In one of my earlier posts I
discussed about the seven principles of Lean. ‘Eliminate Waste’ is the first principle. It very easy to remember and understand. And, it is about eliminating waste by
avoiding or removing activities that do not add value to business or contribute
to customer or improve productivity.
I am sure you have heard of ‘Toyota
3M Model’. It focuses on eradicating
the three enemies of Lean. Three enemies are Muda, Muri and Mura. These are
Japanese words. Muda means waste. Muri means overburden and Mura means
unevenness.
Let us pause on Muda, Muri and Mura and move to a different world for a while. Well, in the world of cherries,
it is worth knowing about a cherry that is Mini (small in size), Marvelous
(awesome) and Memorable (outstanding and unforgettable). It is nothing but the amarena cherry. Amarena is a dark colored cherry from the Bologna
and Modena regions of Italy. Amarena cherries are a good source of vitamin C,
potassium, magnesium and iron. Also they are free of fat, and sodium. Some experts claim that Amarena cherries
prevent heart diseases and cancer. Try Amarena gelato! I am sure you will like
its unique flavor and delicacy. In every scoop you will find one or two whole
cherries that are really chewy and delicious!
Coming back to ‘Toyota 3M Model’,
Muda comprises of seven types of wastes plus an additional one (non-utilized
skills). Remember the acronym DOWNTIME
to remember these seven plus one wastes.
As listed here in this table, these wastes are applicable to our
industry too.
#
|
Manufacturing
Industry
|
Software
Industry
|
1
|
Defects
- product defects, process
defects, tool defects
|
Defects – all type of defects
|
2
|
Overproduction – producing more units than what
customer has ordered
|
Implementing features that may go unused
|
3
|
Waiting – waiting of workers, production units,
or process steps
|
In effective dependency management
|
4
|
Non-utilized Skills
|
A team member or a skill that remains non-utilized
|
5
|
Transportation – Movement of products across
locations
|
Avoidable travel or transportation or hand-offs
|
6
|
Inventories -
Excess inventory of parts, tools, etc.
|
Partially done work (WIP items)
|
7
|
Motion – Avoidable physical movement of team
members
|
Task switching, multi-tasking
|
8
|
Excess Processing
|
Too many features, rework, relearning
|
Muri or overburden happens when
machines or team members are over utilized beyond their limits. This may lead to breakdown of machines or
absenteeism of team members. In software
industry it happens when we run a high-end software on a low-end computer with
bare minimum configuration – the machine eventually slows down and
crashes. Also, it happens when we allow
or make our team members stretch beyond limits by letting them putting extra
hours. This leads to health issues, dissatisfaction and absenteeism.
Mura or unevenness happens
because of fluctuations in customer demand or fluctuations in the service
levels offered by third parties. In
software projects, unevenness can happen because of fluctuations in scope or
insufficient backlog or too many changes.
This can lead to overburden or Muri and cause Muda or wastes.
How do we observe and apply these
in software projects? Let me share four examples with you.
- Lack of collaboration and mindless reporting of defects can cause unevenness and over burden. This happens in large projects where there is an independent verification team. So, it is worth examining, ‘Is this bug worth reporting?’ and collaborate with team members. Mindful bug reporting is a reflection of lean thinking in software project teams.
- Sometimes documentation destroys value. It is worth understanding how Agile teams focus on documentation in order to optimize documentation efforts.
- In some projects, some of the underlying tools used by project teams may lead to value erosion. So, it is worth understanding when tools destroy value and avoid such situations.
- Lack of data discipline may lead to waste or rework in the form of retesting or unnoticed defects.
