Lean - "Information Systems" element in 21st century

Continuing with the thoughts of Lean in 21st century I think, one major dramatic change vis-a-vis 20th century when Lean was introduced, is the element of "Information Systems".

Lean was developed in a period of time when information integration was a major challenge. Hence many instances of Lean will find traces of efforts being put to facilitate information integration. e.g. Kanban system. Another supplementary issue is information distortion. This makes the entire organization be sub-optimal. Many information systems developed in Lean have roots of trying to over this issue. e.g. Moving from Push to Pull systems.

While enterprises develop & deploy Lean in 21st century, Information distortion may still exist, courtesy various organizational practices & metrics. A culture of rewarding "Heroes" also creates the need to use information bias in ones favour. But that doesn't take away the reality that adopting technology solutions along-side the lean tools & techniques is not the solution. All information systems, in my opinion, should lead to SITA - Simultaneous, Instantaneous, Transparent & Accurate - sharing of information. The key to organizational success in 21st century is ability to deploy Lean the SITA way! 

Lean without right perspective is nothing more than one more management fad. And if 20th century success of Lean was due to its success in streamlining material & information flow, the 21st century success doesn't require anything more than that with an integrated layer of Information technology tools which will make SITA happen, in reality.

Lean practitioners have choices of Information Technology systems to be deployed right from Shop floor to Top floor automation, Visual Management Boards which are technologically driven, Cloud based solutions, Planning Systems which have builtin algorithms for optimized solutions etc etc...the list of such will not end. The base of Lean practices & goal of implementation doesn't need to change but will be hugely benefited with Information technology being a facilitator for Information Systems element of Lean.

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