How to identify and eliminate process wastes
(source: HBR “Lean Knowledge Work” by Bradley Staats and David M. Upton )
Lean
3 key principles
1.Relentless attention to Detail
2.Commitment to data-driven experimentation
3.Charging workers with the ongoing task of increasing efficiency and eliminate waste in their jobs
Lean - originated and theorised from the famous Toyota Production System which involves originally the manufacturing work : repetitive, able to be unambiguously defined, requiring less decision making in between the major steps in production.
Therefore it is arguable if the same principles can be applied to knowledge/ service/ office work.
Lean is famous for the productivity improvement through manufacturing or processing time and cost reduction, but is not so much recognised in the quality improvement.
!!! THUS, it is not recommended to deploy Lean principle to the INNOVATION work because the time required to do the experiments in order to come up with new products could be considered as one form of Lean waste. !!!
Knowledge/ Office work - Belief : one often believes that the office work : IT, financial, engineering or legal services involving the knowledge locked inside the worker’s head could not be leaned.
However in some of the processes in these types of work, there are activities that are repetitive and have nothing to do with applying judgement. These activities can be streamlined by training employees to continually find and root out waste.
6 principles toward Lean process/ organisation
1.Eliminate Waste
7 Wastes of Lean
- Defects - ของเสีย หรือ ส่วนที่ทำงานผิดปกติในขบวนการ
- Overproduction - การผลิตเกินกว่าที่ต้องการหรือวางแผนไว้ หรือ การที่ขบวนการให้ผลลัพท์ที่มากเกินกว่าที่ผู้รับต้องการ
- Waiting - ในระหว่างการทำขบวนการนี้ มี ขั้นตอนที่ต้องมีการรอ ในระหว่างการทำงาน แทนที่ขบวนการจะดำเนินต่อไปอย่างต่อเนื่อง
- Transportation - ต้องการส่งข้อมูล หรือ เอกสาร ในขบวนการ ซึ่งอาจจะทำให้เกิดปัญหาหรือความล่าช้าในขบวนการ
- Inventory- มีการเก็บข้อมูล เอกสาร หรือ ของที่เกี่ยวข้อง โดยที่ไม่จำเป็น
- Motion - ในการทำงานมีการเคลื่อนไหวของพนักงานที่ไม่เป็นประโยชน์ เช่น การที่ตู้วางเอกสารที่ต้องใช้ อยู่ ไกล และทำให้ต้องมีการเดินไปเอามาเพื่อทำงาน
- Excess processing - มีขบวนการทำงานที่ไม่จำเป็น
How to identify and eliminate Waste in process
1.1 Tech everyone to ask “5 Whys” - Process waste might be hard to be identified because it has been part of the process for a long time.
To identify waste, one must keep asking questions “Why?” in the normal, regular procedures of daily task until getting the root cause of every activity performed.
For example, Why am I attending this meeting?
Why am I filling out this report?
Why am I standing and waiting at the printer?
1.2 Encourage everyone to look for small forms of waste, not just big ones
Try to think about your own workplace or daily task,
For example, How many e-mails clutter your in-box because someone cc’d you unnecessarily?
How long did you have to wait start a regularly scheduled meeting because attendees slowly trickled in?
How many reports are created that nobody reads?
See things around you and try to use “5 whys?” to recognise waste. Eliminating it will give you more free time to do more valuable and more rewarding work.
1.3 Periodically review the structure and content of every job
Often times the office work is unstructured and broad. The work normally keeps expanding as, over times, one activity after another is added. Eventually it ended up that everyone has too much work to do and often the regular, daily work is filled with low value task consuming most of our times.
Manager and employees should regularly assess own task and try to see how much we spend on each.
Periodically reviewing the structure and detail of the task would allow us to identify and see the root cause of the NOT ENOUGH TIME problem
2. Specify the Work
How to write down exactly how to perform a task
2.1 Look for repeatable parts of the process and codify them
2.2 Don’t try to specify everything initially, if ever
2.3 Use data to get buy-in
2.4 Keep studying the work that has been designated as tacit
3. Structure Communication
How to create and promote good communication among team members
3.1 Define who should be communicating, how often and what
3.2 Create a shared understanding
3.3 Resolve disagreements with facts, not opinions
4. Address problems quickly and directly
How to turn the operations to problem-solving engines
4.1 If a problem arises, ideally the person who created it should fix it
4.2 Problems should be solved where they occur.
4.3 Solve problems as soon as possible after they emerge
5. Plan for an incremental journey
How to achieve the continuous improvement goal
5.1Codify the lessons learned
5.2 Keep looking for new ways to work
5.3 Remember that the lean approach is NOT useful everywhere
6. Engage your managers
How to support and nurture the bottom-up improvement
6.1 Senior leaders must be long term champions
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