This was an interesting post from Martin Fowler.
This is more background information and pointers to other people to read for more information. This is my first experience reading about Lean Manufacturing and figured I’d raise it up for others to see.
Tags: agile, lean, management methodologies
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I’ve found the lean manufacturing goes hand in hand with organizational maturation. On an assembly line where there are many repeatable task the workers on the manufacturing floor get together with downstream and upstream folks to talk about their observations and suggestions for improvement. Sometimes, if someone upstream changes the way they work in very small way, this makes someone’s life downstream 2-3 times easier or more efficient. People are cross-trained at different task partly to relieve boredom but to lend fresh eyes for ways things could be done better. For this to be successful, everyone has to be invested in the end goal–making the best possible, quality product. Ego, personal agendas and vendettas have no room on a manufacturing line. At Toyota, any line worker can literally stop the line if they see a quality problem. If there is a line stoppage then potentially all resources/people are involved in resolving it. There are those who’s hands are actually turning the knobs to fix the problem, people a bit farther back making helpful suggestions and those who aren’t involved but are observing and learning how to work together to solve a problem. In traditional manufacturing you were given incentives for total output not quality. Ford Motor Company felt if there a repeated defect on the online, you’d just pay people overtime to come in a fix the problem after the car had rolled off the line! Can you say recall? This backfired when they realized someone was causing defects so their spouse could get extra overtime. OK this is an extreme example.
Ultimately, it’s about how a group of people are learning to work better together in reaching a common goal. Lean Manufacturing and Agile Programming work best with good interpersonal relationships.
It’s much cheaper to do things right the first time!