This blog is written by a member of our blogging community and expresses that member's views alone.
Various contributors have touched on lean manufacturing's application to other aspects of work previously. This evening, I came across an article makes the case much more explicitly. Michael Bremer of the Cumberland Group identifies where project management and team work can become bloated and recommends several ways to pursue the ideals of lean teamwork:
- Basic "good" project practices -- appropriate sponsor, clear goals, right people on team, leadership involvement, etc.
- Give people some time to make the improvement happen (typically 20%, one day a week), after an initial project launch.
- Establish clear, measurable process improvement goals at the outset, and install on-going tracking measures for a few key elements.
- Identify the key areas for improvement.
- Run some type of a pilot project to test the changes.
- Roll it out.
- Incorporate the savings numbers into people's budgets.
- Recognize people for their accomplishment, those on the team and those impacted by the changes.
What other ways can lean manufacturing be applied to other kinds of work?
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Recent Comments | 4 Total
September 8, 2004 at 11:55am by Will Lichtig
Application of lean principles to project management is much more complicated than simply applying process improvement techniques. The referenced article is really focused on trying to eliminate waste in an office or administrative setting. While this is valuable, it is not the same as the project environment.
The Lean Construction Institute (www.leanconstruction.org) is a non-profit, educational organization that is dedicated to the application of lean principles to project settings. The website includes extensive readings and research on the topic, as well as systems for pursuing lean project delivery. In addition, Hal Macomber routinely blogs on the topic of applying lean principles in the project environment. (http://weblog.halmacomber.com/) If you are interested in applying lean principles to design and construction projects, attend next week's Sixth Annual Lean Congress in Park City! A link can be found on the LCI website.
September 8, 2004 at 6:03pm by Chris Danielson
It's currently being applied to my healthcare organization's Laboratory Services department. We are experiencing some incredible gains in service and turnaround times. Single piece flow and waste elimination (Time and Movement) have provided some of the biggest gains.
September 9, 2004 at 3:06am by Thomas Sortino
Taiichi Ohno, the father of the Toyota Production System, what is often called 'lean', said that TPS was for life, not just business. Lean is really just one more way to package the tools that lead to good management and leadership with an emphasis on system thinking and constant improvement. Shigeo Shingo said that problems in applying Lean typically came from not understanding the activity or project down at it's base elements. When you think of applying Lean to Project Management, are you thinking of applying it to the developement of the project, or the execution?
September 9, 2004 at 7:04pm by Hal Macomber
Where do I start? One of my colleagues characterizes this time of business as the "project age". Our long term competitiveness depends on doing projects successfully not just without waste. One study after another points to a high failure rate among IT projects -- over 85% by some reports. The situation is similar in new product launches and architecture and construction projects. We're no longer surprised when projects are late and over budget. (Think "Big Dig".) It doesn't have to be that way.
The lean approach to project delivery is bringing back the excitement of doing projects. Instead of dealing with the urgencies and breakdowns associated with yesterday's non-performance project team members are finding the opportunity to innovate. That is the real story of Toyota. They've been so successful taking the surprises out of engineering and production that they have the time and attention to give to innovation.
There are a number of issues re-shaping this project age. I'll name just two: projects are networks of commitment and we must optimize the whole rather than the pieces. While neither might appear revolutionary, they represent a fundamental shift in the common practices in the project setting.