“If you stay in this world, you will never learn another one.” – W. Edwards Deming
A lot of organizations call themselves Lean because they use the tools yet they still manage the same way as before their journey began. You will never gain a deep learning of Lean by trying to live in both worlds. This formula is like oil and water becasue they do not mix.
When leadership asks their front-line workers to change, the managers have to change as well for it to truly work.
“The Birth Of Lean” published by the Lean Enterprise Institute is a terrific book. This book is for people who want to gain a deeper insight into the thinking and struggles Toyota went through to develop what we call Lean.
I have been on my Lean Journey for 1.5 years. This book was perfect for someone at my stage of learning. I do not think this is a good introduction to Lean but functions as a book to help get a deeper understanding of the topics. If Lean was a college course, this would be a book for the level 300 classes.
The most powerful aspect of this book was the first person narrative from TPS & TQC pioneers such as Taiichi Ohno, Masao Nemoto, and Eiji Toyoda. I felt I was able to “get into their head” for a bit and understand their thinking and perspectives.
There are many gems in this book and different things that stood out to me.
SCOLDING – This surprised me to see how often the speakers talk about scolding workers and showing what went wrong and why. I am not suggesting this becomes a new practice, but this really shows an approach Toyota took to creating a learning organization. Many Lean transformations strive for the feel-good approach.
EXPERIMENTATION – Toyota just kept trying new things over and over again. They stopped the line and kept at it. They did not wait for a workshop. They practiced GAMBARE (just do it).
TWO PILLARS – I was surprised to read that Ohno’s Toyota Production System was created almost in parallel with Nemoto’s Total Quality Control. The two systems complimented each other but were not made in conjunction. Most Lean literature has merged these two systems and call it TPS but they were independent for quite a while.
If you want to think like the pioneers of Lean, this book will let you hear directly from them. There are many nuggets inside the book that will be valuable for you.
Conflict of interest disclosure: I received this book from the publisher for review purposes.
“People do not change when you tell them they should; they change when they tell themselves they must.” – Michael Mandelbaum, a foreign policy specialist at John Hopkins University
Jonathan Frye from LeadershipJot.com has great comments about this quote and the source where it came from.
My 2009 Hansei: Scarcity inspires creativity and innovation. How can I help harness that inspiration?
I sometimes use this blog to post things I have learned to ensure I can remember them in the future. I hope some of these are valuable to you as well.
During a recent kaizen workshop debrief, I was reminded by my consultant partner to always ask the client what is next.
We are internal consultants so this question is not designed to drum up new business. It is framed to build on momentum created from the workshop. It is a challenge to continue improving. It is practical advice to be ready to see hidden problems as they are revealed and to be prepared to address them.
Asking “What’s next?” should not be limited to only the debrief after a Kaizen workshop. Use this question throughout the auditing of the improvement. It is a very important question when the improvement is fully handed off to operations and the consultant is no longer involved.
My 2009 Hansei: Scarcity inspires creativity and innovation. How can I help harness that inspiration?
We use Post Its a lot for teaching people how to improve processes and understand the current state. I thought this 1.5 minute video was fun and creative (RSS viewers will need to open post to view video). Thanks to the Visual Management Blog for alerting me about this video!
My 2009 Hansei: Scarcity inspires creativity and innovation. How can I help harness that inspiration?
How do you show your customers you are competent about your product/service?
My wife and I noticed a small leak near our chimney recently and was advised it most likely was coming from our roof. We called for three roofing quotes to validate if it was truly a roof issue or if it was something else.
The first contractor came out and pointed out things on our 15 year roof to look for. He showed me where the previous homeowner did a bad job near some pipes and that we most likely were leaking but can’t see it due to three layers of roof. He showed where some of the roofing is curling which is a sign of needing replacing. He inspected around the chimney (even on the side of the house away from the roof) to see where our water was coming from. He explained how water runs around a house and what signs to look for. He went onto our roof and measured the pitch. The contractor gave me a quote and said I should consider replacing in a year. The transaction was about 35-40 minutes.
The second contractor pulled up to our house and walked immediately to the door. He sat down with me and said I needed a new roof. I asked him how he knew since I did not see him stand and look at the roof and didn’t even look at it from the back yard. He said he can tell because the shiny surface was missing from the front tiles. He gave me a quote. The whole thing took about 15 minutes.
The third contractor never came out.
The first contractor provided a lot of value added service to me. He educated me. Measuring the pitch made me feel the quote was more accurate. He provided advice on the real problem why I called him but still explained that the roof will need replacing. He actually looked at our entire roof before he provided the diagnosis.
The second contractor approached me as though he was the expert and I should just trust him. He did not demonstrate anything to make me believe he was competent like the first contractor did. A roof is not cheap so do not discount time spent to build credibility with your potential customers!
Do your actions help your customers see that you are competent and credible? Do your processes allow value added time for your customers? Do you think the first contractor wasted time with what he did to give me a quote since the second contractor was more efficient (not effective though)?
My 2009 Hansei: Scarcity inspires creativity and innovation. How can I help harness that inspiration?
“All of this standard work is just turning us into robots”.
Have you heard this before when you improved a process and made standard work? A recent workshop team was concerned this would be the response from some of their peers. In true sensei fashion, we asked the rest of the team how they would respond to their nursing peers. Here are some of their responses:
We watched the current process across the hospital and it was different everywhere. The standard will help our float nurses be sucessful since they work across many units.
The data we have shows not every nurse has been completing the process in the allotted 30 minutes which is causing overtime. The standard was designed to ensure we don’t go past 30 minutes but still get everything done.
The nurses we spoke to said they can get too much or too little information at handoff depending on who they are partnering with. The standard work will be less frustrating for those in this position because we will all get consistent information from now on.
I really like these responses because they discuss the problem with data and observations. They do not just explain the benefits of the change but clearly explain the current situation which led to the standardization.
What would your response be to a comment like this?
My 2009 Hansei: Scarcity inspires creativity and innovation. How can I help harness that inspiration?
“Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better.” – King Whitney Jr, President, Personnel Laboratory Inc
My wife and I bought a new laptop from a major chain retail store recently and I was shocked by how bad the satisfaction survey was. As I was at the register, a surveyor approached me and offered $15 in gift cards to answer the survey. The questions astounded me.
“Do you agree or disagree that personal PCs are creative?” My response- People are creative, not machines
“Do you agree or disagree that personal PCs are innovative?” My response- People are innovative, not machines
“On a scale of 1-10 from horrible to outstanding what is your impression of this location” My response- Is this question based on only today’s purchase or in general since I frequently shop at this one? Surveyor – “Either”
Maybe I was tough on the surveyor because I have written surveys before. I was surprised how the questions are written in a way where the responder may not understand what is being asked. The questions were not specific enough for the company to have faith they can trust the results (in my opinion).
To make matters worse, the surveyor offered me another $5 gift card if I would participate in a phone survey at a later date. I got the call this week. I was asked the exact same questions! I have no idea if they compared my store results to the phone results or if my responses count as two customers.
My 2009 Hansei: Scarcity inspires creativity and innovation. How can I help harness that inspiration?
Film director great Akira Kurosawa learned a powerful lesson while he was working under Kajirio Yamamoto. His mentor told him “Don’t try to BS people. If you don’t know the answer, don’t say anything until you can find out for sure“. The only place you can find out for sureis at gemba.
The quote is from the outstanding book I am currently reading: The Birth Of Lean from the Lean Enterprise Institute.
I really liked this 15 minute speech by astronaut Mae Jemison from TED(RSS readers may need to open post to view video). This speech reminds me to keeping moving past EITHER/OR thinking and finding ways for both conditions to exist. I also like her formula:
Understanding + Resources + Will = Outcome
This formula is perfect in my mind because it stresses the importance of understanding a problem/situation. Stephen Few said “most poor decisions are caused by lack of understanding, not lack of data“. How often do resources and a force of will get applied to problems without a deep understanding?
I admit that I never considered scientists as creative before I went on a tour at a research center almost a decade ago. The hallways were lined with whiteboards so scientists can capture their thoughts and ideas when they spring from a conversation. I heard a research scientist test one thing but found a whole slew of other applications they did not expect. There is definitely a creative buzz for scientists.
I have worked with a lot artists and have witnessed how they can be analytic and precise. Think of an actor who can deliver the same line like it is a surprise every night for two weeks! Arts has the perception of being fluff to some of academia but the creative spark should be harnessed for future progress.
My 2009 Hansei: Scarcity inspires creativity and innovation. How can I help harness that inspiration?
You are wasting employee skills and your customer’s time by not equipping your staff to solve problems.
While getting four new tires this weekend, I was being helped by the crew supervisor. The other team-members interrupted my time with the supervisor to ask where to order a replacement part for another customer, how to enter a refund for someone else, and other similar questions. Every customer with these crew-members had to wait for their person to get advice from the supervisor. Of note, EVERYcrew-member had a question.
I recently finished Matthew May’s “In Pursuit Of Elegance” and he talks about a company named FAVI. Before the latest CEO began, he noticed a trend in the company loosely translated as a “Chain Of How”. This means a worker needs to ask a supervisor for help, then it goes to a manager, up to a director, reaches the VP, then finally lands on the CEO. This model implies only the CEO is smart enough to solve problems. The book goes into more fascinating detail about FAVI that will get you to think differently.
I saw a little version of the “Chain Of How” in play while at the tire center. When you begin to see this pattern in your organization, call it out as a problem immediately.
You need to improve information flow so your crew can find answers themselves. You need to teach, model, and support problem solving methods so your staff is equipped. Look at your approval protocols to see if they are too stringent. Look to see if your culture put leaders on the mantle as the smartest people.
Once you train your team how to solve problems and break the “Chain Of How”, you will stop wasting employee skills and customer waiting time. It will also place you in a prime position to take your Lean journey to a whole new level.
This weekend I went out for fish and chips and saw this fantastic sign. The restaurant is very nicely helping their customers recognize the costs associated with taking excess inventoryof straws, tartar sauce, napkins, and other condiments. I am not sure how much savings they have seen since posting this sign, but as a customer I was more aware of how much I was taking (I happen to be a ketsup maniac).
Do you think this is a good way to help lower waste or is a sign like this is too much to ask customers?
“A customer is the most important visitor on our premises, he is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.” -Gandhi
Lean thinking is focused on the cusotmer. This quote help reinforce this perspective.
There is an interesting computer-industry trend called Moore’s Law that can be applied to Lean thinking.
Per Wikipedia, Gordon E. Moore pointed out since 1958, the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit has increased exponentially, doubling approximately every two years. It has continued for almost half a century and in 2005 was not expected to stop for another decade at least.
With performance doubling every two years as the basis for Moore’s Law, how does this apply to Lean thinking?
I think it is easy for people in Lean organizations to get stuck in the mode of always going after PERFECTinstead of focusing on 50% BETTER. With Moore’s Law, they did not wait to release electronics until the transistors were a perfect size. This thinking can help you and your team stop waiting and do what is possible now to get an improved performance.
The second way Moore’s Law applies to Lean is the continuous improvement element. There is a great thrust and expectation set by this law that performance will double every two years. This drives people to continuously improve electronics all the time with no end in sight.
Many organizations early in their Lean journey look at the thinking and tools as theory or philosophy. Many Lean articles and books have documented improvment performance with clear cause and effect connections due to Lean thinking. Maybe it is time to start calling it Lean’s Law!
