[last thread today]
That’s a valid challenge @RonJeffries. I should have been clearer about the difference between Lean Operations and Lean Management. Operations is doing stuff, Management is designing and maintaining the system in which stuff gets done.
That’s a valid challenge @RonJeffries. I should have been clearer about the difference between Lean Operations and Lean Management. Operations is doing stuff, Management is designing and maintaining the system in which stuff gets done.
@RonJeffries Lean operations comes in three flavours:
- Lean Manufacturing or Production, aka the Toyota Production System)
- Lean Supply, aka Supply Chain Management
- Lean Product Development (the one that usually gets missed, that @DReinertsen so expertly covers)
- Lean Manufacturing or Production, aka the Toyota Production System)
- Lean Supply, aka Supply Chain Management
- Lean Product Development (the one that usually gets missed, that @DReinertsen so expertly covers)
@RonJeffries @DReinertsen The goal of Lean Manufacturing is to /minimise variance/. A car with three wheels is bad.
The goal of Lean Supply is to /minimise inventory/. Too much stuff is waste (as is not enough, because process starvation).
The goal of Product Development is to /maximise discovery/.
The goal of Lean Supply is to /minimise inventory/. Too much stuff is waste (as is not enough, because process starvation).
The goal of Product Development is to /maximise discovery/.
@RonJeffries So waste in a product development sense is coming up with the same thing twice, because you don’t learn anything. Waste in a manufacturing context is the exact opposite: you don’t want surprises.
In all of these “waste” is defined in the context of the /operation/ of the system.
In all of these “waste” is defined in the context of the /operation/ of the system.
@RonJeffries To quickly bust a myth, lean organisations have managers, value managers, grow managers, train managers. The difference is that in a traditional organisation, managers manage the work and the people, but in a lean organisation they manage the /system of work/.
@RonJeffries The theory is that you hire smart people and then try to create an optimal environment for them to be successful. According to Deming, people want to do a good job and take pride in their work, they just usually don’t get the chance. But of course management isn’t value-adding.
@RonJeffries So while management is /overhead/, it isn’t waste. It is a necessary part of designing and operating the system of work that creates value, both in terms of doing the right thing and doing the thing right.
Most of lean management is observing, identifying, measuring, adapting.
Most of lean management is observing, identifying, measuring, adapting.
@RonJeffries As per the earlier thread, estimation can be a useful tool in uncertainty to inform management decisions, and to suggest areas of work to pay down uncertainty. So while estimation isn’t “adding value”, it is helping design and maintain the system that does, ergo not waste either.
@RonJeffries Incidentally, this is why management and associated efforts don’t appear as any of the 7 forms of muda (and aren’t part of mura or muri either). It is simply factored into Throughput Accounting as part of the Operating Expense, which we try to manage down.
@RonJeffries Final thought: to get a bit meta, you can think of management as its own system, whose product is the system of work, In that context, estimation is value-adding where it directly impacts a decision that improves the system, and waste otherwise. I use this with managers.
/end
/end
