By Ajay Bahl, Chief Growth Officer, Global Energy and Manufacturing, HCLTech
As supply chains buckle under global shocks and sustainability mandates intensify, lean transformation in manufacturing requires more than operational tweaks. It demands structural reinvention.
Tariff volatility, carbon mandates and unpredictable demand have made lean manufacturing a survival strategy rather than just a process improvement philosophy. Scaling lean manufacturing successfully demands a fresh approach that integrates AI and aligns people, data and decisions across the entire product lifecycle.
This is where the product-aligned operating model becomes critical. By breaking silos, embedding AI into workflows and enabling faster, smarter decision-making, they elevate lean principles for the modern era. This approach allows manufacturers to streamline production, democratize data access and accelerate innovation while driving efficiency and delivering superior customer outcomes.
Breaking down silos for end-to-end visibility
Siloed functions remain one of the biggest barriers to transformation in manufacturing. Teams in R&D, engineering and production often operate in isolation, creating handoff delays, fragmented decision-making and limited visibility across the value chain. This lack of integration slows collaboration and prevents organizations from responding quickly to market shifts or customer demands.
HCLTech’s The Blueprint to AI-led Operating Model report shows that 95% of decision-makers are dissatisfied with current structures and 37% report delays that frustrate both customers and employees.
The product-aligned operating model tackles this challenge by organizing teams around their product lifecycle instead of functions. Cross-functional teams take collective ownership of product outcomes, enabling faster decisions and stronger alignment with customer needs. Manufacturers using this model report measurable gains: 52% improved product quality, 46% stronger continuous improvement and 43% faster response times.
Embedding Agentic AI into lean operations
AI is redefining lean execution for modern manufacturers through agentic AI systems that transform operations.
Agentic AI enables autonomous systems to take intelligent action within workflows. These AI agents monitor operations in real time, detect anomalies and trigger predictive maintenance with minimal human intervention. When equipment shows early signs of wear, agentic AI can reroute production tasks, order replacement parts and reschedule maintenance windows without waiting for human approval.
These intelligent agents also analyze production data and maintenance logs at scale to surface patterns that guide process optimization. They simulate manufacturing scenarios, accelerate product design and identify bottlenecks before they disrupt production. This empowers teams to innovate faster, reduce errors and adapt dynamically to changing conditions.
Technology only delivers value when embedded within the right structure. Among companies using the product-aligned operating model, 48% fully realize value from technology investments, compared to just 37% of those with traditional models.
Culture and leadership drive lean at scale
Technology alone cannot deliver transformation. Leadership and culture are critical to scaling lean with AI. Many manufacturing organizations lack the leadership commitment needed to measure what matters. Only 28% of manufacturing leaders believe their leadership understands the importance of measuring value flow. Just half say their organization has a culture of tracking engineering value.
The product-aligned operating model addresses this with shared KPIs, transparent metrics and clear accountability. When teams and leaders track the same customer-focused indicators, decision-making becomes faster and more aligned.
Cultural change requires leaders to set the tone from the top. It is not enough to communicate a vision for agility; executives must model the behaviors they want to see. This means promoting autonomy, creating safe spaces for experimentation and recognizing teams that challenge outdated ways of working. Moving away from rigid, hierarchical control structures toward collaborative problem-solving empowers employees to take ownership, make faster decisions and drive innovation at every level of the organization.
Moving from pilots to enterprise impact
While many manufacturers are piloting AI initiatives, scaling them remains a challenge. Nearly 99% of global leaders agree AI will soon be embedded in operations, but few have a model to support this shift.
Scaling requires structure built on continuous improvement. A product-aligned operating model turns successful pilots into enterprise-wide capabilities through iterative learning. Teams capture insights, refine approaches and deploy proven solutions across product lines, enabling legacy processes to transform systematically instead of restarting from scratch.
Technologies like test automation and developer platforms help replicate success faster. When combined with AI-driven insights, these tools identify which processes are ready for modernization and how to sequence changes for maximum impact.
The future of lean manufacturing is product-aligned
Lean manufacturing is built on precision and flow where every process, system and decision works in sync to deliver maximum value. AI strengthens this by turning visibility into action. Real-time analytics help manufacturers operate with minimal safety stock, predictive insights eliminate waste and connected systems cut downtime by connecting siloed operations.
Leading manufacturers are seeing results. A global consumer goods manufacturer improved forecast accuracy by 10% across 60 countries. This precision allows production to match actual demand, reducing overproduction while achieving world-class service levels. A pharmaceutical company reinforced lean principles through AI-powered drug discovery, reducing research time by 80% and freeing up 16,000 hours annually – accelerating value flow from discovery to production.
The product-aligned operating model is the foundation for AI-led lean manufacturing. Without it, AI initiatives remain isolated experiments. Organizations adopting this model reengineer how people work, how decisions happen and how value is created. They embed agentic AI within product teams to drive faster decision cycles, minimize waste and improve flow, turning lean manufacturing into a living system that learns and adapts at speed.