I got a call yesterday from a company whose management wants a lean operation. They want to hire a consultant for a four-month project to institute lean in their factory and expect the consultant to implement 5S, Kanban, continuous flow, etc. What a bunch of nonsense! They have no clue and are destined to failure before they get started.
Implementing lean is an evolutionary activity that usually takes several years to get the basics in place and an activity which never ends. Employees should always be looking for better and smarter ways of doing things. Putting a timeline on lean implementation just underscores that fact that people see and want the benefits, but have no clue as to what it takes.