In my experience, whenever a site installs lean processes, somebody gets the bright idea that if it works in manufacturing, then surely it can work in R&D. Every senior (hardware) engineer has a story of this happening at a past workplace.
The compromise is to tidy the workplace as well as possible, call it "5S", fill the dumpster with stuff that's really junk, and let each engineer stash their Undecidable Things under their desk.
As for software, maybe the best thing is to just not let hardware concepts such as "designing" and "manufacturing" creep in. Especially when those things imply a social hierarchy.
The compromise is to tidy the workplace as well as possible, call it "5S", fill the dumpster with stuff that's really junk, and let each engineer stash their Undecidable Things under their desk.
As for software, maybe the best thing is to just not let hardware concepts such as "designing" and "manufacturing" creep in. Especially when those things imply a social hierarchy.