Lean Simplified

Few seemed to realize that the underlying principles they observed and identified as 'lean' were defined many years ago...

Experiential knowledge understands WHY things are done a certain way... this is the real secret of 'lean'

The Discovery of Lean

Taiichi Ohno started building the foundation of Lean with the Flow Principles and Job Instruction

Take the leap...

Principles and Origins

Follow the sequence to success...

Cranberry Industry

Apply Flow Principles

across the Whole System

converting seasonal demand into year-round

Supply Chain Management

Peak holiday demand for Thanksgiving dinner

Changed consumption habits by

creating new products

Once just a waste product of the cranberry industry

Ocean Spray squeezes all of the juice out of the cranberries, and then rehydrates the discarded cranberry husks with corn syrup, citric acid, and a little bit of cranberry and elderflower juice.

Think outside of just the Production System,

include the supply side and distribution network

Blended with other flavors!

Organizing for Flow

Flow - an ideal state... not just for creatives or athletes

For more information, contact:

Mark.Tesla2@gmail.com

Lean is an Outcome of Achieving Flow

Principles of Flow

Put Processes in Sequence

Synchronize Processes

Balance Work Content

Balance Demand Pace

Woollard's Principles of Flow

1. Mass production demands mass consumption

Flow production requires continuity of demand

2. The products of the system must be specialized

3. The products of the system must be standardized

4. The products of the system must be simplified in general and in detail

5. All material must conform to specification

6. All supplies must be delivered to a strict timetable

7. The machines must be continually fed with sound material

8. Processing must be progressive and continuous

9. A time cycle must be set and maintained

10. Operations must be based on motion study and time study

11. Accuracy of work must be strictly maintained

12. Long-term planning, based on precise knowledge, is essential

13. Maintenance must be by anticipation - never by default

14. Every mechanical aid must be adopted for man and machine

15. Every activity must be studied for the economic application of power

16. Information on costs must be promptly available

17. Machines should be designed to suit the task they perform

18. The system of production must benefit everyone - consumers, workers

and owners

Henry Leland's

revival of Henry Ford Co.

1903 Cadillac

Henry Ford's third attempt at producing cars

1903 Ford

Model A

Rationalization of Production

Late 1700's and into the 1800's,thinking about the whole production process as a machine begins to surface in publications. Thinking of the factory as a machine itself.

The textile mills used the machines to not only increase production, but also reduced the skills required so they could hire ladies and children to tend the machines. The firearms manufacturing needed to reduce variation so they could have interchangeable parts.

The ability to 'see' the whole factory as a single machine (like a watch, with all the pieces interconnected), became more and more difficult as the complexity of factories increased, which has led to suboptimization of the system. Developing 'awareness' starts with the realization that your production system is like a machine... interconnected. Isolated rationalization of individual parts of your machine may optimize the performance of that individual piece, but have little to no effect on the whole system capacity, unless that part is the system constraint

The next order would be in reducing variation. Not only in the product produced, but in the time it took to produce it. The production became predictable... stability.

The last order of improvement was the transportation between processes, although for some industries, this proved to be their biggest jump in productivity.

"We are Different" - each industry used different strategies to rationalize their factories. Each focusing on the constraint most critical to their industry. Each eventually used all of the rationalization strategies listed above, but in an order that specifically suited their industry. For instance; the paper mills started with using machines to increase the productivity of their skilled tradesmen. The flour milling operations started with the transport because it was the most labor intensive part of the overall process.

Ford's development of the assembly line and his obsessive focus on eliminating waste didn't start there either... the Ford assembly line is an outcome of more than 100 years of experiments across many industries. Across these various industries, you will find advocates talking about the whole factory as a 'living machine'. The fascination with machines in the 1700's and 1800's, as more and more work that was previously a purely manual task had some portion of the work now done with the aid of a mechanical device, spilled over into factory design. A look back in history will show that machinery served different purposes in different industries.

First order improvement was purely multiplying the productivity of a skilled craftsman.

The next order would not only increase productivity, but reduce the skill requirements. Enabling the employment of a larger group of individuals with less training.

In the 1980's, a group of University professors and graduate students went around the world observing the assembly of autos...

"Lean" was discovered...

A car is more than the sum of its parts

published 1991

Outsiders began trying to unravel the mystery of Toyota by observing the tip of the iceberg...

The system to build the car is more than the sum of its parts too..

"Lean" is an outcome of the systems they observed.

Thinking Patterns

How did it happen?

Ohno + Flow + TWI

Toyota's Breakthrough

Fragile System

Lean is the outcome of merging Flow and TWI

Determined individual

Development was by experiment, not design...

Outcome of Taiichi Ohno's deliberate practice of TWI?

Success depends on how many experiments you can fit into 24 hours.

- Thomas Edison

A set of behaviors we recognize as Lean.

Thinking Patterns

trump tools

Starting point to Develop Habits

Deliberate Practice starts with the awareness of the skill you are trying to develop. Learning is accelerated with the assistance of a coach to provide feedback.

The 'Gemba' habit

1. Go to the Work

2. Observe

3. Question

4. Get the Facts

(Validation)

5. Organize the Facts

(Patterns)

Start with daily reflection on the problems that you addressed. Did you follow the pattern? What insights did you have about each step?

Keep a journal or make notes on a board about what you learned. Reflect with a coach and get feedback.

Part 1 of 3

Toyota Kata links

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mrother/Homepage.html

Coaching card - courtesy of Mike Rother

Coaching Card - Objective is to teach the Improving Patterns

"Toyota Kata" teaches what the

mature pattern looks like...

The path is not clear...