1st Edition
Far from the Factory Lean for the Information Age
If you currently employ knowledge workers who do most of their work on computers or with computers, access the Internet, utilize internal and external databases, use e-mail or other new messaging technology, then this book is for you. Quite simply, this handbook is for any organization with a lot of Web DNA that wishes to cut costs, improve performance, and stay perpetually competitive. It is for change agents or managers within those organizations who work with information and want to leverage the latest crop of tool sets to deliver on the promise of Lean for the modern, information-rich office.
… packed with new ideas … breaks new ground in so many directions … .
— John Bicheno, Director, Lean Enterprise Research Centre, Cardiff Business School
… excellent … on several levels … … teaches us how to visualize the depth of hidden wastes in our complex information flows and the large opportunity for improvement that this suggests.
— Keith Russell, PhD, Global Continuous Improvement Leader R&D, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals
Very interesting view on operational excellence, helpful to readers without a background in this area of expertise.
— Bert Nordberg, President and CEO. Sony Ericsson
Congratulations to all the readers holding this book! ... These Lean ideas must be an integral part of the daily operations of your business. I am going to get each and every one of my management team a copy of this brilliant book at the start for our own Lean journey.
— Lennart Käll, CEO, Wasa Kredit
It’s one thing to develop a concept. It’s another to make it sing. This is the hymnal.
— Dr. Don V. Steward, CEO Problematics, Professor Emeritus, Sacramento State University, inventor of DSM
… a must read for CIOs everywhere."
— Julian Amey, Principal Fellow, Warwick University
LEAN FOR THE KNOWLEDGE WORKER
1 What Is Knowledge Worker Lean?
The Role of Lean in the Invisible Office
Lean and Web 2.0
Increase Productivity: What You Can Learn from Bricklayers about Lean ImprovementThe Impact of Company Size and the Shift to Knowledge Worker LeanContinuous Improvement: Theory Y, Generation X, and Info Pullers
How to Implement Lean in the Information Age
How to Adapt Lean Methodology to Different Environments
2 It Came from the Factory: The Origins of Lean
From Factory Lean to Information Age Lean
Visualizing Waste: The Factory Process
Seven Types of Lean Factory Waste
Paper Office Lean
Environmental Waste Enablers
Prosaic Information Wastes
Information Environment Waste
Administrative WastesAdministrative Drivers of Waste
Case Study: Applying Lean to Administrative Support Processes
Communication and Transportation: Spaghetti Diagrams
The Sad Fax Facts
Information Age Lean
Visible Waste: The Parts We Can See
Software Waste
Software Expense
Invisible Waste: The Parts We Can’t See
3 The Perfect Information Storm
The Evolution of Information Systems and the Impact on Lean
The Recent Past: The Dim Days before the Web
The Early Days: Longhand–Wang–Printer–Fax
Case Study: Pre-Lean Communication
How Information Circuits Create Waste
Case Study: The Travel Authorization Process
The Present: The Dawn of the Web
Information: The Dark Matter of Business Process Analysis
The Future: What Will Web 2.0 Bring?
Day-to-Day Collaboration Tools
Lean Communication Tools: Video and Desktop ConferencingMicroblogging
Screencasting and Recording
Brainstorming and Design Collaboration
Kaizen Sessions of the Future
4 The Great Modern Office Wasteland
The Waste of E-Mail
Case Study: When Words Are Not Enough
The Waste of Excess Complexity and Process
Case Study: Complexity and Process
Defining the Process in Information-Intensive Work
Complexity
Psychology
The Waste of Reporting
Case Study: The Kremlin Effect
The Green … Green … Red Phenomenon
The Waste of Multitasking
Case Study: Theory of Constraints
Multitasking: The Switching Penalty
Multitasking: The Lean Waste Penalty
Multitasking: The Project Penalty
Multitasking: The Performance Measurement Penalty
Case Study: Measuring a Process
Multitasking: The Command and Control Penalty
The Waste of Time
Direct Productivity
Time Management
Activity Visibility
Four-Step Program to Eliminate Wasted Time
The Waste of High Utilization
SMED and SMEW for the Information Age Office
Overly High Utilization
The Waste of Parallel Project Management
5 The I in CIO: Information Transformation
IT Tool Selection and Approval
Automatic Process Discovery
The As-Is Phase That Never Was: Why the Process Often Fails
How Automatic Process Discovery Can Increase the Success Rate
High-Level Design Principles for Information Lean
Case History: The Boss and the Rock
Case Study: The Spiral Model
Case Study: Waterfall Requirements
Lessons Learned
Knowledge Management
Lean Code Management: Lean by IT for IT
Business Model Wastes
Development Wastes
THE KNOWLEDGE WORKER’S LEAN FIELD BOOK
6 How to Launch Your Lean Journey
Alternate Routes to the Lean Roadmap
The Benchmarking and Best Practice Adoption Hop
The Business Process Reengineering Leap
The Statistical Process Control and Six Sigma Turn
Case Study: Higher Quality, Lower Cost
Creating the Lean Roadmap
Preparing the Road for Knowledge Worker Lean
Selling Your Organization on Going Lean
Argument 1: The Good Idea
Argument 2: The Consensus Approach
Argument 3: The Expert Opinion
Argument 4: The Analysis
7 Model Information Flow: The Information Element and the Information Matrix
The Difference between Information Flow and Process Flow
The Impact of Modern Communications on Product Development
High-Level Process Design and Its Implications for Information Flow
How to Represent Information Flow: The Matrix
Sequential Flow
Parallel Flow
Circuit Flow
Multicircuit Flow
How to Read the Information Matrix
The Uses and Benefits of Infel Design
Situational Visibility
Task Resequencing
Cost Reduction through Task Elimination or Exporting
Identification of Independent Tasks
Reduction of Rework
Simulation Friendly
Earned Value Analysis
Organizational Design
Using the Information Flow Matrix to Identify Lean Wastes
Overproduction
Waiting
Defects
Transportation
MotionProcessing
Inventory
Infels and Therbligs
8 How to Implement Knowledge Worker Lean
Overview
Lean Methodology: A Snapshot
Information Matrix
Process Improvement Maturity Model
States of Maturity: Where We Are Now
Practical Applications of the Lean Toolset
Starting Off on Your Lean Journey: Your Charter, Your Customer, and Your Plan
Lean Team Formation
Team Process
Risk Management Techniques
Fact Finding and Discovery
How to Retrieve Low-Level Process Performance Data
Early Change Management
Doing the Analysis: Developing an Understanding of the Process
Measuring Performance via Cumulative Flow
Discovering Root Cause through Aggregate Data
Creating and Working with the Information Matrix View
Kaizen Phase 1
Kaizen Phase 2
Selecting Kaizen Phase 2 Ideas
Implementing Kaizen Phase 2 Ideas
Special Cases: Variable Dependencies, the Desire Path Approach, and Decision Bottlenecks
Variable Dependency
The Desire Path
Decision Bottlenecks
9 How to Sustain Knowledge Worker Lean
Overview of 5S
5Si
Case Study
Sustaining Information Age Lean Using a Visual Management System
Short-Range Management
Long-Range Management
The Mechanics of a Visual Management System
Approach 1: Excel and SharePoint
Approach 2: Intranet Status Board
Approach 3: Customized-off-the-Shelf (COTS)
The Lean Journal
10 Change Management: Practical Lessons from Monks, Generals, and Fashion Models
Three Ways to Lead Lean
The Rules of Success: People, People, People
Performance Management
Process Tip: Use the Socratic Approach
Change Management: The Soft Part Is the Hard Part
Case Study: The Reengineer, His Mother, and the Coffee
Information Lean Is A Man-Machine System
Overcoming Resistance to Lean
Nonlinear Risk Aversion
Case Study: Nonlinear Risk Aversion
Turning Your Lean Project into a Lean Culture: Measuring Performance 57
Don’t Rely on the 100th Monkey: Planning for Lean
The PDCA Cycle
11 Knowledge Worker Lean: The Takeaway
Challenge 1: Getting Up and Getting Going
Step 1: Meet the Boss; Obtain Buy-in
Step 2: Meet the Process Owner; Assess Commitment
Step 3: Get a Feel for the Process and the People
The Takeaway: How to Begin
What Can Go Wrong
Challenge 2: Creating a Lean Team
Preparing Your Team
The Takeaway: How to Build a Lean Team
What Can Go Wrong Challenge
3: How to See What You See; Fact Finding
Searching for Clues Indicating Waste
The Takeaway: Dig Deep
What Can Go Wrong
Challenge 4: How to Build the Lean Case; Doing the Analysis
Breaking the News: How to Report Your Findings
The Takeaway: If You Build It, They Will Come Around
What Can Go Wrong
Challenge 5: How to Evaluate Information Flow
Reporting Your Findings
The Takeaway: How to Get Your Message Across
What Can Go Wrong
Challenge 6: Turning Lean Ideas into Results
How to Create a Plan
The Takeaway: Moving Forward
What Can Go Wrong
Start with the Quick Win: Low Hanging Opportunities
What Can Go Wrong
Scoping and Prioritizing Projects
What Can Go Wrong
Challenge 7: Sustaining Lean; Communications and Collaboration
During the Lean Discovery Phase: Team Talk
The Takeaway: Fundamentals of Early Success
During the Sustain Phase: Ongoing Communication
The Takeaway: Use Your Web Site to Sustain Lean Culture
What Can Go Wrong
Challenge 8: Sustaining Lean; Policies, Procedures, and Metrics
Sustaining Lean with Visual Management Systems
The Takeaway: Use Policies, Procedures, and Metrics to Sustain Lean
What Can Go Wrong
Biography
Linus Larsson, George Gonzalez-Rivas
This is one of the best books I’ve seen on Lean for knowledge and project workers. Most books on Lean implicitly focus on repetitive processes—doing the same thing over and over—whereas this book recognizes many of the challenges of understanding and improving a process that might only occur the same way once. This book will certainly help project workers eliminate the waste from their process improvement efforts.
—Tyson R. Browning, Associate Professor of Operations Management, Department of Information Systems and Supply Chain Management, Neeley School of Business, Texas Christian University... a must read. Filled with examples, diagrams, and other tips for success, the authors have captured the power of process and updated it for a global, diverse, and technology driven economy. It’s a great learning tool that takes you from the origins of Lean and brings it into modern day applications.
—Lisa W. Hershman, CEO, Hammer and Co., co-author of Faster, Cheaper, Better: The 9 Levers for Transforming How Work Gets Done.Wow! What a book! Welcome to the new age of Lean! This is a long overdue book of the impact of web 2 on Lean thinking. As I said when I received this book for the publisher, 'This book is packed with new ideas, and breaks new ground in so many directions, for a traditional Lean thinker like me! I have been continually surprised, amazed, and delighted at your many new insights. It truly breaks new ground in areas as IT, knowledge management, project management, office lean, and more that have been very much under-thought-out in transferring thinking from the factory to the office.' ... Even if you are skepticalor a 'traditional' Lean thinker you will enjoy the many entertaining observations and sideline comments. My Lean 'Book of the Year'. Easily.
— John Bicheno, Director MSc in Lean Operations at Lean Enterprise Research Centre, Cardiff Business School, in the Lean Management Journal, October 2010...an excellent book that I experienced and enjoyed reading on several levels. It is very useful - filled with good practical advice and tools adapted and designed to suit Business improvement in information-oriented areas such as Research & Development. I look forward to experimenting with some of the novel approaches described. It is thought provoking - rich in new ideas and concepts bringing together classical Lean principles with the tools and capabilities of a modern Web 2.0 environment. It teaches us how to visualize the depth of hidden wastes in our complex information flows and the large opportunity for improvement that this suggests. Finally it was fun to read a book that so creatively integrates and weaves together such a diversity of ideas and approaches and instructive stories into a much needed fresh adaption of Lean for knowledge workers.... just like me and everyone I work with in Research & Development.
— Keith Russell PhD, Global Continuous Improvement Leader R&D, AstraZeneca PharmaceuticalsVery interesting view on operational excellence, helpful to readers without a background in the area of expertise.
— Bert Nordberg, President & CEO of Sony EricssonDo you have access to better web-based productivity tools at home than you do at the office? Is your corporate email inbox polluted with well-meaning but productivity-draining administrative emails? Is corporate IT a help or a hindrance to serving your customers? Do your internal projects spend more time competing for resources and attention than serving the organization? If any of these apply to you, then you must read this book! Far from the factory: Lean for the Information Age is a lively and fascinating read containing several lifetimes of wisdom, experience, and insights. This book is a must-read for today's knowledge worker, IT manager, project manager, Lean neophyte, or Lean guru. It is filled with thought-provoking and entertaining anecdotes, illustrations, and tips that highlight the problem of waste in information-intensive processes. The book is filled with many practical tools and ideas from the Lean Body of Knowledge and expertly outlines how they can be put to use in driving out waste and improving information flow. While earlier texts have done a good job of explaining how Lean techniques can be adapted from shop floor to office floor, this book is the first to truly make the leap to the knowledge-intensive, email-filled, and utterly chaotic Information Age.
— Tim McLaren, MBA, PhD Assoc. Professor of IT and Supply Chain Management, Ryerson University and Project Leader, Korva Consulting Ltd.It’s one thing to develop a concept. It’s another to make it sing. This is the hymnal.
— Dr. Don V. Steward, CEO Problematics, Professor Emeritus Sacramento State University, inventor of DSM.A very inspiring and thoughtful reading for me as a knowledge worker. It is addressing the lean principles for the Web 2.0 in a quest for higher value efficiency of our time, in a work context of overflow of email, RSS, Facebook etc. It is describing among others a Lean process in 5 steps for the Knowledge worker, as well as describing how to get to a Lean Culture and Lean time metrics.
— Leif Edvinsson The world´s First Director of Intellectual Capital The World´s First Professor of Intellectual CapitalCongratulations to all the readers holding this book! It is not only well written and entertaining, it confirms some of my own experiences as well as offering important new insights that give you, the reader, many new ideas to consider to drive success in your business. These Lean ideas must be an integral part of the daily operations of your business. I am going to get each and every one of my management team a copy of this brilliant book at the start for our own Lean journey.
— Lennart Käll, CEO Wasa Kredit. Former CEO of Ticket Travel Group, ICA Bank and SEB Finans.I really enjoyed reading Far from the Factory: Lean for the Information Age. This is a book that I did not even know we needed, but we do. The book addresses the needs of modern companies in a way that no other Lean handbook does. It takes a fresh attempt to ineffective office practices that has evolved in most companies and it suggests methods, tools and inspirations to tackle the challenges. Thevbook gives a good mix of proven lean thinking and modern tools like collaboration software etc. to help restore your competitiveness.
— Gert Moelgaard, VP, Innovation & Business Development, NNE PharmaplanApplying Lean to the office has long been the missing link for consultants and practitioners alike. This book fills that void with well thought out, coherent and provocative prescriptions. In an environment full of armchair Lean experts who peddle dubious wisdom, this book is a bright light, showing how good thinking can advance best practices.
— Jorge A. Colazo Professor of Operations Management at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Argentina Former Toyota Production and Maintenance Manager Founder and CEO - Lean Specialists - Consultants in Process ImprovementThis is a beautiful book knitting together the concepts of Lean for the white collar knowledge worker to a practical guide of how to really get the benefits out of your Lean-project. The authors has proved a very deep understanding of how to make a difference In applying the Lean philosophy in the information age and also the importance to involve all parts of the organization on the change journey. I certainly recommend all my CIO colleagues to read the book.
— Ulf Tingström, former CIO for several financial institutions in Nordic, Skandia/Old Mutual and SBABWe have used Value Stream Mapping as the primary tool for making process improvements in the office, but the business of applying lean thinking in this environment is relatively new. I find it encouraging to see that the authors have developed additional tools and methods and are leveraging new applications that can be used to identify and eliminate waste for the purpose of improving process performance.
— Lou Farinola - Manufacturing Engineering Director - Global Industrial Engineering and GM Global Manufacturing SystemGeorge Gonzalez-Rivas and Linus Larsson describe the challenge of working in the knowledge economy: knowledge workers wrestling with data and information overload, offices and projects working in traditional ways and failing to keep pace with the information revolution; IT departments lagging behind the shift to a Web 2.0 world. Far from the Factory: Lean for the Information Age provides timely insight into how Lean can be applied in the knowledge environment. Practical tools and approaches are given that take Lean out of its traditional manufacturing setting and apply it the Knowledge world. Excellent guidance for leaders and workers in office and project environments, and a 'must read' for CIOs everywhere.
— Julian Amey, Principal Fellow Warwick University, former Vice President Global Supply Chain at AstraZeneca