So what is Lean?
Sunday, September 11, 2011 at 04:53PM All too often we hear the buzz words Lean, Lean Culture, Kaizen, and Continuous Improvement, so let’s begin by discussing the foundation of Lean Manufacturing.
In 1914 Henry Ford implemented a systematic method for large scale assembling and manufacturing of automobiles through effective use interchangeable parts and sequencing of steps, which later became known as the Ford Production System (FPS). The strength of FPS was keeping inventories on hand low, but weak in providing variety. In 1930s a team lead by Kiichiro Toyoda at Toyota incorporated a number of simple innovations into Henry Ford’s FPS model, in order to provide more variety and continuity within the manufacturing process flow. Toyota shifted focus from having to look at individual units within the assembly line, to an interconnected system, or more formally referred to as the Toyota Production System (TPS). Toyota concluded that making small improvements at each step within the production line, ranging from automation, built-in quality checks, optimum sizing of the machines, to effective inventory management lead to a faster throughput, and ultimately a lower unit cost.
So is this all there is to Lean? With the downturn in the global economies, organizations are striving to cut cost, while increasing their yield, sales, and the overall profitability. Today the concept of Lean is more and more adopted by organization, in order to rethink their entire business process, working from bottom to the top, finding opportunities for improvement. Making a transition towards a lean environment begins by having everyone on board and promoting an environment where suggestions on continuous improvement are welcomed from all levels, regardless of their position within the organization. From my experience as a project manager, continuous improvement/lean initiatives rely heavily on cross-functional teams working collectively to get to the root cause of current issues and inefficiencies, and finding more efficient ways of completing those tasks considering all variables that would contribute to an optimum solution.
It is important to note that while we may think of lean initiatives as projects, by definition they are considered to be continuous in nature. According to PMBOK, “A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result. The temporary nature of project indicates a definite beginning and end.[i]” That said there are many projects initiated from lean initiatives with specific deliverables and pre-defined time frame for completion. So when working on lean projects, managing scope is very important to in order to avoid new proposed changes being introduced into the project, and resulting in an open ended activity.
What tends to trigger a need for a change in lean initiatives is the outcome of a detailed value-stream mapping, which is essentially a detailed walk-through of the entire business process (both physical and process maps), and questioning every step along the way, analyzing the flow of product and data. Ultimately what the value stream mapping task accomplishes is the identification of non-value added activities. These are activities that don’t bring any value to the customer.
In my organization, after having completed our value-stream mapping task and making a number of process improvements, we determined that the flow of data through our current business process systems which is a mix of an ERP system and a number of custom applications, needed to be streamlined through implementation of a standardized solution tailored specifically to our operations. As a Project Manager, I am tasked with managing the implementation of an enterprise middleware application called the Manufacturing Execution System (MES) which interfaces with our ERP system. Implementation of the MES would ultimately eliminate the need for having to maintain and support several custom applications and also provide a paperless business process system. Information Technology plays an integral role in supporting our lean initiative through application integration and business process automations. In a nut shell in lean initiatives focus is placed on business continuity, removal of redundancies, non-value added activities, and developing a smoother and interconnected business process.
There is countless number of books and articles published on this topic, but sharing our experience in this area would be very valuable to all members. To get you started with the thought process, consider these questions:
- Is Lean synonymous for Lean Manufacturing?
- Can you think of some of the benefits of promoting a lean culture in your organization?
- How do you envision Lean benefiting Finance, IT, Operations, and Engineering?
- As a project manager, what are some of the things that come to your mind when managing projects associated with lean/continuous improvement.
John Shayegan, MBA, PMP
Communications Manager, CWCC PMI
[i]PMBOK version 4. Page 5
John Shayegan
I agree with Lucas, Lean and Agile Software Development definitely share some common principles but in my opinion there are some philosophical differences between the two. Lean is much more general in its scope and can be tailored to just about any organizational function or industry. On the other hand Agile Software Development has a much more specific scope and doesn't get into the business context, in which software development is taking place.
John
John Shayegan
Milen thanks for your insight on applying Lean concepts to Projects! Integrating lean into project management is challenging for sure, but in my opinion certain principles can be adopted. Couple of items worth consideration which I have incorporated into my project are:
- Assigning certain resources with leadership tasks who would in turn oversee tasks carried out by a number of team members. For me this has been very helpful in simplifying the timing in gaining the project status updates from each team member.
- One of the other measures that I have taken in my current project, is reducing the number of vendors and consultants that I would have to directly manage. I have accomplished this by working with certain vendors and consultants to establish partnerships with other 3rd parties involved in the project. In my specific situation this has helped us with communication and procurement.
Reader Comments (2)
with regard to the IT industry, we have something similar we call agile development.
- lucas
Applying Lean thinking and principles for day to day project management work could be more challenging compared to manufacturing or customer service; however the main principle for us should be delivering more value with less waste in project context. By looking at how teams can work more efficiently and by identifying non-essential project elements, project managers can eliminate bottlenecks and improve productivity.
Many people oppose PMBoK contents to Lean project management approaches. I do not believe this is the proper way to look at this because their focus is different - PMBOK promoting mainly best practices, Lean calling for best behaviors.
In my personal experience, following rules (based on core Lean principles) can be very helpful for every project or program manager:
1. The one who executes the work is the one who plans the work
2. Do not ONLY track time/effort or cost; track small promises that you, project team and customers can see over time
3. Expand the project team to include and integrate all significant stakeholders as part of the team as early as possible.
4. Make your choices and commitments/promises at the last responsible moment. Make them in the form of small work packages that will deliver the desired results. plan the work->execute the work->learn and adapt, then start again plan the work -> execute the work -> learn and adapt …
5. Execute your small promises on single-tasking mode. In a multi-project/multi-tasking environment, the most productive strategy is to single-task, doing these multiple tasks in series, when possible.
Many other interesting articles and documents about Lean approach for project, program and portfolio management can be found at: Gantthead , Projects At Work, Project Times and of course check Lean Enterprise Institute for more info about Lean