Here are more notes as I continue to parse "Lean Thinking : Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation, Revised and Updated" by James Womack and Daniel Jones.
The Value Stream
As activities that cannot be measured cannot be properly managed, the activities necessary to create, order, and produce a specific product and/or service which cannot be precisely identified, analyzed, and linked together cannot be challenged, improved (or eliminated), and ultimately perfected. (p. 36)
In traditional organizations the problem is not the competence of managers operating the system in accord with an agreed logic. The problem is the logic itself. (p. 38)
Instead of favoring silos of extremely high efficiency in individual organizations along the value stream, it is more economic for the WHOLE value stream when the firm can focus on a smaller, simpler, slower mechanism that is able to make just what the next firm downstream needs and to produce it immediately upon request instead of pushing a predefined large batch. (p. 44)
STOP looking at aggregated activities and isolated machines (p. 44)
START looking at all the specific actions required to produce specific product (or services) (p. 44)
When analyzing the interactions, challenge those actions which singly and in combination don't create or optimize value for the ultimate customer
Variations of an existing product or service can consume vast amounts of time and money and still create a product or service that the customer does not want! (p. 48)
Develop stronger relations with your customers to understand what they really want. (p. 48)
The authors feel that benchmarking to competitors is a waste of time for managers who understand lean thinking. (p. 48)
- To hell with your competitors, compete against perfection by identifying all activities that are muda and eliminating them. (p. 49)
Flow
The health care system is a wonderful example of a system that DOES NOT FLOW. You spend almost the entirety of your time waiting, going from queue to queue. Truly the term "patient" is fitting. (p. 50)
When we start thinking about the ways to line up essential steps to get a job done to achieve a steady continuous flow with no wasted energy, batches, or queues, it changes everything including how we collaborate and the tools we devise to get the job done. (p. 52)
Applying flow is not easy or automatic. It is difficult for managers to see much less grasp the flow of value. (p. 52)
The authors insist that flow principles can be applied to any activity and that the consequences are always dramatic. (p. 52)
The techniques of flow (p. 52)
- First, focus on the actual object (product, order, service, etc) never letting it out of sight from beginning to end.
- Second, ignore the traditional boundaries of jobs, careers, functions (a.k.a. departments) removing all impediments to continuous flow.
- Third, rethink specific work practices to eliminate backflows, scrap, and stoppages
- These three steps must be TAKEN TOGETHER.
Agile Software Development correlation! (p. 54)
Dedicated product teams do not need to be nearly as large as traditional project managers would predict.
- A host of narrowly skilled specialists are not needed because most role specific professionals have much broader skills than they have
- One, ever realized
- Two, ever admitted
- Three, ever been allowed to use
When given the mandate to "just do it" they get the job done and enjoy it!
When there are no stoppages in the system and the work is built to order, orders (requests) can be sought with a clear and concise knowledge of the systems capabilities. THERE IS NO EXPEDITING. (p. 55)
The concept of takt time precisely synchronizes the rate of production to the rate of sales to customer. (p. 55)
Takt time should be adjusted to always be precisely synchronized with demand. (p. 56)
Agile Software Development correlation! (p. 56)
Takt time production should be posted for all to see
- This highlights the concept of transparency and visual control
- Can anyone say information radiators?!
Just In Time idealogy was developed to resolve the need for Material Requirements Planning (p. 58)
Just In Time processes can only work effectively if changeover times are minimal so that tiny amounts of work can be produced and consumed along the value stream (p. 58)
Just In Time is helpless unless downstream production steps practice level scheduling (heijunka in Toyota-speak). (p. 58)
The lean enterprise groups teams by product family, this includes office and production workers (stereotypical white collar/blue collar or management/staff). (p. 59)
Many traditional managers fail to grasp the cost of maintaining and coordinating a complicated network of high-speed machines making batches. (p. 60)
- This is the muda of complexity.
Theory of Constraints correlation! (p. 60)
- Conventional cost-based accounting make utilization the key performance measure while treating in-process inventories as an asset (even when no one will ever want them), it's not surprising that managers fail to grasp that resources rapidly making an unwanted product or service during 100 percent of their available hours and performing unneeded tasks during every available minute is only producing MUDA.
Flow systems have an everything-works-or-nothing-works quality which must be respected and anticipated. (p. 60)
Theory of Constraints correlation! (p. 61)
- Poka-yoke is a suite of techniques highlighting that mistake-proofing is of the utmost importance to ensure that no defective product is delivered to the next step in the value stream.
- This is reminiscent of Goldratt's point of elevating Quality Control in front of any identified bottleneck to save precious time at the bottleneck.
Visual controls - Everyone involved must be able to see and understand every aspect of the operation and its status at all times. (p. 61)
As muda is eliminated, people no longer needed for their traditional task must be protected and new productive tasks found for them. This is essential to a lean transformation. (p. 62)
Agile Software Development correlation. (p. 63)
Locate both design and production in the appropriate place to serve the customer. (p. 63)
- This reminds me of war rooms, co-located teams, etc.
Impact on the experience of those doing the work (p. 65)
The most rewarding experiences typically involve:
- A clear objective
- A need for concentration
- A lack of interruptions and distractions
- Clear and immediate feedback on progress
- A sense of challenge
- A sense of adequacy to cope with the task at hand
People experiencing these conditions are said to be in a highly satisfying psychological state of flow. (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, University of Chicago)
- The task is the end not a means.
- Batch and queue type of work conditions are not conducive of psychological flow.
Cool factor (p. 66)
- The whole system is maintained in a permanent creative tension which demands concentration.
