Lean for business

Andrew RuslingAgile Coach

@andrewrusling

2Administration

• Fire escape

• Toilets

• Breaks – Short (no checking work e-mails)

3Key Competency to be gained

Ability to apply

lean principles and practices

to help you achieve more

4Competencies to be gained

By the end of this session, I am hopeful that you will be able to:

1. Summarise Lean

2. List some of the wastes in cognitive work

3. Summarise Lean Thinking

4. List some of the Lean principles for cognitive work

5. Summarise how some of the Lean principles can be applied

6. Summarise Queuing Theory

7. Describe the three approaches for increasing throughput

8. Summarise key Lean terminology

5Contents

1. Lean

2. Lean Applied

3. Queuing Theory

4. Wrap up

Lean

7What is Lean?

“maximize customer value while minimizing waste”

What is value?

Output

Outcome

Impact

Request

Usage

£

9What is waste?

Unevenness

Mura

Overburden

Muri

Non value adding activities

Muda

10Seven wastes of cognitive work (Muda)

1. Partially Done Work

2. Extra Features

3. Relearning

4. Handoffs

5. Delays

6. Task Switching

7. Defects

11Brief History of Lean & Kanban

1950

Toyota Production

System (TPS) started

‘Implementing Lean Software Development’

Published

2006

‘Lean Thinking‘ Published

‘Lean’ first used to describe

Toyota’s TPS

80’s 1998

kanban used on Toyota

factory floor

1953 2010

Kanban Method

Published

12

Flow game

https://www.flickr.com/photos/britanglishman/

13kanban

A signal card

I am ready to pull in more work

Please produce 10

more items

14

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pinadd/

15

Push vs Pullhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/johnragai/

16Lean Thinking

1. Identify Customers and Specify Value

2. Identify and Map the Value Stream

3. Create Flow by Eliminating Waste

4. Respond to Customer Pull

5. Pursue Perfection

17Helping non profits in the USA

Toyota in action

18Summary - Lean

Lean Applied

20Lean principles for cognitive work

• Eliminate Waste

• Build Quality In

• Create Knowledge

• Defer Commitment

• Deliver Fast

• Respect People

• Optimize the Whole

21

Eliminate Waste (Lean Principle)https://www.flickr.com/photos/neshuma/

22Build Quality In (Lean Principle)

Prevention is better than cure

• Use constant feedback

• Minimise time between workflow states

https://www.flickr.com/photos/cambodia4kidsorg/

23Approach, large review towards end

Quality

24Approach, constant feedback

Quality

25Create Knowledge (Lean Principle)

Continuous Learning Experimentation

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mpeterke/https://www.flickr.com/photos/ecodallaluna/

26Create Knowledge (Lean Principle)

Share information

https://www.flickr.com/photos/highwaysagency/

Create Knowledge (Lean Principle)

27Create Knowledge (Lean Principle)

Teach our staff powerful problem solving techniques

Cause

Problem

Why?

CauseWhy?

CauseWhy?

CauseWhy?

Root CauseWhy?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/vuhung/

28Faces exercise

We want you be creative, innovative and have fun with this…

1. Draw five faces on the top row, you have 60 seconds.

2. Pick your favourite face.

3. Pass your page to the left, draw five faces in 60 seconds.

4. Repeat until the page is full.

5. Circle the face that you like best, on the whole page.

29Defer Commitment (Lean Principle)

• Our first option, is rarely the best.

• What is the cost/benefit of working on multiple competing solutions?

30Deliver Fast (Lean Principle)

Split work up, release SOMETHING early.

• Value is realised early.

• Fast feedback.

• Reduce rollout risk.

31Respect People (Lean Principle)

• Everyone be respectful to everyone else.

• Empower staff.

What does being respectful mean to you?

Why is this a lean principle?

RESPECT

32Team B’s next move?

Team A Team BIdea Team C

Customer

5 units / week 3 units / week 4 units / week

Should Team B work harder to deliver our customer value?

Should Team B work harder to deliver our customer value?

33Optimise the whole (Lean Principle)

• Look at the whole system

• Maximise delivered value

• Do not keep all people or teams busy

• Avoid local optimisations

34Summary – Lean Applied

Queuing Theory

Penny GamePenny Game

https://www.flickr.com/photos/joeshlabotnik/

37

https://www.flickr.com/photos/markscott/

• Work in progress

• Throughput

• Cycle time

• Queue

• Swarming

More Lean Terms

Queuing Theory

In a system with variability, increased resource utilisation

leads to an increase in cycle time.

• Comes from the study of communication systems

• Software development has lots of variability

Queuing Theory – Demand exceeds capacity

Utilisation0 100

Cyc

le T

ime

Capacity

Some examples:• Computer CPU• Network Router• Fire Exit• Tube/Train station• Road

Queuing Theory – In action

Shockwave Traffic Jam Video

Overburden, creating Unevenness, creating delays

Options to reduce cycle time

Reduce Utilization

and/or

Reduce Batch Size

and/or

Reduce Item Size

Exercise – Improve highway throughput

https://www.flickr.com/photos/thienzieyung/

Highway - Reduce Utilisation

Q: How would we reduce utilisation?

A: Remove some vehicles from the road.

Highway - Reduce Batch Size

Q: How would we reduce batch size?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/29233640@N07/

Motorway - Reduce Item Size

Q: How would we reduce item size?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/null0/

A: Replace Trucks with Cars, Cars with Motorcycles.

Queuing Theory – wrap up

How does Lean involve the ideas from Queuing Theory?

Should team members be busy all of the time?

Should teams be busy all of the time?

47

To increase throughput: Lower Utilisation

Smaller Batches

Smaller Items

Summary – Queuing Theory

Wrap up

49Summary - Lean

50Summary – Lean Applied

51

To increase throughput: Lower Utilisation

Smaller Batches

Smaller Items

Summary – Queuing Theory

52Competencies

I am hopeful that you now can:

1. Summarise Lean

2. List some of the wastes in cognitive work

3. Summarise Lean Thinking

4. List some of the Lean principles for cognitive work

5. Summarise how some of the Lean principles can be applied

6. Summarise Queuing Theory

7. Describe the three approaches for increasing throughput

8. Summarise key Lean terminology

53Time to share

1 - 3 Key Learning Points

One person at a time

Your answers don’t have to be unique

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kellysue/

54Some links to more information

• Lean Principles explained

• Limited WIP Society

• Why limiting WIP makes sense

• Visual notes from the book ‘This is Lean’

55Recommended Books

56

Thank you