#74: Introduction to Lean

This will be the first in a series on Lean Manufacturing and Lean Software Development, which is a major enabled of agile processes.

Transcript

Introduction to Lean

Today, I’m diving into a concept that’s transformed industries worldwide: Lean Manufacturing and Lean Software Development.

At its core, lean is about one thing - eliminating waste while maximizing value. It started in Japan, at Toyota, where engineer Taichi Ohno developed a system called The Toyota Production System that made it possible to develop a new car and get it to market faster than any of their competitors. That’s one reason Toyota was able to offer a hybrid before anyone else.

But lean isn’t just for cars anymore. It’s a mindset and a toolkit that applies to almost any business. It’s partly based on the work of professor W. Edwards Demming who worked with Japanese industrialists after the end of World War II.

In 2003, Mary and Tom Poppendieck applied these same ideas to the creation of software, in their book Lean Software Development, which is where I first encountered them.  Also, Jim Highsmith and Ken Schwaber, who wrote the forward, incorporated a lot of these ideas into their work on Scrum, which you may be familiar with.  Some refer to lean as “agile for business”, and while I think there’s more to it than that, it’s a useful idea.

So, what makes lean so powerful? 

First, it focuses on the customer’s definition of value. If a step in your process doesn’t add value from the customer or a stakeholder’s perspective, then lean asks: why are we doing it?

Second, it identifies and removes waste, which Ohno called Muda…including unsold inventory, defects, waiting time, and the wrong people assigned to specific tasks. The idea is to smooth the flow of value from prioritized requirements to delivery.

Third, it focuses the team on continuous improvement. It’s about building a culture where everyone - managers, operators, engineers, testers, developers - looks for ways to improve the process constantly.  Also, everyone has the responsibility and the right to raise an alarm immediately when something is not working or has stopped working.

And despite the claims from some detractors, lean isn’t about cutting corners or demanding more from your workers. One of its principles is, in fact, respecting people. The best ideas for reducing waste often come from the people actually doing the work.

The result? Lean organizations become more agile, more resilient, and more innovative. They deliver better quality, with a faster turnaround, and greater satisfaction - for both customers and employees.  It also allows them to embrace change, which is a major emphasis in agile theory.

Over the next few episodes, I’ll explore the tools and principles of lean in more detail, from concepts like value stream mapping to practices like kaizen and just-in-time production.  For each of these ideas I’ll discuss it in terms of physical product development, and then show how it applies to software development, for those who are involved in business automation.

I hope you’ll join me!