Lean isn't lean

Lean isn’t LeanFrancis Fish

FJF/DI/DM consultancyhttp://fjfdidm.com

Engage!FJF/DI/DMFJF/DI/DMEngage! Love what you do & do it wellLove what you do & do it well

Wednesday, 2 October 13

• 30 years a coder

• Member of the humanist wing of the agile movement

• Despite provocative title for the talk, not here to pick a fight but engage human to human

• Qualified sports coach

https://leanpub.com/unicorns

• History of term Lean

• Analytical vs systems thinking

• An example: standard work

• Discussion

• Questions

• Taiichi Ohno

• Toyota

After the fact

• TAKT time

After the fact

• TAKT time

• Waste

After the fact

• TAKT time

• Waste

• Standard work

But first ...

Analytical thinking

Semantics

Efficient? Effective?

Semantics

Solving?Fixing?

Semantics

Solving?Fixing?

Restorative?Palliative?

Semantics

Solving?Fixing?

Analytical

Semantics

Solving?Fixing?

Analytical Systems

Semantics

Solving?Fixing?

Analytical Systems

• Lean is a term invented by Western academics

The analytic box

The analytic box• Observe, but don’t engage

• Break into pieces

• Put it in a box

• Turn creativity into an algorithm (yeah, right)

• Put it in a box

• Didactic, destructive

• Put it in a box

• Didactic, destructive

• The word is not the thing - Oasis are not the Beatles

The analytic box

Control is a double-edged sword; it involves doing things right (efficiency) and doing the right thing (effectiveness). It is better to do the right thing wrong than the wrong thing right. Unfortunately, the righter we do the wrong things, the wronger we become. In some cases, increases in efficiency can decrease effectiveness.

Managers are seduced by all sorts of panaceas on the basis of alleged demonstrations of the results they bring about, only to learn later that they are often ineffective. Such allegations of effectiveness are almost always based on observed associations, not causal relationships.

Deming’s 14 points

Deming’s 14 points1. Constancy of purpose

2. Adopt the new philosophy ...

8. Drive out fear ...

10. Eliminate slogans

11. Eliminate management by objectives

12. Remove barriers to pride of workmanship

Example:

• Standard work

What did Ohno say?• There is something called standard work, but

standards should be changing constantly. Instead, if you think of the standard as the best you can do, it’s all over. The standard is only a baseline for doing further kaizen. It is kaiaku if things get worse than now, and it is kaizen if things get better than now. Standards are set arbitrarily by humans, so how can they not change?

• Without some standard, you can’t say, “We made it better,” because there is nothing to compare it to, so you must create a standard for comparison.

What did Ohno say?

• Years ago, I made them hang the standard work documents on the shop floor. After a year I said to a team leader, “The color of the paper has changed, which means you have been doing it the same way, so you have been a salary thief for the last year.” I said, “What do you come to work to do each day?

So ...

• Creating a basis for continuous improvement

• Not fixed in stone

• Owned by the people who do the work

Analytical Standardisation

• Make work standard

• Efficient!

• Deliver to that standard

• Efficient!

• Deliver to that standard

• Only automata need apply

• An example ...

Demand Team 1

Team alpha

Team 1

Team premier

What’s wrong

• Point of delivery should be the same as point of standardisation

Team 1Wednesday, 2 October 13

Demand profile

Demand profile• Averages don’t tell demand story

• Average of averages - don’t go there!

• 95% of capability comes from the system

• Each has a different “how”

• The box from the centre won’t fit

• Æsop’s fable: The miller, his son and their ass

Demand Imagined

FailureDemand Imagined

BureaucracyDo it for doing

its sakeDemand

Demand Idealised

WASTERework

WASTEDead hand of bureaucracy

What happens

• More disconnected with customer needs the smaller the intersection

What happens

• Everything changes over time - this is an iron rule

What happens

• The centre cannot hold - in fact it hasn’t a clue

What happens

• Staff are infantalised

What happens

• Staff are infantalised

• Everyone is treated like a beginner, with no knowledge or skill

Fixing not solving

Fixing not solving• Targets

• Make it work, somehow

• If you measure costs, costs go up

• Each delivery point has own experienced people, equipment, demand profile

• True empowerment solves it permanently

• Fixing is ahistorical, assumes nothing will change

Demand

Bureaucratic Waste

Service

Unmet variety

Unmet Variety?

• Opportunity to improve!

• Different at each point

Givens

Bob Bob

Givens

Bob Bob

Givens

Bob Bob

Givens

Bob Bob

Givens

Bob Bob

Givens

Bob Bob

Givens

Bob Bob

£?£?

Cost?• Measure at the hand over points

• Optimisations are done there

• Steps are arbitrary, analytical, given

• Change steps, change cost

• Silos - call centre, provisioning, finance - are they really necessary or are they givens?

• Conway’s law

And ...

• This is the way you have always done it

• The original people who did that job meant it was split up that way

• When you replaced you got another Bob/Mary/Alice

• ... if it all burned down tomorrow, what would the replacement do, (Ackoff)

• Cost is end to end - not per process

• Clean flow reduces cost, without measuring it

• Theory of constraints teaches us that can only go as fast as the bottleneck

• Cost is in the flow, not in the measuring points

• Measure costs, costs go up - breaks flow, breaks clean, causes rework and delay

Algorithms

Imagination?

Algorithms

Imagination?

Innovation?

Algorithms

Imagination?

Innovation?

Improvement?

Algorithms

Imagination?

Innovation?

Improvement?

Inspiration?

Algorithms

Imagination?

Innovation?

Improvement?

Inspiration?

Tech management

The main reason we tend to focus on the technical rather than the human side of the work is not because it’s more crucial, but because it’s easier to do.

Tech management

• No heart!

• Work that’s fit for humans

So what is lean?

So what is lean?• Go see

• Start where people are - constancy of purpose

• Humble - NVC - no more “should”

• Engage with the variety at each point of delivery

• Train and work to demand

• Allow continuous improvement, not fixed, things will move

• The system always wins

Takt time, waste

• Takt time works for manufacturing processes not people (Theory of Constraints)

Takt time, waste

• Waste is not the same as efficiency

Takt time, waste

• Think, engage

Takt time, waste

• Think, engage

• Historic opportunity

One last quote

You are a fool if you do just as I say. You are a greater fool if you don’t do as I say. You should think for yourself and come up with better ideas than mine.

- Ohno

francis@fjfdidm.com@fjfish

Some images from openclipart.org

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