Do you know? Gelato
was invented in the 16th century in Italy.
The island of Sicily was its birthplace!
The art of gelato making was passed on and perfected in Italy until the 20th
century. That is when many Italian
families specializing in gelato making traveled to several countries in Europe
and introduced gelato across Europe. Italy has more than 35000 shops that sell ice creams and gelatos and
continues to retain the authenticity as one would say ‘If you want authentic
homemade gelato, you have to visit Italy!’
Who would say ‘No’?
Do you say yes to chocolate? If yes, try chocolate
gelato! This is a wonderful flavor and it comes with the health benefits
of both chocolate and gelato.
Leaning on TPS
In my previous post, I wrote little bit about the history of
Lean. Lean refers to a manufacturing
approach or a set of manufacturing practices developed by Toyota (1950s). It was known as TPS or Toyota Production
System. Lean or Lean Thinking is a
term introduced by the researchers at MIT.
All it meant was TPS or the Toyota way of meeting customer needs.
TPS is the backbone or root of Toyota’s outstanding
performance, customer loyalty and brand value.
GM and Ford reported losses in 2006. Toyota reported a profit of 13 plus billion US dollars! In 2007, the
market capitalization of Toyota was higher than the combined market
capitalization of the three giants (GM, Ford, Daimler-Chrysler). Toyota remained innovative and introduced
hybrid vehicles.
Could visitors lean?
Not only MIT researchers but also thousands of senior
leaders from several corporates visited Toyota’s production lines in
Japan. They studied the practices and
returned home to implement them. Most of
them implemented all such practices but failed to demonstrate results! Meanwhile, Toyota replicated its practices
in United States and started manufacturing cars there! For them, Lean worked seamlessly.
So, what is the crux and power of Lean Thinking or Toyota
way? In Toyota, for each employee there
are ample opportunities to find problems in one’s chain of activities or role,
solve them and make improvement. Toyota
employees are nurtured in identifying problems and living with the awareness
that they hold an opportunity to solve problems This enables them improve the way they do
their day-to-day work! On the other hand
the management is committed to investing in its people and promotes the culture
of continuous improvement.
The goal
The goal of lean is to deliver value, sustainably delivery
value and sustainably deliver value fast. Let me elaborate.The goal of
lean or lean thinking or any lean initiative is to deliver value as early as
possible in short intervals or short cycles in a timely manner with high
quality. You should not try to do this
by taking short cuts or making quick fixes thereby lowering the level of
quality or perform in unsustainable pace through unsafe practices. You should do this through undeterred focus
on continuous improvement.
The scope
Every team (from functions like Service Delivery, Marketing,
Sales, Recruitment, Operations, Training, etc.,) in organizations would be
second to none in saying that the goal is to sustainably deliver value fast at
short intervals! How do we move
towards this goal? Software project
teams do this by adopting agile methodologies.
Agile methodologies have been founded on some of the lean
principles. Some software teams adopt lean
practices such as Kanban. We will discuss more on this in my subsequent posts.
So, what is the difference between lean and agile? One of the major differences is the scope of
implementation. Agile methodologies are implemented typically in software projects (after the contract is signed and
project is created). Lean can be
implemented end-to-end.What I mean here
is lean practices can be implemented from pre-sales stage to project or
services delivery and further. Does it
sound like ‘From pre-sales, services delivery, customer
satisfaction surveys, sustenance, to account mining’? Yes. That’s correct.
Is this your
question?
You know the goal and scope of lean thinking. You may ask, "So, is it true that Kanban boards, lean tools and waste reduction are the foundation
blocks of lean?"
Brilliant question!
Let us wait and see the answer in my next post!
Let me ask you
Before we part, I have some questions for you.
Do you have adequate opportunities to identify problem,
issues, and challenges that are directly under your influence - in your project
or day-to-day work life? Do you solve
them and see improvement? Or are you too
busy identifying and digressing on problems that are not under your sphere of
influence?
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