At its core, great lean businesses are learning organizations, masters at building skill at all levels of the company.  And all great learning is guided by skilled, knowledgeable teachers who help solve problems to root.  Problem occurrences are like crime scenes, the evidence of the crime degrading as time passes.  Therefore, a lightning-quick response is essential to effective root cause problem-solving and skill-building.  But leaders, technical experts and support personnel are a limited resource, so it is easier said than done. This conundrum may be the single greatest challenge to building a world-class enterprise, where a vast range of skills is needed throughout the day across a wide physical space.

How to do it?  Through careful study, analysis and design that considers the type and rate of problem occurrence and the capacity of the support organization to respond.