Tempered Lean, Undesirable Effects (UDE's) Part#1

Many people ask me why I work in such a broad field as processes; then I have to remind them that I ONLY look at interdependent processes (Ha!). For me, it is the fact that the undesirable effects of production processes are something which I have dealt with throughout my career - Production lead, Industrial sales, Technical lead in manufacturing and through acquisitions, machine shops, principal owner, and even just standing in line at a coffee shop. And I have a perhaps a moderately unhealthy obsession with trying to help others solve these problems and increase throughput.

I work mainly in manufacturing industries that produce products - but the concepts apply everywhere you need throughput. In the production process, it is often necessary to make good changes. These changes can be due to testing, new requirements or design changes, or really anything. With these changes most businesses need to adapt and improve in order to keep or grow their market.

This presents a host of problems because process changes can be hard, doubly so for changing what humans in that process do! In my reading list are several books related to psychological processes and habits precisely because humans are a major part of throughput (or lack thereof). This is where experimenting in a process comes into play. How humans work with machines, or Autonomation, is a key concept here.

For example, the boss says, "Hey we are doing this new thing now, get it done!". Well, a much better approach is to spend some time thinking of what you actually want to achieve (and how), if it is high or low effort (and the budget!), and if it takes you towards your goal (What is your goal anyway?).

If it doesn't propel you towards the goal, why would you do it, would that not be a waste?

Actually, a side note, if you do an experiment properly it's easily reversible so if it doesn't work you can shelve that idea for now or park it and move in a different direction, fast. This is NOT a waste, as you now know what NOT to do, which saves time now, as well as in the future.

So, you are ready to try something now, right?!? Wrong. You need to get every foreseeable problem out in the open and see if you can mitigate them or address their root causes. This can be as simple as sharing the experiment with all of the "Ya, but..." people within your organization. It's even better if they have done some basic troubleshooting for you by completing a 5 Why form. Teach your staff how to do this very basic step, no formal degree is required to simply ask why.

That's it! Actually it's not it. You need to examine the normal way and the real alternatives to that, and everything in-between. More on that later in part 2.

So, what do you do in your process to experiment?

How do you gage whether you are moving towards the goal?

What IS your company goal (I'm curious)?