Introduction to Lean
There's much more to lean than kanban boards and post it notes. In
this presentation you will learn the building blocks of applying lean
techniques and engage in some interesting activities along the way.
This presentation was delivered as a workshop as part of the Agile
Manchester Conference 2015.
@EdmundSutcliffe @smescrater
#FreeThePig #AgileManc
17. The Building Blocks of Lean
Systems Thinking
Mistake
Avoidance
Customer Insight
Culture
Flow
18. The Building Blocks of Lean
Behaviour
Systems Thinking
Mistake
Avoidance
Customer Insight
Culture
Flow
19. The Building Blocks of Lean
Constancy of
Purpose
Knowledge
Management
Continuous
Improvement
Behaviour
Systems Thinking
Mistake
Avoidance
Customer Insight
Culture
Flow
21. The Coin Game
Sticker Colour Role
Green Product Owner
Blue Analyst Manager
Violet Analyst
Pink Development Manager
Red Developer
Orange Test Manager
Yellow Tester
22. The Coin Game
Analyst Developer Tester Product Owner
Flips coins in a
batch then
moves batch to
next person.
Repeats for all
batches.
Manages the
process.
Records time
taken for entire
batch to be
completed.
Records time
taken for each
batch
Times each
batch. Time
starts once first
coin is flipped
and ends once
last coin is
flipped. Reports
batch time to
product owner.
Times each
batch. Time
starts once first
coin is flipped
and ends once
last coin is
flipped. Reports
batch time to
product owner.
Times each
batch. Time
starts once first
coin is flipped
and ends once
last coin is
flipped. Reports
batch time to
product owner.
Flips coins in a
batch then
moves batch to
next person.
Repeats for all
batches.
Flips coins in a
batch then
moves batch to
next person.
Repeats for all
batches.
23. The Coin Game Actual Results
R1
(batch size 20)
R2
(batch size 5)
R3
(batch size 2)
Analysis 12.475 14 13.3
Development 10.66 17.045 14.275
Test 12.75 16.22 14.7
Product Delivery 43.615 23.6375 17.1775
24. The Coin Game Debrief
● Small batch sizes were more fault/defect
tolerant
● Smaller batches increased phase time but
decreased overall time
● Once a sense of flow has been established
great results can be reproduced consistently
● Empowering your team leads to innovative
results!
31. Lean
Behaviours
Know how the
business serves the
customer
Show a
continuous
improvement
mindset
Demonstrate an understanding of the
value stream at a macro and micro
level
Focus on
process and
results
32. Lean
Behaviours
Know how the
business serves the
customer
Show a
continuous
improvement
mindset
Demonstrate an understanding of the
value stream at a macro and micro
level
Focus on
process and
results
Create a culture to
sustain
improvement
33. Lean
Behaviours
Know how the
business serves the
customer
Show a
continuous
improvement
mindset
Build
ability in
people
Demonstrate an understanding of the
value stream at a macro and micro
level
Focus on
process and
results
Create a culture to
sustain
improvement
34. Waste
Only the last turn of a bolt tightens it—the rest
is just movement
-Shigeo Shingo
35. The Standard Pig
One of the main types of waste to avoid is
waste by variation. The next activity will
demonstrate how this can be avoided simply.
39. The Standard Pig Debrief
● Round One
○ Many different pigs produced
○ Which is the right one?
● Round Two
○ Less variation in pigs
○ Standard instructions helped
● Round Three
○ Much less variation
○ Diagram and clear instructions reduce
waste
40. Who are your Customers?
Oh, they may be weary
customers get weary
All the problems that they have to address,
yeah yeah
But when they get weary
Try a little tenderness, yeah yeah
41. Who are your Customers?
You know they're waiting
Just anticipating
For systems that'll never, never, never, never
cause stress, yeah yeah
But while they're there waiting, without them
Try a little tenderness (that's all you gotta do)
http://www.ame.org/sites/default/files/qrl_docs/LeanGlossary_01_08.pdf
At a very simple level, Lean is about three things:
The elimination of waste
The addition of value for the customer to work
The continual improvement of performance
Lean is a commitment to a set of principles and practices not only to introduce improvement, but to ensure continuous improvement.
Historically Lean practices come from Dr. James. P. Womack of MIT’s study of the manufacturing practices of the Toyota Motor Company of Japan.
Lean allows your business to do a lot more with less.
http://www.ame.org/sites/default/files/qrl_docs/LeanGlossary_01_08.pdf
At a very simple level, Lean is about three things:
The elimination of waste
The addition of value for the customer to work
The continual improvement of performance
Lean is a commitment to a set of principles and practices not only to introduce improvement, but to ensure continuous improvement.
Historically Lean practices come from Dr. James. P. Womack of MIT’s study of the manufacturing practices of the Toyota Motor Company of Japan.
Lean allows your business to do a lot more with less.
http://www.ame.org/sites/default/files/qrl_docs/LeanGlossary_01_08.pdf
At a very simple level, Lean is about three things:
The elimination of waste
The addition of value for the customer to work
The continual improvement of performance
Lean is a commitment to a set of principles and practices not only to introduce improvement, but to ensure continuous improvement.
Historically Lean practices come from Dr. James. P. Womack of MIT’s study of the manufacturing practices of the Toyota Motor Company of Japan.
Lean allows your business to do a lot more with less.
http://www.ame.org/sites/default/files/qrl_docs/LeanGlossary_01_08.pdf
At a very simple level, Lean is about three things:
The elimination of waste
The addition of value for the customer to work
The continual improvement of performance
Lean is a commitment to a set of principles and practices not only to introduce improvement, but to ensure continuous improvement.
Historically Lean practices come from Dr. James. P. Womack of MIT’s study of the manufacturing practices of the Toyota Motor Company of Japan.
Lean allows your business to do a lot more with less.
http://www.ame.org/sites/default/files/qrl_docs/LeanGlossary_01_08.pdf
At a very simple level, Lean is about three things:
The elimination of waste
The addition of value for the customer to work
The continual improvement of performance
Lean is a commitment to a set of principles and practices not only to introduce improvement, but to ensure continuous improvement.
Historically Lean practices come from Dr. James. P. Womack of MIT’s study of the manufacturing practices of the Toyota Motor Company of Japan.
Lean allows your business to do a lot more with less.
To get more from IT capabilities using Lean is a two step process. Firstly, take a Lean approach to operational excellence. Emphasise continuous improvement or speed, quality, cost and customer satisfaction by aggressively reducing waste, unnecessary variation, and overburden.
As operational excellence improves, focus and effort can shift towards enabling and enhancing the business strategy.
Lean practices help businesses and IT stakeholders work together in rapid and continuous cycles of experimentation, improvement, and innovation to reach a balance of three complementary objectives:
Running the business
Growing the business
Transforming the business
To get more from IT capabilities using Lean is a two step process. Firstly, take a Lean approach to operational excellence. Emphasise continuous improvement or speed, quality, cost and customer satisfaction by aggressively reducing waste, unnecessary variation, and overburden.
As operational excellence improves, focus and effort can shift towards enabling and enhancing the business strategy.
Lean practices help businesses and IT stakeholders work together in rapid and continuous cycles of experimentation, improvement, and innovation to reach a balance of three complementary objectives:
Running the business
Growing the business
Transforming the business
To get more from IT capabilities using Lean is a two step process. Firstly, take a Lean approach to operational excellence. Emphasise continuous improvement or speed, quality, cost and customer satisfaction by aggressively reducing waste, unnecessary variation, and overburden.
As operational excellence improves, focus and effort can shift towards enabling and enhancing the business strategy.
Lean practices help businesses and IT stakeholders work together in rapid and continuous cycles of experimentation, improvement, and innovation to reach a balance of three complementary objectives:
Running the business
Growing the business
Transforming the business
To get more from IT capabilities using Lean is a two step process. Firstly, take a Lean approach to operational excellence. Emphasise continuous improvement or speed, quality, cost and customer satisfaction by aggressively reducing waste, unnecessary variation, and overburden.
As operational excellence improves, focus and effort can shift towards enabling and enhancing the business strategy.
Lean practices help businesses and IT stakeholders work together in rapid and continuous cycles of experimentation, improvement, and innovation to reach a balance of three complementary objectives:
Running the business
Growing the business
Transforming the business
To get more from IT capabilities using Lean is a two step process. Firstly, take a Lean approach to operational excellence. Emphasise continuous improvement or speed, quality, cost and customer satisfaction by aggressively reducing waste, unnecessary variation, and overburden.
As operational excellence improves, focus and effort can shift towards enabling and enhancing the business strategy.
Lean practices help businesses and IT stakeholders work together in rapid and continuous cycles of experimentation, improvement, and innovation to reach a balance of three complementary objectives:
Running the business
Growing the business
Transforming the business
To get more from IT capabilities using Lean is a two step process. Firstly, take a Lean approach to operational excellence. Emphasise continuous improvement or speed, quality, cost and customer satisfaction by aggressively reducing waste, unnecessary variation, and overburden.
As operational excellence improves, focus and effort can shift towards enabling and enhancing the business strategy.
Lean practices help businesses and IT stakeholders work together in rapid and continuous cycles of experimentation, improvement, and innovation to reach a balance of three complementary objectives:
Running the business
Growing the business
Transforming the business
To get more from IT capabilities using Lean is a two step process. Firstly, take a Lean approach to operational excellence. Emphasise continuous improvement or speed, quality, cost and customer satisfaction by aggressively reducing waste, unnecessary variation, and overburden.
As operational excellence improves, focus and effort can shift towards enabling and enhancing the business strategy.
Lean practices help businesses and IT stakeholders work together in rapid and continuous cycles of experimentation, improvement, and innovation to reach a balance of three complementary objectives:
Running the business
Growing the business
Transforming the business
Culture
An organisation’s shared beliefs and values, manifested as attitude and behaviour.
Lean culture is a shared capability which enables people to seek out and solve problems.
The result being superior performance, competitive advantage, and observable results to bottom-line costs
Whatsapp – 4 servers, 45 employees $16B
Flow
Flow is the uninterrupted progression of materials, services, and information through the business to the customer.
“Flow is where you can pull if you must” - Jeffrey Lister
Work should flow smoothly through the business. If work does not flow, using pull techniques like a kanban to initiate work will restore flow.
A kanban (card board) is a system that visibly lists work to be done in the form of cards. People can take cards at their own pace, work on them and deliver the work. Allowing people to control their own flow of work avoids losing time due to waiting for work and avoiding overburdening.
Poor flow manifests as delays, interruptions, rework, and added cost to the customer.
The voice of the customer Kokyaku no koe
At all times, the customer’s values, wants, and needs must be understood.
By understanding how customers define value, lean thinkers position themselves to begin with the customer’s end result in mind.
If organisations do not know or understand what the customer desires, they will deliver products and services that do not address the real needs of the customer.
Quality at the source/Mistake Proofing/Poka-Yoke
Lean promotes doing things right first time. Effort should not go into fixing things later. The best time to solve a problem is at the time it occurs.
The focus of daily work should be producing quality at the source. In a lean environment there is an obligation to stop and fix the problem, and a shared commitment to avoiding passing known defects downstream towards the customer.
Systems Thinking
Lean requires learning to view and assess the business in a new way. Systems thinking is the ability to view the interconnected processes that make up the entire value stream (the flow of work and addition of value through the business and to the customer) while being aware of the cause and effect interdependencies that either add value or create waste. A value stream is comprised of all processes, tasks, and activities used to bring a product or service from concept to customer, and includes all information, work, and material flows.
To facilitate systems thinking in organisations, lean practitioners should avoid solutions that create localised optimisation and silo thinking.
Proactive Behaviour
Lean practices empower staff to take initiative and assume personal responsibility for the quality of work produced and the working environment. Being proactive means seizing the opportunity to make a difference every day.
Many businesses fail in this area because staff are seasoned firefighters and too used to reacting to problems as they occur. Lean practitioners are best seen as police officers who take a methodical, proactive approach to problem solving.
This is best visualised using the time-management matrix from Stephen Covey’s 7 habits of highly effective people.
Urgent|Non-Urgent
|Important
Fire-fighting|Lean Thinking
---------------------------+--------------------------
|
|Non-Important
|
Constancy of Purpose
Leadership provides the direction and clarity needed to focus on the things that matter most, maintaining clarity on important long-term objectives.
The maintaining of focus on what matters most ensures continued coordination within departments and functional areas.
Effective leaders lead by example, this is a responsibility that cannot be delegated.
The way management reacts to setbacks either reinforces proactive behaviour or discourages it. Effective leadership embraces an essential truth: poor processes not people are the cause of most problems.
W.Edward Deming proposed the 96/4 rule. that is 96% of the problems in a business were inherent to process design and not controlled by the people doing the work.
Respect for People
All individuals possess a unique collection of experience and insight and can make a distinctive contribution when they participate in process improvement.
When people sense their input is disregarded or not respected, they tend to withdraw their support, concern, and active participation.
Respect for people unlocks personal excellence and creative potential. Good leaders tap into this inexhaustible resource by mentoring, coaching, and collaborating with their associates.
Lean transformation requires the input, support, and active participation of everyone in the organisation.
Pursuit of perfection
Change is relentless and new ideas are needed whenever current standard ways of working no longer produces acceptable results.
In lean culture people embrace change as inescapable (and even desirable), proactively meeting challenges. Everybody should see their job as having two inseparable components:
Daily Work
Daily Improvement
The pursuit of perfection is aspirational, it is never achieved.
Over automation and striving for hyper-efficiency of the “perfect solution” should be avoided. These ultimately create waste and rigidity, and resist further cycles of improvement.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NPzLBSBzPI
ACTIVITY: The Dice Game
We all drink water, when we turn on the tap, we expect to have a clean, consistent flow of water. As the customer, we assume the water is disease free, safe to drink, and fully available when we want it, all at a reasonable price. If a pump breaks or a controller fails somewhere in the delivery system that is somebody else’s problem. We, the customer, expect flowing water on demand. The water supplier must maintain its equipment, verify the water quality, and ensure that the delivery system is safe and reliable. The supplier has little or no room for mistakes. This is an example of a system of flow.
From the time a first action is taken, products and services never stop until they reach the customer. From the moment a customer asks for it, products and services make their journey through a set of only value adding activities until they reach their destination.
Value stream mapping is a lean management principle used to analyse and design the flow of materials and information required to bring a product or service to a consumer.
Producing a value stream map consists of the following steps:
Assemble a cross-functional team that has representatives from all areas of your process.
Consider the customer.
Draw the customer near the top right of your VSM and capture the events or signals that trigger the start of the process.
Capture the process steps.
Add the process time line.
Summarize the key operational metrics for your process on the VSM.
Identify improvement opportunities.
Get team input
Because of a VSM’s end-to-end scope, you need to gather input from a wide set of domains: production planning, supply chain, inventory/stores, manufacturing, shipping, and so on. Including all these inputs is critical to creating an accurate and useful VSM.
Start with the customer
After gathering inputs, consider the customer. You can see the “product customer” drawn toward the upper right. Ask yourself what the customer does to signal the need to start the process. Whatever the impetus is, the customer always does something to start the ball rolling.
Draw the customer near the top right of your VSM and begin by capturing the events or signals that trigger the start of the process.
To follow typical VSM conventions, use thin, solid lines to indicate signals or the flow of information in your process. Use thick solid lines to designate external material flow, like from a supplier. And use thick dotted lines to document material or flow that occurs within your organization.
You can see a customer order being first routed to production control. Production control, in turn, sends out forecasts and weekly material orders to suppliers. In a parallel path of the value stream, the production supervisor also receives a signal from production control and sends out daily production instructions to each of the process steps.
Capture the process steps
Next, you want to capture the process steps. Usually, you place the as-is internal process steps at the bottom of the VSM in a horizontal layout. These steps are designated by blocks with characteristic measures for each step. Capture as much information as possible about each step, including cycle time, changeover time, number of operators, number of pieces, work in process, inventory quantities, reliability, yield, and so on.
Add the process timeline
Value stream maps contain a unique feature — a highly insightful timeline — beneath the horizontal line of main process steps. The timeline captures not only the time required for each step but also the time spent waiting between steps. In this way, you document how long the entire process takes to be completed.
The timeline also includes a vertical component. To highlight waste, any segment of process time that doesn’t add value is drawn in the timeline with an elevated step. So, you can see what portion of overall process time is spent adding real value and how much isn’t.
Don’t confuse takt time with cycle time. Cycle time is a measure of how long a process takes to complete.Takt time is the pace needed to exactly meet customer demand. It’s calculated by dividing the available production time by the number of parts needed to meet customer demand during that time. To minimize waste, a process should produce its output no faster or slower than the customer-determined takt time.
When you compute takt time, take into account your current production efficiency. A realistic takt time is multiplied by your efficiency number (for 80-perent efficiency, multiply the takt time by 0.8). This step means you build in enough capacity that you can meet customer demand while sustaining production losses of 20 percent.
Supply the box score
Place a summary of the key operational metrics — known as the box score — right on the VSM, usually near the top. Be sure to include the total lead time, including the value add and non-value add times. You may also include information like the total distance traveled, total parts per shift, scrap, pieces produced per labor hour, changeover time, inventory turns, uptime, downtime — whatever is critical in your situation.
Identify improvement opportunities
The basic toolkit of a lean business contains:
* A3 thinking
An A3 report is simply an 11 x 17 inch piece of paper outlined into several structured sections. The exact structure depends upon the type of A3 and the needs of the situation. A general one consists of the following pattern 1) Background, 2) Current Situation & Problem, 3) Goal, 4) Root Cause Analysis, 5) Action Items / Implementation Plan, 6) Check of Results, and 7) Follow Up. The report is used to standardised and simplify report writing, proposals, status updates, and other common methods of communication. The content follows the logic of the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle.
* Kanban
Kanban is a method for managing knowledge work with an emphasis on just-in-time delivery while not overloading the team members. In this approach, the process, from definition of a task to its delivery to the customer, is displayed for participants to see and team members pull work from a queue.
Kanban can be divided into two parts:
* Kanban – A visual process management system that tells what to produce, when to produce it, and how much to produce.
* The Kanban method – An approach to incremental, evolutionary process improvement for organizations.
* Value stream mapping
Value stream mapping is a lean management principle used to analyze and design the flow of materials and information required to bring a product or service to a consumer. Pioneered by Henry Ford in the 1920s, perfected by Toyota. At Toyota, it is known as "material and information flow mapping".[1] It can be applied to nearly any value chain.
* Kaizen events
Kaizen refers to activities that continually improve all functions, and involves all employees from the CEO to the assembly line workers. It also applies to processes, such as purchasing and logistics, that cross organizational boundaries into the supply chain. By improving standardised activities and processes, kaizen aims to eliminate waste.
* Plan-->Do-->Check-->Act
PDCA (plan–do–check–act or plan–do–check–adjust) is an iterative four-step management method used in business for the control and continuous improvement of processes and products. It is also known as the Deming circle/cycle/wheel, Shewhart cycle, control circle/cycle, or plan–do–study–act (PDSA). Another version of this PDCA cycle is OPDCA. The added "O" stands for observation or as some versions say "Grasp the current condition." This emphasis on observation and current condition has currency with Lean manufacturing/Toyota Production System literature.
* Gemba Walks
Gemba (現場?, also romanized as gemba) is a Japanese term meaning "the real place." In business, gemba refers to the place where value is created; in manufacturing the gemba is the factory floor. It can be any "site" such as a construction site, sales floor or where the service provider interacts directly with the customer.
In lean manufacturing, the idea of gemba is that the problems are visible, and the best improvement ideas will come from going to the genba. The genba walk is an activity that takes management to the front lines to look for waste and opportunities to practice gemba kaizen, or practical shopfloor improvement.
They know how the business serves the customer by
Understanding what customers want, need, and value, or what will thrill them
Knowing how the business satisfies the customer
Improving the effectiveness of how the business satisfies the customer
They focus on process and results by
Obtaining results
Ensuring that how the results are achieved is the most effective utilization of all resources, in the direction of the ideal state
Improving how the organization accomplishes results
They show a continuous improvement mindset by
Continually challenging the status quo
Knowing that there is always room for improvement
Understanding that the customer changes — what delights today is a necessity tomorrow
They demonstrate an understanding of the value stream at a macro and micro level through
Knowing what the customer requires and how the value stream satisfies them
Having knowledge of the overall value stream, including tributaries
Asking questions when changes are made at the local level to ensure that the team understands how the change will impact the customer and the rest of the value stream
They create a culture to sustain improvement by
Identifying, modeling, and encouraging Lean behaviors
Finding the lessons in every “failure” — blame does not foster improvement or innovation
Respecting and improving standards — questions when the organization is deviating from the standard
They build ability in the people through
Guiding problem solving — root cause, right problem, right resources
Leading from gemba; applying 3Gen
Asking open-ended, probing questions
ACTIVITY: The standard pig
The elimination of waste is the goal of lean, and three broad types of waste are defined : muda, muri and mura; it should be noted that for many lean implementations this list shrinks to the first waste type only with corresponding benefits decrease. To illustrate the state of this thinking Shigeo Shingo observed that only the last turn of a bolt tightens it—the rest is just movement.
Mura or waste due to variation
Muri or waste due to overburdening or stressing the people, equipment or system
Muda also known as the “seven forms of waste”
Transportation: Is there unnecessary (non-value-added) movement of parts, materials, or information between processes?
Waiting: Are people or parts, systems or facilities idle — waiting for a work cycle to be completed?
Overproduction: Are you producing sooner, faster, or in greater quantities than the customer is demanding?
Defects: Does the process result in anything that the customer would deem unacceptable?
Inventory: Do you have any raw materials, work-in-progress (WIP), or finished goods that are not having value added to them?
Movement: How much do you move materials, people, equipment, and goods within a processing step?
Extra Processing: How much extra work is performed beyond the standard required by the customer?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXmLjbTBcdU
What do they believe?
Who do they trust?
What are they afraid of and who do they love?
What are they seeking?
Who are their friends?
What do they talk about?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXmLjbTBcdU
What do they believe?
Who do they trust?
What are they afraid of and who do they love?
What are they seeking?
Who are their friends?
What do they talk about?