Lean operations 101: In your organisation, in your career and its connotations to life
- Oct 6, 2016
- 4 min read
I will ask you to be open minded, fluid minded and internally sighted as we delve into the basics of this well known but often poorly understood concept. Lean operations is a term used in operations management. First let us discuss what is "operations management". Let us define an operation - opus (Allon, 2013) = work.
In SI units, work, is J/s ,the rate of change of energy. Imagine in this way: rate of change as a person (life energy), to learn, to grow, to think and apply thought is to work. That is why the mind runs from it. Given an opportunity to not think the human mind will take it. However growth is what we all seek. By living we grow. By operating we seek growth.
As an organisation that is how it grow, adapt and change. It is a process of improvement. In order for a company to innovate it has to be a learning organisation. An organisation that empowers employees to take risks. A company that has supporting processes to develop, funnel and implement good ideas. A company with extensive insight on itself. An organisation that manages information and data into applicable knowledge.
Does this now imply?: By virtue of operating you are chasing improvement. Exactly. If your organisation is not improving, essentially, it is not operating. In essence, if you are not growing, you are not living. That is because everything else is changing. Change is, after-all, the only constant. Therefore by not changing you are digresssing. Lean operations is a description of improvement. How to improve. How to become more productive at work, or increase the rate of converting (change) material/ideas into new useful information/products. This is learning, learning ops, leaning ops, lean opus, lean operations.
As we delve into this "how to improve" from the perspective of an organisation, the interesting aspect is how it parallels self-development. The strategic framework that the manager must consider in journeying towards leaner operations is as follows:
Lean operations does not begin with cost cutting, or "work on my weaknesses". Now there are unreasonably bad levels to operate with each of these. Often there is a minimum requirement that will support your WHY. Yes, that is where "how to improve" begins. Your strategic vision, your unique selling point and on a personal level, your: "why you wake up". This is the first to define on the journey of improvement. To answer that the manager will have to understand the market, analyse trends, and forecast growth, profitability and competitive dynamics. Then having established your goal to operate, you determine your capabilities. What is the R&D assets, what is our brand value, reputation and core products/services, our strengths? Where are the things we are market leaders at. If you say "we do not have anything special to offer", then you do not know your value proposition and should be out of business.
"There is one corner of the universe that you can be certain of improving, that is yourself" - Aldous Huxley
On an individual level, self awareness is the cornerstone of self-development. The better you understand yourself, as a combination of introspection and feedback., the better you are able to align your self to your personal goals.
Now we may begin to speak about lean operations. The tools on how to improve.
Tools (not "MECE" at-all)
Quality at the Source: "If a job is worth doing, it is worth doing it well". This does not mean hysteria around perfection. Rather paranoia to at least apply Pareto (80/20 rule) on every single task. Every small thing must have an effort for quality. Every email, every phone call, every calculation, every meeting, every design, every conversation. That is how you improve in the bigger scheme of things. In an organisation this means, quality control on every step. The effects of statistical variance, exponentially deteriorate quality down the line.
Cutting batch sizes: Break down tasks, into smaller bits. That is how you get things done. Not only do you get the rush of crossing off something the to-do list, but you also overcome the "first step" syndrome. In an organisation, this will decrease the amount of inventory within the system. Therefore increasing the rate at which throughput flows. This gives an opportunity to work with more manageable batches. The market also gets a quicker turn around, thus increasing your demand and quality feedback loop. This is what drives your improvement, your value proposition adaptation.
Pull over push: The pioneer of lean operations is, Toyota's very own and "modern day" Henry Ford: Taiichi Ohno. One of his inventions was the Kanban, the minimum packet of work to be done. This was part of the Just-in-time Manufacturing system. It would synchronise the process to only operate on the next piece of work (Kanban) by telling the step before that "I am done, please send me another Kanban". This would in turn get the process moving.
The hope is that this article will achieve to contribute in two things:
a) To plant a seed under fertile conditions that will emerge to bear "priority fruits" of continuous improvement as being the living, existing, operating and staying in business.
b) This would then lead to a thirst that can never be quenched in growing this tree. That will want to learn more about all things and how they apply to the philosophy of the self. Starting with lean operations, in it's essence and applications. Then maybe economics, thermodynamics, psychology?
Share your thoughts, I am curious about your comments. How to improve this view. How to improve the writing. Or your take and experiences on the matter. If you disagree with anything that is welcome too.
Thank you
G, Allon. 2013 Operationas Management Introduction: Kellog School of Management, www.udemy.com
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/what-is-your-true-north/201509/know-thyself-how-develop-self-awareness
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_process_control
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiichi_Ohno
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MECE_principle
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