If You Want More, Do Less!

I have a framed quote sitting on my desk that reads, "Why do you keep trying to push for more, when all you have to do is remove what's in the way." - Usui Sensei

This quote has a lot of meaning and provides some great questions to reflect on as a leader.  Questions like...  How do you lead?  Have you earned your team's respect and do you reciprocate respect?  Do you engage your team in problem solving?  Can you see what's in your team's way?  Are you even looking for things in their way?  Do you listen empathically?

All these questions are good and leaders should be thinking about them regularly, but the question I want to focus on today is the question about seeing what's in the way.  All processes, whether on the macro or micro level, contain steps that prevent processes from flowing.  Said differently, you should have processes that don't stop from start to finish as soon as the pull is triggered.  The forms of waste are the things that prevent the ideal state of flow.  Wasteful steps don't add any value to your customer; they take up time, resources, money, space and the list goes on.  Moreover, the waste is preventing you from higher profit, shorter lead times, better quality and reduced costs.

You need to be able to SEE the waste!

Some people say the number of wastes has grown since the original seven were identified but I'm going to focus on the original seven wastes, which were originally identified by Taiichi Ohno, the late Toyota executive who also pioneered other Lean concepts such as JIT and TPS.  Each of these categories of waste should be treated with equal importance, none are more important than another.  Although, Over Production is considered the ultimate waste as it generates all other forms of waste.

The seven forms of waste are:

1. Transportation - Using people to move material, information and supplies.  Ideally, any and all transportation should be automated whenever possible.  People should be used for value added work, and moving stuff/materials around is not value added work.

2. Inventory - No inventory is ideal, but sometimes buffer inventory is needed due to lead times or minimum order quantities from suppliers.  Whenever inventory is needed there should be a kanban system in place to help visually manage the inventory based on pull from the customer.  Don't produce/buy extra inventory "just in case" or because you have room to fill it with.

3. Motion - This waste is all about ergonomics.  Everything needed for a task should be within arms reach and in front of you; moreover, there shouldn't be any excess bending, turning or reaching for tools, supplies or parts.

4. Waiting - This one is pretty self explanatory.  Waiting for ANYTHING is a waste; people, material, supplies, signature on a document or information.

5. Over Production - Producing more than what is needed.  Have you ever made too many copies of a document?  Why?  Do you double-enter information anywhere in you business/supply chain?  If you answered yes, then you're over producing.

6. Over Processing - This is using inappropriate tools/resources to achieve a quality product or service.  Two great examples would be cracking a walnut using a sledgehammer and in an assembly process using a manual ratchet instead of a quick connect. If quick connects aren't viable then using an air-ratchet is less waste.  In an office environment, holding a formal meeting when a phone call would have sufficed is also waste.

7. Defects - These are any mistakes, rework or errors both internally and externally.  If a product is produced that does not meet the customer's expectations then a defect has been produced.  When a process produces a defect the process should stop immediately, fix the problem that created the defect and only when the problem (and the root of the problem) is corrected should the process continue.  Missing information on forms and forgetting to pass along information are also defects.

Bonus...  The 8th waste is unused skills/talents of people.  If you have someone on your team who has a particular skill set or talent that you're not using then that is waste.  This usually occurs in a micromanagement environment, where people aren't able to shine.

Tim Woods, just remember Tim Woods and you will remember the seven forms of waste.  What do I mean by Tim Woods?  Look at the first letters of each of the wastes.

Each of these wastes are built into your existing processes and they are there because you didn't know to look for them.  Now you do.  Another common reason for waste in a process is because that's the way you've always done it and never stopped to ask why?  Here's a question to answer with your team, "why do we do (insert process here) this way?

When you find waste, stop!  Don't continue to produce waste or wasteful steps.  Measure it, get to the root of the waste, eliminate the root cause then measure savings after the waste is gone.  How much time, cost and/or space have you saved?

Now what?  Get out from behind your desk, talk to your people, go to where the work is being done, look for the waste, map the process, ask why and where the pains are and you will inevitably start to find waste.  When you take away waste you take away pain, confusion, frustration and gain value.

"You really can accomplish more for the workers by asking them to do less." - Usui Sensei

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Sustaining Your Lean Journey With WHY

As Lean grows in popularity it seems to me that the tools are getting most of the spotlight while the core values and principles of Lean are being either missed or ignored.  At the same time, Lean professionals are struggling with a lack of sustainment.  How do I know this?  I’ve been there myself and frequently hear about other lean professionals having the same challenges I did.  I’ve been on my lean journey for 3 years now and I’ve struggled with kaizen that doesn’t sustain, forgotten training and an underdeveloped problem solving culture.  These challenges have driven me to spend a lot of time reflecting on why I’m not getting the results I want from lean.

The more I reflect on my own lean journey, the more I listen to peers in my lean network, the more I learn from lean leaders like Dr. Jeffrey Liker, Mike Hoseus and John Shook, the more I think about the WHAT, HOW and WHY a.k.a. the Golden Circle of lean.  WHAT are the many tools in the lean arsenal, HOW refers to a problem solving culture and  WHY is the reason for embarking on the lean journey in the first place.

Focusing on these three pieces of the lean puzzle will ensure a valuable and long-lasting lean journey.  However, there’s a catch…  The order of what, how and why can’t be changed, but the piece you can choose is which end you start from.  Your choice of starting point, with what or why, will be a big (if not the biggest) factor in determining how far you travel along your lean journey.   Do you choose the "what" starting point for the quick hits and fast results that eventually fade?  Or do you want long lasting and continuously improving results that come from starting with why?

The Golden Circle

Companies that start with WHAT…  Companies that start with what are not hard to spot, they generally put most of their lean focus on use of the lean tools.  These lean tools I’m talking about are things like 5S, value stream mapping and Ishikawa diagrams.  For example, someone (usually an owner/leader) in a company hears about the wins achieved from another company who used 5S, and then tells his or her team to go learn 5S and apply it at their company.  The problem with the “what” approach is that without knowing the “why” and “how” to use them the tools will never work effectively, and if they do work it will be short-lived.  You don’t just use the lean tools as standalone projects, you use them to help solve a problem and if you don’t know how to solve a problem then you shouldn’t be using the tools.  Moreover, you can’t solve a problem unless you know why you’re looking for the problem in the first place.  As a side note, “because my boss told me to” is not a good answer to why…  Sadly, use of the lean tools is what more and more companies believe what lean is.  You may achieve some initial wins/savings but will lack sustainment.  By starting with what lean becomes the flavour of the month and eventually looses its momentum.  Typically, the root cause of starting with “what” often turns out to be a misunderstanding of the true principles of lean and/or a bottom line focus of leadership where employees are told to “go do lean” in the hopes to cut costs.  Starting with what will not produce a sustainable a lean journey.

Companies that start with WHY…  These are the companies that “get” lean and ultimately how to achieve great things with it, not only for their customers but also for their employees, suppliers and all other stakeholders.  Starting with why aligns the lean journey to the already established values/vision/purpose of your company.  Alignment is crucial when answering why, because lean has values/vision/principles just like your company and if they don’t align then lean may not be the right thing for you.  Companies that start their lean journey with why start with purpose; they see the value in positive employee engagement, increasing customer value and creating a culture that embraces change (if they don’t already have one), and then allow these things to happen organically.  When employees know why their company is on a lean journey and have been included from the beginning they connect and feel part of it, not thrown to the wolves. The biggest benefit of starting with why will allow the lean champions within your business to bubble to the surface.  These lean champions are the change agents, facilitators and leaders without titles who will drive your lean journey forward.  Just to be clear, to save money is not why you should embark on a lean journey.  Don't get me wrong though, cutting costs is a positive side effect of lean but if your only focus is the bottom line then you won't have the patience needed to let your culture evolve and a solid foundation for lean to grow and sustain.

Don’t forget HOW…   Whether you start with what or why, and I strongly recommend you start with why, knowing how you’re going to succeed is extremely important to the lean journey.  When defining how to go lean your first priority should be to build a problem solving culture within your organization; do this through people development, regular training and creating a lean mindset.  Remember that training is not a one-time event and it needs to be constantly reinforced.  Moreover, if someone isn’t “getting it”, then look to the trainer and their process not the trainee.  I have a belief that people come to work to do a good job and that no one really wants to make a mistake.  By having this belief I am able to always look to the process for the source of the problem, not the individual.  A focus on process rather than people allows a no-blame environment to take root, which is integral to how the lean journey will succeed.  As hard as it can be in the beginning, don’t blame people for mistakes, rather allow people to make mistakes and then learn from it.  Many regard failing as the source for success and in my opinion it is the only way to grow.  The key to a no-blame environment is having the entire leadership and management team (supervisors too) on board with no-blame.  If the leaders aren’t on board then you need to go back to WHY.

The best part of why, how and what (that’s the order we should be approaching a lean journey) is that it’s not too late to change.  If you’ve started your journey with WHAT, then stop, reflect and start thinking about your why.  While doing this don’t hide, keep the entire company in-the-loop, communicate openly and involve everyone in the rebirth of your lean journey.

A lean journey is continuous, it takes time to build a foundation and it can't be rushed.  What’s most important to understand is that you’ll never get to lean, it’s a process not a destination.  It could take years to build the foundation for a culture to accept, adopt and thrive with lean.  Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither was lean, in any company.  Have patience.  Toyota has been at it for decades and they're still learning.  Start with why and only when you can answer that as a company you can start to work on how.  Once you know why and how the what almost takes care of itself.

Inspiration for this article and the idea of what, how and why (also known as the Golden Circle) comes from a TED talk I watched and book I read.  The TED talk was titled “How Great Leaders Inspire Action”, the book is titled “Start With Why” and they’re both by Simon Sinek.  When you think a little outside of the box the Golden Circle can be applied to almost anything personally and professionally; I’ve even applied it to my hiring practice where why is talent, how is knowledge and what are skills.  When you start with WHY you start with purpose, meaning and something for others to believe in.  If you haven’t discovered any of Simon’s work I definitely recommend you do. 

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