuity and structure.
image: https://blog.leanexecs.com/hubfs/Picture6.jpg
---

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[Jan 4, 2022 1:40:06 PM](https://blog.leanexecs.com/how-lean-manufacturing-strengthens-executive-decision-making)

# [How Lean Manufacturing Strengthens Executive Decision-Making](https://blog.leanexecs.com/how-lean-manufacturing-strengthens-executive-decision-making)

"Lean thinking can be an effective source of continuity and structure to make decisions that meet the challenges of whatever issue you face while maintaining as much of the rhythm as possible."

[https://www.thefabricator.com/thefabricator/article/shopmanagement/how-lean-manufacturing-strengthens-executive-decision-making](https://www.thefabricator.com/thefabricator/article/shopmanagement/how-lean-manufacturing-strengthens-executive-decision-making)<https://www.thefabricator.com/thefabricator/article/shopmanagement/how-lean-manufacturing-strengthens-executive-decision-making>

Snippet:

Decision-making is a way of life for manufacturers and fabricators. This is as true for front-line employees as it is for senior executives. Of course, the scope and magnitude of decisions at different levels of the organization vary, but there is no denying that decisions are made all day, every day.

With the pandemic and all its challenges, you’re making decisions that would have seemed completely foreign a year ago, utterly off your radar. And still you have the typical “get the product out the door” challenges to deal with every day. Do you weave lean thinking into those decisions? More importantly, do you do so intentionally?

## Why the Need to Be Intentional?

Under normal circumstances, unplanned events—such as machine breakdowns, supply chain disruptions, or key personnel absences—create easy distractions. They break your regular rhythm, causing short-term workarounds and sometimes even long-term deviations.

Enter the pandemic and business as usual becomes a distant memory. There were (and continue to be) many decisions to be made about social distancing among employees, product flow, and information flow. Just think how many Zoom meetings you’ve attended during the past few months. Incorporating lean thinking into your pandemic response (or any other major unplanned crisis) will enhance, not hinder, your efforts. And your resulting strategy will be more robust for handling the crisis now *and* after it passes.

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