1st Edition

Lean IT Enabling and Sustaining Your Lean Transformation

By Steven Bell, Michael A. Orzen Copyright 2011
    370 Pages 63 B/W Illustrations
    by Productivity Press

    Winner of a Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award

    Information Technology is supposed to enable business performance and innovation, improve service levels, manage change, and maintain quality and stability, all while steadily reducing operating costs. Yet when an enterprise begins a Lean transformation, too often the IT department is either left out or viewed as an obstacle. What is to be done? Winner of a 2011 Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award, this book shares practical tips, examples, and case studies to help you establish a culture of continuous improvement to deliver IT operational excellence and business value to your organization.

    Praise for:

    ...will have a permanent place in my bookshelf.
    —Gene Kim, Chief Technology Officer, Tripwire, Inc.

    ... provides an unprecedented look at the role that Lean IT will play in making this revolutionary shift and the critical steps for sustained success.
    —Steve Castellanos, Lean Enterprise Director, Nike, Inc.

    Twenty years from now the firms which dominate their industries will have fully embraced Lean strategies throughout their IT organizations.
    —Scott W. Ambler, Chief Methodologist for Agile and Lean, IBM Rational

    … a great survival manual for those needing nimble and adaptive systems.
    —Dr. David Labby, MD, PhD, Medical Director and Director of Clinical Support and Innovation, CareOregon

    … makes a major contribution in an often-ignored but much-needed area.
    —John Bicheno, Program Director MS in Lean Operations, Cardiff University

    … a comprehensive view into the world of Lean IT, a must read!
    —Dave Wilson, Quality Management, Oregon Health & Science University

    FOUNDATION

    Why Does Lean IT Matter?
    The Business View
    The IT View
    What Causes IT and Business Misalignment?
    How Lean IT Encourages Alignment and Creates Value
    Moving Forward

    Foundations of Lean
    A Brief History of Continuous Improvement
    Lean Principles
    The Central Concepts of Value and Waste
    Lean Tools Overview
    Let’s Get Started!

    The Lean IT and Business Partnership
    Why Hasn’t IT Been a Focus of Lean?
    What is IT’s Burning Platform for Transformation?
    What Is Information Waste?
    Learning to See Information Waste
    Lean and Green IT
    The Tools of Lean IT
    How Do We Do Lean IT?

    INTEGRATION: ALIGNING LEAN IT AND THE BUSINESS

    Lean IT and Business Process Improvement
    The Coordinating Function of Information, IT, and the Lean Office
    The Intangible Nature of Information Value and Waste
    What Processes and Practices Are “Best”?
    Benchmarking: No Need to Reinvent the Wheel
    Using Measurement Effectively
    Business Process Management (BPM)
    Prioritizing Process Improvement with Strategy
    The IT Organization’s Contribution

    Lean IT Lessons Learned from Lean Manufacturing: Flow and Pull
    Push versus Pull: What Went Wrong with MRP?
    Flow, Balance, and Agility
    Kanban Is an Information System for Pull
    Creating a Level Schedule
    IT Demand Management: The Foundation for Flow
    Lean IT Lessons Learned from the Shop Floor

    Lean Management Systems
    Communication
    Knowledge Management and Collaboration
    Performance Measurement
    Strategy Deployment
    Measuring Value: Lean Accounting
    Focus on Creating Value, Not Cost Reduction
    The Importance of the Lean Management System

    PERFORMANCE: IT OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE

    Lean IT Operations: ITIL and Cloud Computing
    Quality Is Free
    Functional Silo or Value-Adding Service Center?
    ITIL: A Lean Approach to IT Services Management
    Lean IT in the Cloud
    Lean Tips for Successful IT Services Adoption

    Lean Software Development
    The Challenges of Traditional Software Development
    Lean Software Development Basics
    Lean Software Development Life Cycle
    Implementation and Integration Lessons Learned

    Applying Lean to Project Management
    The Value of Effective Project Management
    Lean Project Management
    Applying Lean Thinking to Project Management
    Plan-Do-Check-Act, DMAIC, and Project Management
    Lean Project Management Enables the Lean Enterprise

    LEADERSHIP ROADMAP

    Leading the Lean IT Transformation
    How to Launch a Lean Enterprise Transformation
    Strategic Intent
    Leadership Is a State of Mind
    The Importance of Effective Management Systems
    The Three Levels of a Lean Management System
    Integrating Lean IT

    A Lean IT Roadmap
    People Lead Lean IT Change
    How to Start the Lean IT Transformation
    Lean IT Transformation Roadmap Strategy
    Planning
    Execution
    Setting the Pace for Change

    LEAN IT CASE STUDIES

    Barry-Wehmiller: Lean and ERP Work Together
    Con-way: Document Management Virtual 5S
    Con-way: Focused Value Streams
    Group Health: Lean Software Development Aligns with the Business Strategy
    Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies: Lean Six Sigma Improves Order Quality
    Steelcase: Product Data Management Lean Transformation
    Toyota Australia: How IT Helped Implement Breakthrough Strategy Management
    Virginia Mason Medical Center: Laboratory Order Process and System Improvement

    APPENDICES
    A Brief History of Continuous Improvement
    How Lean and Six Sigma Work Together
    Information Wastes
    IT Service Desk A3 Example

    Each chapter begins with Chapter Objectives and end with Endnotes

    Biography

    Steve Bell, CFPIM brings over twenty years' experience in finance, operations management and information systems. He is the author of Lean Enterprise Systems, Using IT for Continuous Improvement. (2006)

    Mike Orzen, CMA, CFPIM, PMP delivers a unique blend of IT, operations management, Lean, Six Sigma, and project management. With a BA from Stanford University in economics and an MBA from the University of Oregon, Mike has been consulting, coaching, and teaching for over 20 years.

    Steve and Mike are faculty members of the Lean Enterprise Institute. Together, the authors combine their experience in information systems and process improvement to share their lessons learned.

    This book will have a permanent place in my bookshelf. In my ten-year study of high performing IT organizations, I’ve found that businesses rely on IT far more than they think. The impacts of poor flow from application development into IT operations can be devastating: ever increasing cycle times and amounts of rework, and an ever increasing amount of heroics required in IT operations to preserve the illusion of stability and reliability.
    —Gene Kim, Chief Technology Officer, Tripwire, Inc.

    There has never been a more critical time to improve how IT integrates with the global business enterprise. This book provides an unprecedented look at the role that Lean will play in making this revolutionary shift and the critical steps for sustained success.
    —Steve Castellanos, Lean Enterprise Director; Nike, Inc.

    Twenty years from now the firms which dominate their industries will have fully embraced lean strategies throughout their IT organizations.  Ten years from now those organizations will have started pulling ahead of their competitors as the result of lean IT. Today this book will show those organizations the path they need to start out on. Will your organization be one of them?
    —Scott W. Ambler, Chief Methodologist for Agile and Lean, IBM Rational

    ... goes both wide and deep in its exploration of Lean … a great survival manual for those needing nimble and adaptive systems.
    —Dr. David Labby, MD, PhD, Medical Director and Director of Clinical Support and Innovation, CareOregon

    This book makes a major contribution in an often-ignored but much-needed area. It ranges over a huge area – including excellent cases – that will bring IT professionals into the Lean fold but will also enable Lean managers to reach out to IT.
    —John Bicheno, Program Director MS in Lean Operations, Cardiff University

    … a comprehensive view into the world of Lean IT, a must read!
    —Dave Wilson, Quality Management, Oregon Health & Science University