What is the Origin of Lean Manufacturing?

• We see the roots of Lean in the writings of Ben Franklin. In his book, Poor Richard’s Almanac, he writes about the reduction of waste when he writes, “avoiding unnecessary costs could provide more profit than increasing sales”.
• Franklin’s thoughts are further developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor in his 1911 book, Principles of Scientific Management. Taylor outlined and named the process of “Proto-Lean”, calling it Scientific Management. He wrote, “Whenever a workman proposes an improvement, it should be the policy of the management to make a careful analysis of the new method, and if necessary, conduct a series of experiments to determine accurately the relative merit of the new suggestion and of the old standard. And whenever the new method is found to be markedly superior to the old, it should be adopted as the standard for the whole establishment."
• Shigeo Shingo read Taylor’s book and dedicated his life to the furtherance of Scientific Management. He and Kiichiro Toyoda refined Taylor’s philosophies in the textile and automotive industries. As time went on, the great engineer, Taichi Ohno, brought these methods together to form the philosophy known as “The Toyota Production System”.
• In 1988, we first see the term “Lean” in John Krafchik’s article, Triumph of the Lean Production System.
• Next, we see the term, “Lean Manufacturing” surface as the philosophy of Lean is detailed further by James Womack, Daniel T. Jones, and Daniel Roos in the 1990 book ‘The Machine that Changed the World.’ Womack and Jones continued to clarify the Lean Philosophy in their 1996 book, Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation. In that book, they laid out five key principles, “Precisely specify value by specific product, identify the value stream for each product, make value flow without interruptions, let the customer pull value from the producer, and pursue perfection”. From that time on Lean Manufacturing was a mature business philosophy.

What is Lean?

• Let’s start by saying that Lean means many things to many people. It has its purists, its revisionists, its visionaries, and its charlatans. So, it is important to think of Lean as a general school of thought rather than a specific discipline.
• Since the dawn of time, the desire to manufacture things has been a very human trait.
• Almost no other creature makes things, and humans alone engage in mass production.
• We human beings have been continually improving things for eons. Each generation improves upon the last.
• The Term Lean Manufacturing or Lean was first defined by James Womack and Daniel T. Jones in the Book Lean Thinking – Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation – 1996. They defined Lean as “a way to do more and more with less and less - less human effort, less equipment, less time, and less space - while coming closer and closer to providing customers exactly what they want."
• We at Avanulo believe that Lean is a business philosophy that calls for process owners to relentlessly pursue the reduction of variation for the benefit of the customer.
• We also believe that people will naturally seek to improve their environment, work processes, and lives whether or not there is a formal system to help them do so, and that Lean Manufacturing is a school of thought and some tools, that help us to . . . “Improve the way we improve”. Lean is a Meta-Improvement System.
• Lastly, we believe that Lean Manufacturing is mostly tactical, local, and very human. It is not a generic strategy, but an augmentation to an organization’s generic strategy.

Why is Lean an important part of a Leader’s toolbox?

• Rational Reason – Lean provides an educational base, an integrated set of methods, and a vetted set of tools, for operating processes in a way that keeps everyone focused on customer-centered improvement.
• Emotional Reason – The Lean Philosophy extends the operational reach of leaders, increases employee engagement, promotes mutual respect and caring, and keeps the customer top of mind for everyone.
• Tangible Reason – Lean is a competitive advantage. Those who embed Lean thinking in their culture outperform their competition, in almost every metric.

How Do you apply Lean as an Executive?

1. Learn about Lean Manufacturing from a vetted expert. Read the books, Lean Thinking, by Womack and Jones and Toyota Kata: Managing People for Improvement, Adaptiveness, and Superior Results by Mike Rother, Todd Belcher, et al. https://www.dropbox.com/s/qok4zy456b8kerx/JD%20for%20Quality%20Control%20Engineer.pdf?dl=0
2. Make sure that your Purpose, Vision, and Values (PVV), and your Evenness Hierarchy, are relevant, clear, and fully animated. For more information about the PVV listen to the TPL Show, Episode 2. For more information about the Evenness Hierarchy listen to Episodes 12 & 13.
3. Pick a specific philosophy of Lean and train all of your senior leaders in the key concepts.

a. In general, the closer that philosophy is to the Toyota Production system the Better.

b. Pick a noble, experienced provider like TWI Global, The Lean Enterprise Institute, or Avanulo’s Robust.

c. Whatever specific approach you select, make sure it meets these criteria:

i. It focuses on the Voice of the Customer.

ii. Its implementation follows the sequence of physical order first, procedural order second, and optimization third.

iii. It is based on the scientific method – meaning the PDCA cycle.

iv. It includes classic Genchi Genbutsu (the Gemba Attitude, Shoshin, and Hansei) from the start.

v. It has effective and continuous education and leadership development built in.

4. Commission a group of leaders who understand Lean Concepts well to develop your organization’s version of Lean. Make sure that what they develop is aligned with your organization’s PVV, and its Evenness Hierarchy.

5. With your senior leaders, learn how to make a classic Gemba Walk and implement Gemba Walks in your organization.

a. Listen to Episode 7 of the TPL Show, How to Make a Gemba Walk.

b. Read How to Do a Gemba Walk, a Leader’s Guide by Michael Bremer.

c. We also highly recommend Avanulo’s Gemba Walk Training and System.

6. Educate your leadership cadre in Lean Principles.

7. Begin to implement the macro steps of Lean in order with the five principles of Lean in mind. These Steps are, 5S, which we call Zoning, Standardized Work, and Kaizen.

8. Conduct Hansei. Start again. Conduct Hansei at every step.

How do you apply Lean as a Manager or supervisor?

1. Learn about Lean Manufacturing from a trusted colleague or an organizational expert. Read the books, Lean Thinking, by Womack & Jones, and Toyota Kata: Managing People for Improvement, Adaptiveness, and Superior Results, by Mike Rother, Todd Betcher, et al.

2. Make sure that you are fully versed in and aligned with your organization’s Purpose, Vision, and Values (PVV), and its Evenness Hierarchy, and ensure that these things are fully animated in those you lead.

3. Learn and master the specific philosophy of Lean adopted by your organization. If none is in use, find one and propose one. If that is not successful or possible, employ Lean Methods in your work humbly and do not label them.

4. Educate your people about the philosophies and methods you are using without labeling them or celebrating them. Just use them in your daily work as you would any other concept or tool.

5. Learn how to make a classic Gemba Walk. Conduct Gemba Walks and lead your subordinate leaders to do so.

a. Listen to Episode 7 of the TPL Show, How to Make a Gemba Walk.

b. Read How to Do a Gemba Walk, a Leader’s Guide by Michael Bremer.

c. We also highly recommend Avanulo’s Gemba Walk Training and System.

6. If your organization is implementing a Lean Process, fully support it. If not, continue humbly applying Lean Methods and tools in your group without labeling them or celebrating them.

7. Conduct Hansei and patiently wait for your organization to catch on to the benefits of Lean Thinking.

Key Tools

• Write us at [email protected] for our free paper “What is Lean, Really?”.
• 14 Principles of Lean Toyota production system by Charles Intreiri on 7 Feb 2018 in Operations and Supply Chain - https://flevy.com/blog/14-principles-of-lean-toyota-production-system-tps/