Lean Development

Posted on October 25, 2005 by John Hunter

Lean Development, by Freddy Ball and Michael Ball. Great article.

According to a National Center for Manufacturing Sciences report, Toyota product development projects can take half the time of US equivalents, with four times their productivity (150 product engineers utilised by Toyota per car programme versus 600 for twice as long at Chrysler).
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As with implementing the Toyota production system, a more precise understanding of development practices doesn’t necessarily help to improve the efficiency of engineering projects for a number of reasons. First, it is not a collection of best practices which can be implemented piecemeal, but a system. Furthermore, a clearer understanding of the system also shines a different light on the practices themselves, and, in many cases, changes their intended purpose. As such, many of the Toyota practices only make sense in the light of the overall system.

Great point. It would be wonderful if more people could learn this.

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Going Beyond (or away from) Lean Thinking?

Posted on October 25, 2005 by John Hunter

Topic: Management Improvement

Continuous Improvement – Lean Alone No Longer Cutting It [the broken link was removed] by Tonya Vinas [the broken link was removed], IndustryWeek:

It’s a dicey time for manufacturers that have spent the past five to 10 years on the lean journey. They and their top-level executives are finding that lean alone is not enough.

Well I would agree “lean,” as it is commonly implemented, is not enough. I believe ideas from Deming that are missing from many lean efforts would be helpful (Toyota applies Deming’s ideas to a much greater extent than those modifying Toyota’s practices for their organization). Those concepts will mainly aid long term continual improvement of the organization (rather than provide short term quick fixes).

I think [what is] also happening is a demand for immediate cost cutting that lean doesn’t always provide. Sometimes kaizen events result in immediate savings, but in the face of the increases these companies are facing, kaizen-derived savings are, again, probably not deep enough, especially with the allure of incredibly cheap labor in China.

I think moves away from lean, that are the result of gut reactions to such worries, are likely. Also I feel that the rapidly movement of managers and their desire to “make their mark” in their new job, results in new managers making changes (away from lean) mainly to show the impact they have (or because they are not familiar or comfortable with lean concepts). Neither are good reasons for changes, in my opinion.

I think the article raises some interesting questions. I, also, believe the practice of lean is increasing. I would be interested if the readers of our blog think lean thinking is increasing or is on the decline.

Posted in Management | Tagged | 2 Comments

Deming’s Ideas at Markey’s Audio Visual

Posted on October 24, 2005 by John Hunter

Last week at the Deming Institute seminar: How to Create Unethical, Ineffective Organizations That Go Out of Business, Mark Miller, General Manager, Markey’s Audio Visual spoke on Markey’s experience adopting Deming’s ideas.

It was a great presentation. He did a great job of explaining what it was like to work at a company focused on applying Deming’s management philosophy. I capture some of the points he talked about below.

1986 Markey’s started providing Audio Visual support to all Deming’s seminars. The technicians came back after 3 sessions to encourage Mark Miller (employee number 16 at Markey’s) to attend, himself. He went to a Deming 4 day and decided the owners should attend. They did and then Markey’s sent employees to attend future Deming 4 day seminars.

He recommended, The Team Handbook and The Leader’s Handbook by Peter Scholtes.

Points:

  • Constancy of Purpose
  • Their business has greatly changed. Customers used to need a service provider to project onto a screen, now they all own projectors for laptops, Markey’s needs to anticipate the changing needs of customers and anticipate those needs
  • Page 141 of Out of the Crisis: “Profit in business comes from repeat customers, customers that boast about your product of service” (Markey’s uses Deming’s books in the training for staff)

    • Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Management | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Types of Pull Systems

Posted on October 24, 2005 by John Hunter

Pull Systems Must Fit Your Production Needs [the broken link was removed]:

Mixed Supermarket and Sequential Pull System

The supermarket and sequential pull systems may be used together in a mixed system, also known as a C-type pull system. A mixed system may be appropriate when the 80/20 rule applies, with a small percentage of part numbers (perhaps 20%) accounting for the majority (perhaps 80%) of daily production volume. Often an analysis is performed to segment part numbers by volume into (A) high, (B) medium, (C) low, and (D) infrequent orders. Type D may represent special order or service parts. To handle these low-running items, a special type D kanban may be created to represent not a specific part number but rather an amount of capacity. The sequence of production for the type D products is then determined by the method the scheduling department uses for sequential pull system part numbers.

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Statistical and Scientifc Thinking Blog

Posted on October 23, 2005 by John Hunter

Another good new blog on Statistical and Scientific Thinking [the broken link was removed] that is discusses the application of Deming’s ideas, by John Dowd. Short quotes from two posts:

The predictions made on the job are usually a lot less obvious and in most cases managers may not even be aware of the fact that they are making predictions. For example, much of management time is spent reacting to events. Some problem takes place and it’s management’s job to fix it. Some process of assessment is done and then a ‘corrective action plan’ is put into place.

So where’s the prediction.The plan is the prediction. The plan is developed in the hope if carried out in the proper way, some desirable result will occur that will eliminate the problem, solve it, or whatever. That plan is picked (one would hope) as being the one most likely to bring about the desired outcome.

Shewhart went at the problem a different way. He was trying to determine what the characteristics of process behavior were and began studying the output of different types of systems to see what happened. Knowing that the variability of processes took place over time, he began plotting time-series charts (sometimes called Run Charts) to see what patterns of the variation looked like.

Previous Curious Cat posts on similar topics:

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Improvement at UTC

Posted on October 22, 2005 by John Hunter

Mike Beck gave an excellent presentation at the Deming Institute conference about the United Technology Corporation management improvement system. I plan on posting more about the session. But for now, here is article that has some details on what UTC has done.

The Unsung CEO [the broken link was removed], Business Week, cover story Oct, 2004:

David has racked up these results despite his penchant for controversial investments that don’t directly benefit the bottom line, at least not within any normal time horizon. His Employee Scholar Program costs a cool $60 million a year, and workers don’t even have to tie their studies to the job. Anything goes, from medieval poetry to medical training, with UTC picking up the tab, including the cost of books and time off.
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The program covers every employee, from the veteran elevator technician in Zimbabwe to a fresh-scrubbed office assistant in Tyler, Tex., with some education benefits even extending to laid-off workers. And, for each degree earned, employees get up to $10,000 in UTC stock or options.

Dr. Deming advocated such a commitment to education. I don’t know of any company putting this much money behind the concept.
Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management | 2 Comments

2005 Deming Prize

Posted on October 20, 2005 by John Hunter

2005 the Deming Prize Winners Announced:

The Deming Application Prize (alphabetical order)

Hosei Brake Industry Co., Limited(Japan) – web site
Krishna Maruti Limited, Seat Division(India)
Rane Engine Valves Limited(India) – web site
Rane TRW Steering Systems Limited, Steering Gear Division(India) – web site

Once again India has dominated the prize. From our 2004 Deming Prize post: “In recent years, Thailand and India have been the home to nearly all awardees: 6 of 7 in 2003, 2 of 2 in 2002 and 3 of 4 in 2001. Prior to this new trend, nearly all awardees were based in Japan,”

Also announced:
The Deming Prize for Individuals Mr. Hajime Sasaki, Chairman of the Board, NEC Corporation (Japan) – bio

The Japan Quality Medal
Thai Acrylic Fibre Co., Limited (Thailand) – web site (2001 Deming Prize)

Posted in Deming, India, Management, Manufacturing | 3 Comments

Eliminating Complexity from Work

Posted on October 20, 2005 by John Hunter

Eliminating Complexity from Work: Improving Productivity by Enhancing Quality [broken link replaced with link from the Internet Archive] by F. Timothy Fuller. National Productivity Review, Autumn, 1985. A case study of a process improvement from 1985.

as much as half of the activities of about sixty people had been to set up and take down jobs, expedite, move material, count material, and do other tasks that were unnecessary in the new process.

Related: productivity improvement articles and links

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Marketing in a Lean Company

Posted on October 20, 2005 by John Hunter

Where Is Marketing In All of This? [the broken link was removed]:

The problem with all of this is that it is based on the idea that sales and manufacturing are distinct entities, with a one way flow between them, rather than hopelessly intertwined elements of the same complicated business.
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An essential element of lean manufacturing is a level loading of demand – or at least reasonably level. Toyota uses pricing to accomplish this.
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It is becoming more and more apparent that lean is a company wide issue and that giving any department or function an exemption leads to failure.

I agree. The company needs to be viewed as one interdependent system not independent departments [the broken link was removed and replaced by a new link] . The system needs to be optimized as a whole. And that means optimizing the overall system not optimizing the individual departments independently.

World class management understands this concept. But so many of our current management practices undermine attempts to optimize the overall system: rating and ranking people, accounting systems, performance goals, focus on quarterly profits, etc. Some have difficulty understanding that optimizing individual components of a system is not the best strategy to optimize the overall system but that is the truth.

Book, online articles and web links on systems thinking

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

What’s Holding Back Lean?

Posted on October 20, 2005 by John Hunter

What’s Holding Back Lean? [the broken link was removed] by Lauren Gibbons Paul (via Got Boondoggle – another new Lean blog):

2. A short-sighted focus on cost reduction

Responding to profit imperatives, many companies are concentrating only on reducing costs rather than looking to lean as a source of greater efficiencies
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3. Emphasis on imagery rather than real work

Compared to their Japanese peers, U.S. management is too focused on the trappings of a lean initiative, such as slogans, launch parties and classes, rather than rolling up their sleeves and figuring out how to improve actual processes, says Womack.

After reading the articles take a new look at Deming’s 14 Obligations of Management. There is quite a bit of similarity.

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