Lean organizations have a customer-focused strategy that focuses on identifying and exploiting changes in market and competitive advantage. They have flexible structures which encourage individual initiative and feedback path to pinpoint defects, errors, and deficiencies. It concerns with standardized work and having strength in problem identification and resolution.
The term lean software development originated in a book by the same name, written by Mary Poppendieck and Tom Poppendieck. The book restates traditional lean principles, as well as a set of 22 tools and compares the tools to corresponding agile practices. The Poppendiecks’ involvement in the Agile software development community, including talks at several Agile conferences has resulted in such concepts being more widely accepted within the Agile community.
Lean has evolved over times and its origins go back to 17th century. Eli Whitney the inventor of the cotton gin, developed with perfection the idea of interchangeable parts or parts that can be taken from one product and be exchanged with another similar product in about 1799 during a contract from the U.S. Army for the manufacture of 10,000 muskets for a low price though they were made individually.
After World War II, Japanese industrialists visited the United States to know their quick weapons production for the war and specifically they studied production methods of Henry Ford, Ishikawa, Edwards Deming, and Joseph Juran.
During 1949 and 1975, in Toyota Motor Company, Taichii Ohno and Shigeo Shingo, began to incorporate Ford production and other techniques into an approach called Toyota Production System or Just In Time. But, they found flaws in the Ford system, especially with treatment towards employees as Ford used employees only for muscle power.
Lean is not just usage of few techniques or processes but a journey in itself which takes a holistic view of the organization and involves various phases which make use of various techniques and processes. The process for Lean involves following steps
- Define value from the customer’s perspective
- Map the value stream
- Create flow by removing causes of waste
- Create pull if flow is difficult to achieve
- Measure and validate
- Practice continuous improvements
The core philosophy of Lean is waste elimination. The focus is not quick or more production but, to eliminate waste of any kind which has no value addition. Companies by focusing and following the philosophy of “do it faster, do it better” hide the symptoms of problems which hamper quicker and better production. Lean reduces costs and increase productivity by addressing the root of the problem by eliminating the “muda”.
Muda is a Japanese term meaning “waste” as, Lean is an Japanese management philosophy hence, Japanese terms and concepts are used extensively. There are 7 mudas or seven types of waste that are found in a manufacturing process which are
- Overproduction – An protective or “just in case” mindset usually results in overproduction.
- Needless Inventory – Inventory at any point is a no value-add as it ties up financial resources of the company and is exposed to the risk of damage, obsolescence, spoilage, and quality issues.
- Defects – Defects and broken equipment results in defective products and subsequently customer dissatisfaction, which need more resources for solving.
- Non-value Processing – It is also called over-processing, for which more resources are wasted in production, their wasted movement and time.
- Excess Motion – Unnecessary motion which is also a waste occurs due to poor workflow, poor layout, housekeeping, inconsistent and undocumented work methods or lack of standardized procedures or even a deficiency in employee training.
- Transport and Handling – It focus on shipping damage and includes pallets not being properly stretch wrapped (wasted material), or a truck is not loaded to use floor space efficiently or in handling, setting up or fixing a wrapping machine. Material should be shipped directly from the vendor to the location in the assembly line where it will be used also called as point-of-use-storage (POUS).
- Waiting – These are wastages in time, usually due to broken machinery, lack of trained staff, shortages of materials, inefficient planning, and waiting for material, information, equipment, tools, etc. It leads to slowed production, delayed shipments, and even missed deadlines.
There are other types of waste in other places which are
- Confusion – It is due to misinformation
- Underutilization of available employees (of their skills and knowledge ) and facilities
Elimination of these wastes is discussed next though it can be a long and difficult task, but the results of improved productivity and profits are what it aims for.
Various waste elimination techniques which are used in Lean are listed, as
- Pull System – It is the technique for producing parts as per the customer’s demand.
- Kanban – It is a method for maintaining an orderly flow of material.
- Work Cells – The technique of arranging operations and people in a cell (U-shaped, etc.) instead of a straight assembly line for better utilization of people and improved communication.
- Total Productive Maintenance – It focuses on proactive and progressive maintenance of equipments by utilizing the knowledge of operators, equipment vendors, engineering and support persons to optimize machine performance thus, drastically reducing breakdowns, unscheduled and scheduled downtime which results in improved utilization, higher throughput, and better product quality.
- Total Quality Management – It is a management system for continuous improvement in all areas of a company’s operation.
- Quick Changeover (or SMED – Single Minute Exchange of Dies) – It is the technique for reducing changeover time to change a process from running a specific product manufacture to another.
- 5S or Workplace Organization – It is a systematic method for organizing and standardizing the workplace and is applicable to every function in an organization.
- Visual Controls – They provide an immediate understanding (usually thirty seconds) of a condition or situation like what’s happening with regards to production schedule, backlog, workflow, inventory levels, resource utilization, and quality. It includes kanban cards, lights, color-coded tools, lines delineating work areas and product flow, etc.
Decide as late as possible
As software development is always associated with some uncertainty, better results should be achieved with an options-based approach, delaying decisions as much as possible until they can be made based on facts and not on uncertain assumptions and predictions. The more complex a system is, the more capacity for change should be built into it, thus enabling the delay of important and crucial commitments. The iterative approach promotes this principle – the ability to adapt to changes and correct mistakes, which might be very costly if discovered after the release of the system.
Deliver as fast as possible
In the era of rapid technology evolution, it is not the biggest that survives, but the fastest. The sooner the end product is delivered without major defects, the sooner feedback can be received, and incorporated into the next iteration. The shorter the iterations, the better the learning and communication within the team. With speed, decisions can be delayed. Speed assures the fulfilling of the customer’s present needs and not what they required yesterday. This gives them the opportunity to delay making up their minds about what they really require until they gain better knowledge. Customers value rapid delivery of a quality product.
Empower the team
There has been a traditional belief in most businesses about the decision-making in the organization – the managers tell the workers how to do their own job. In a “Work-Out technique”, the roles are turned – the managers are taught how to listen to the developers, so they can explain better what actions might be taken, as well as provide suggestions for improvements. The lean approach follows the Agile Principle “find good people and let them do their own job,” encouraging progress, catching errors, and removing impediments, but not micro-managing.
The developers should be given access to the customer; the team leader should provide support and help in difficult situations, as well as ensure that scepticism does not ruin the team’s spirit.
5S
5S are the principles of work environment improvement. Companies usually initiate with 5S, for their lean manufacturing program. Five S is a manageable process which people easily grasp and adapt to it. This technique focuses on standardized cleanup of the workplace but, involves much more than that.
Internal audit lists are created in this phase and conducted at regular intervals. The results of audits are gathered and put on to bulletin boards so that everyone can see and follow up the development of 5S-actions. Evaluation should include implemented changes and comparison to earlier months. Audit is essential tool in the progress of pushing cleanliness and sustaining a creditable level of order.
