Whether it is a traditional enterprise or a lean enterprise, whether it is a manufacturing enterprise, a commodity circulation enterprise or a service-oriented enterprise, quality is always the life and soul of the enterprise and the eternal truth, and the enterprise should be consistent. Lean production originated from Toyota Motor Corporation of Japan. However, in recent years, the company has successively encountered "pedal door" and "brake door" incidents. From the end of 2009 to March of 20 10, Toyota recalled more than 8 million vehicles worldwide due to product quality problems, far exceeding its global sales of 6.98 million vehicles in 2009, and the former "manufacturing king" was reduced to "recall king". People can't help asking, is the lean management model still effective in the evolution of the times? In fact, the root of the problem lies not in the management mode itself, but in the fact that enterprise managers have forgotten the essence of lean cost management on the road of lean management. The reason is that, in the face of the new situation and environment of the European and American financial crisis in 2008, Toyota chose efficiency first, the normal operating rhythm was disrupted, the mistakes in the process were ignored, and the essence of lean thinking-the perfect docking of quality and technology was ignored. The global production and sales format of enterprises has led to the dispersion of Toyota's industrial platform and the emergence of blind spots and faults in its internal quality control system, which has caused Toyota's current crisis.

Adhere to the principle of total quality management, requiring enterprises to adhere to the principle of "six suitable horses", strictly control quality from all aspects of design, manufacturing and sales, and achieve "zero defects" and "zero tolerance" for the quality of products or services. "Product quality is produced, not tested", grasping the "life gate" of enterprise's sustainable development, and grasping the essence and soul of lean cost management. At the same time, enterprises should correctly handle the relationship between product or service quality and cost control, implement lean cost control, never sacrifice product quality, implement all-round improvement from all aspects of enterprise management, strengthen product life cycle management, organically combine low-cost control with enterprise sustainable development, and lead low-cost management in the right direction.

2. Customer-oriented principle

Customer-oriented is, is and will remain the magic weapon of enterprise management and the basic principle of lean cost management. Customers are the "food and clothing parents" of enterprises, and customer demand is the source of power for enterprise development. The goal of an enterprise is to meet the needs of society and customers. Only by satisfying the ever-changing customer needs with high-quality products or services can enterprises win the market and expand their business. Establishing a customer-driven corporate culture, with customer interests as the guide and customer needs as the decision-making direction, is the action guide and golden rule for the sustainable development of enterprises.

Adhering to the principle of customer orientation and requiring enterprises to define enterprise value according to end users is the starting point of lean thinking. Today's market is not so much a market driven by products and marketing as a market "pulled" by customers. In other words, enterprises must be keenly aware of the changes in the external market, and build and optimize business processes and management activities according to the external market demand to continuously meet the market demand. Enterprises must effectively organize supply, production, sales and product research and development under the pull of customer demand, and constantly shape and consolidate their own technological advantages, product advantages, service advantages and sales advantages, otherwise the core competitiveness of enterprises will be impossible.

3. Value stream principle

Enterprise management activities include:

(1) From concept, through detailed design and engineering to solving problems in the whole production process;

(2) Information management tasks in the whole process from order acceptance to detailed progress and delivery;

(3) The material transformation task of manufacturing the final product from raw materials and delivering it to users. Value stream is a set of specific activities necessary for a specific product to pass these three key management tasks, including value-added activities, necessary but non-value-added activities (type I big wood) and non-value-added activities (type II big wood, that is, waste). The research shows that the time spent by enterprises on value-added activities only accounts for a very small part of the whole process, and most of the time is spent on non-value-added activities. Lean cost management must pay attention to combing the value stream, otherwise it will produce directional errors, which will lead to the difficulty in implementing lean cost management.

Adhere to the principle of value flow, require enterprises to carefully sort out and re-engineer business processes, identify the effective needs of customers from the end customers, determine the key quality indicators of process output, and then in turn determine the macro-process of enterprises, establish quality indicators of process input that meet and meet customer needs, ensure smooth "flow" of processes, and prevent pauses and interruptions. In this process, enterprises should clearly show their value flow, information flow and logistics with the help of SIPOC and VSM. By combing the value stream, we can discover and reveal the big wood in the process, eliminate non-value-added activities or workflows, make the value stream clear from chaos, and fundamentally ensure the correct direction of lean.

4. Talent priority principle

Human resource is the core production factor of an enterprise and the key to the formation of its core competitiveness. Under the condition of knowledge economy, enterprises should abandon the management concept of "taking things as the center" and rely more on talents to promote the innovation and development of enterprises. To implement lean cost management, enterprises need to cultivate a team of talents in line with the spirit of lean, so that the concept of lean can be deeply rooted in the hearts of employees, become their habit and conscious action in dealing with people, and infect and inspire colleagues around them through their propaganda and example. Over time, when employees develop lean thinking and do things correctly at the right time according to the lean concept, a real lean enterprise is quietly established. In reality, many enterprises lack excellent talents, the lean strategy, development planning and management system of enterprises are difficult to implement, the execution is low, and the management activities are "fine but not beneficial", so the lean system that enterprises spend a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources can not really play an effective role, or even give up halfway.

Adhering to the principle of giving priority to talents requires enterprises to strengthen human resource management, attach importance to talent selection, post setting, salary management, performance appraisal and employee career planning, especially recognize the importance of employee training and design a set of talent training programs suitable for their own enterprises. In the process of talent training, enterprises should not only pay attention to the differences between posts and employees, but also pay attention to the cultivation of unconventional talents and all-round workers, and cultivate employees' sense of cooperation.

5. System matching principle

The implementation of lean cost management must be guaranteed by a set of mature and stereotyped systems, including operating standards and various management norms. Without a complete institutional foundation, lean cost management can only be an armchair strategist and a castle in the air, which is difficult to implement, solidify and sustain. In practice, many enterprises either lack a perfect management system, or the system is rigid and lax, and the system construction does not match the lean spirit. The lack of institutional basis and the confusion of on-site management, how to realize lean cost management under such circumstances? Enterprises must realize that lean cost management is a brand-new management concept and guiding ideology, and a scientific system integrating management concepts, methods and tools. In this system, "people-oriented lean" is the cornerstone of enterprise culture, "value flow" is the focus of management, and "eliminating non-value-added activities that consume resources and maximizing enterprise value" is the goal pursued by management.

Adhering to the principle of system matching requires enterprises to:

① Establish a flat organizational structure that matches the lean spirit, reduce management levels and improve organizational efficiency;

(2) Formulate and implement a complete set of operating standard system, which cannot be changed or changed at will;

③ Establish and improve the incentive and restraint mechanism to fully stimulate the potential of employees and improve labor productivity;

④ Fully implement 7S site management (Qi Zhongyu, 20 1 1), create a safe, clean, efficient, smooth, cooperative and orderly working environment, and shape employees' sense of professional accomplishment;

⑤ Visual management is realized by visual tools such as kanban system and charts, which is convenient for supervision and cooperation between superiors and subordinates and employees and improves work efficiency.

6. System principle

The implementation of lean cost management in enterprises can never be achieved only by local efforts, but must strengthen the overall planning awareness of enterprises and actively put it into action. In reality, many enterprises have realized the importance of lean cost management, or announced that they have begun to implement lean cost management, but the whole enterprise still lacks a unified understanding of lean cost management. Some enterprises even outsource the reform of lean cost management to consulting companies, and then wait for the results of lean, and lean cost management eventually becomes an empty slogan lacking execution. In fact, lean cost management is not the work of an employee, a department or a lean management team, nor can it be achieved by consulting companies to publicize or help improve. It needs to form a sense of overall planning.

Adhere to the principle of systematicness, and require enterprises to coordinate departments such as design, R&D, manufacturing, marketing management and financial management, and coordinate human, financial and material resources, so that lean cost management can truly become a scientific management model to promote the sustainable and healthy development of enterprises. Lean cost management is not limited to the production site, but also needs the cooperation and support of all departments to form a lean system of the whole enterprise.

7. Synergy principle

The systematic principle emphasizes the coordination of internal resource elements of enterprises, and the collaborative principle emphasizes the coordination of internal and external market conditions of enterprises, forming a lean cost management system integrating supply, production and sales. Lean cost management of enterprises is not an "island". Affected by the external market environment, enterprises should broaden their management horizons, extend the lean cost management chain to upstream suppliers and downstream customers, and form a strategic alliance of * * * interests and information interconnection. Supply chain management is the leading part of enterprise lean cost management, and its lean degree is closely related to site management and sales management, so its importance cannot be underestimated. In reality, most enterprises still hold the old idea that "the supplier is the external supplier of the enterprise", and the procurement link only plays an auxiliary role in providing raw materials for the enterprise. As a result, enterprises can not establish long-term cooperative relations with suppliers, but they don't know that it is an absolute waste to find alternative suppliers again, which runs counter to the spirit of lean. In addition, it is the customer-oriented principle mentioned above. Downstream customers drive enterprise production and realize the seamless connection between manufacturing and sales management.

Adhere to the principle of synergy, require enterprises to be market-oriented, implement all-round lean cost management, and maximize resource conservation through horizontal and vertical integration. In addition, enterprises can also promote the realization of lean cost management through resource sharing, rapid docking, dynamic alliance and information flow management. Real lean cost management must form an integrated model of production, supply and marketing, realize resource sharing and rapid docking of all links with the help of integration, and realize the goal of lean from a global perspective.

8. The principle of continuous improvement

Enterprise lean cost management cannot be achieved overnight, and it is a process of continuous improvement. Some enterprises have spent a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources, and finally introduced lean cost management, and established a set of operating standards and related management systems. After a burst of enthusiasm, they found that lean cost management did not bring obvious results and was shelved. The reason is that some managers regard lean cost management as a panacea for all diseases, or simply transplant the lean cost management model of successful enterprises, or have not yet cultivated a corporate culture that conforms to the spirit of lean, or lack the confidence and perseverance for continuous improvement, which leads to the failure of lean cost management.

Adhere to the principle of continuous improvement, requiring enterprises to actively guide employees to establish a sense of lean cost management, shape and cultivate a corporate culture that conforms to the spirit of lean, and lead enterprise value creation. Lean cost management is endless and should be perfect. Lean cost management is not achieved overnight, but should be regarded as a systematic project of continuous improvement. Therefore, from the top leaders of enterprises to every ordinary employee, they should cultivate "problem awareness" in their daily work, be good at discovering problems and dare to reveal them, and encourage employees to put forward alternative solutions to problems and actively practice them through "brainstorming" and "five-question method", allowing trial and error and tolerating mistakes.