Social Media & the Lean Business System -- Risks & Opportunities

By Pascal Dennis,

Been thinking a lot about this lately.

Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, as well as, the abundance of cell phone apps -- what do they mean for Lean thinkers?

Seems to me social media represent a powerful new learning channel -- provided we keep the fundamentals in mind.

Yokoten -- means shared, lateral, experiential learning.

We learn by doing -- not by browsing.

If we spend too much time at our screens -- we sacrifice depth.

Depth of understanding requires action followed by reflection -- away from your screen.

Use the screen to supplement your knowledge.

Then turn the damned thing off and get to the gemba, where you must practice, practice, practice.

Social media are marvelous, helpful and oh so seductive. Used properly, they're a boon.

But they're no substitute for experience, for the school of hard knocks, of growth & learning.

Regards,

Pascal

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Success is the Enemy of Future Success

By Pascal Dennis

Strategy Deployment begins with True North -- our strategic and philosophical purpose.

True North entails developing a clear picture of

1. Ideal condition, and

2. Target condition.

At the process level, this means answering questions like:

"Is the process behaving as expected?"

Corollaries: Do I understand my process? Is our hypothesis sound? If not, how do we adjust it?

"Is there creative tension in our management process?

Corollaries: Are problems visible? Are we challenging ourselves or simply resting on our oars? True North works much the same at the broad strategic level.

In my view, its purpose, at each "level of magnification", is to create discomfort, and reflection (hansei) thereby.

Wakefulness, if you will.

Success is the enemy of future success.

What quality do outstanding individuals (and organizations) share?

Relentless self-examination -- after defeat, and more importantly, after success.

As evidence, I'd offer Michael Jordan, Jack Nicklaus, Garry Kasparov, Pablo Picasso, and all great sports teams...

Regards,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

Lean Fundamentals and Grexit – part 1

By Pascal Dennis

The past year I’ve blogged about the Greece’s slow-motion, never-ending exit from the European Union in the context of Lean fundamentals – value, waste, and standards.

I’ve suggested that, by voting No last Sunday, Greeks were, in effect, rejecting Europe, American and the standards of the ‘developed world’.

If so, they were following the lead of their inept Prime Minister and Finance minister, Tsipras and Varoufakis, who’ve made a point of alienating their European counterparts.

What’s this got to do with Lean fundamentals?

Value, waste, standards, visual management – the entire language and mindset of the Toyota management system – is predicated on connections.

Connections with external customers, most obviously, but also with internal customers. Such connectivity entails mutual respect and trust.

If in a production or service line, you are my customer and I am your supplier, I express respect by asking, “How can I help you? What do you need from me?”

Through such dialogue we translate your needs into a small number of binary metrics, put them on a team board and every day check how we’re doing.

Better yet, we invite you to attend our team huddles, say, weekly, so we can hear directly from you too. Moreover, our team is also a customer, and has a similar relationship with our suppliers.

This is the essence of the uniquely human process we call commerce.

Thereby, we free each other up to do what we do best. Throughput, quality, cost and other core elements of value inevitably increase, as does mutual prosperity.

There are failure modes, of course – monopolies, oligopolies, rapacious suppliers and customers come to mind - which necessitate legislation and rules to blunt the excesses.

But the essence of a health market economy is direct, respectful, binary connections and commerce thereby.

Does everybody accept this image?

More next time,

Pascal

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Lean is a Growth Strategy - Reprise

By Pascal Dennis

But Lean is about growth.

Too often we sub-optimize by focusing Lean (aka Toyota Business System) entirely on productivity & efficiency.

And you can't grow unless the entire value stream is engaged.

The system comprises three 'loops', in fact: Design, Make, Sell.

As it happens, one of my favorite Toyota senseis, Shin-san, was a sales & marketing executive!

Most Lean transformations focus on the Make loop, for good reasons.

Waste is most visible in Operations. But if we stop there, we'll miss the Mother Lode -- Growth.

For example, what if we fail to extend our Lean activities upstream into Sales?

A chaotic, lumpy sales profiles will force even the most splendid Lean factory out of its 'sweet spot.'

We'll have to buffer with inventory, lead time or capacity.

Engaging Sales entails uncovering invisible governance obstacles.

Incentive structures are perhaps the most common.

Why do I produce a lumpy, chaotic sales profile? Because I get a big bonus thereby!

We also have to engage other non-Operations groups -- Marketing, Design, Engineering, Planning & Scheduling...

That's what The Remedy - Bringing Lean Out of the Factory is all about.

A big challenge, but that's why we have managers.

(As Shin-san use to say, "No problem, no need for managers!")

Tip of the hat to Orrie, Art Byrne and the Wiremold leadership team, who saw all this a few decades ago!

So what's this mean for Lean practitioners?

Pascal

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Back to Basics - What is Value?

By Pascal Dennis

Value is Lean’s guiding star, Mother Lode and raison d’etre.

So what is value? Here are some common definitions:

• ‘What the customer is willing to pay for.’
• Okay, but what if the customer doesn’t know what they’re willing to pay for? (Would customers have said yes to the IPad in conception?)

• Value = Quality/Cost
• A serviceable definition

• Changes form, fit or function of a product
• A nice manufacturing definition, but does it apply in, say, a bank or hospital?

• An action that moves a process forward
• Nebulous, no?

All of these are correct, in their way. Value is like a gemstone – hold it up to the light and different colors emerge.

Most importantly, the team must connect closely with internal and external customers and understand value from their point of view.

This is the beauty of connectivity and commerce. Work is activity that creates value. Our work enables our customer, who is thereby able to create more value.

The splendid work of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and their teams compound my productivity (such as it is).

Work ennobles and enriches both the worker and the recipient, which is why we revere it so.

(Of course, there are extreme philosophies that demean work, and believe value is fixed and cannot be created. For these, the only question for such is how to divide the economic pie.

But you rarely see them in a factory, hospital, design studio or any place value is created.)

In summary, value is Lean’s guiding star. Get close to your customer and ask them what they need from you.

Best regards,

Pascal

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Greece’s Fatal Attraction

By Pascal Dennis

Chaos in Greece and no end in sight. Entirely avoidable, many say, citing the adolescent behavior of Tsipras, Varoufakis and the Syriza mob.

In previous blogs I’ve reflected on the culture clash between Europe and Greece. Here’s a related element.

Unlike most of Europe, Greece has never gotten over its fatal attraction with far left politics.

Greece’s catastrophic civil war (1946 – 1949) was essentially a proxy war with America and Europe on one side, and the Soviet Union and Warsaw pact on the other.

The communist side was defeated but the slogans remained, and continue to inform Greek politics. Syriza, the governing party, largely comprises Marxists, Stalinists and Maoists, and is inherently hostile to Europe and America.

A sizeable minority of Greek voters – (perhaps as many as the 38% who voted for Syriza) – looks favorably on Cuba and Venezuela. Many believe the fall of the Soviet Union was a tragedy, and look to Vladimir Putin for salvation.

My grandad emigrated to America in 1921, and most of our family followed. My occasional contact with Greek cousins reinforces the above impressions.

Lean practitioners are focused on creating value – services and products that people want and that make their lives easier. We know that increasing throughput or reducing defects in a manufacturing or service line creates value.

We accept the value of brilliant design and don’t begrudge the wealth the flows to a Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. Jobs and Gates have given me this splendid computer which allows me and countless others to soar.

Better throughput, quality, design creates value and thereby wealth. We’re able to provide more products and services to more people, which in turn allows them to create more value – the benevolent cycle at the heart of a healthy economy.

But Tsipras, Varoufakis and their ilk reject this image. In their eyes, wealth is fixed, and the main question is how to divide the economic pie. Moreover, commerce is wicked and work for pay is exploitation.

These mental models also informed another left wing Greek leader, Andreas Papandreou, in the 1970’s and 1980’s as he turned away from Europe and America, and made friends with – wait for it – the Soviets, Arafat and Qaddafi.

As it happens, around that time major European and American companies were looking to invest in the eastern Mediterranean. Is it any wonder they chose to invest in the much more pragmatic Turkey?

The rest of Europe has learned the discount the far left’s siren song - but the Greeks are in its thrall.

The Greek comedy of errors may climax with the imminent referendum. The NO voters will be rejecting not just the bailout terms, but also Europe and the west.

Best,

Pascal

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