Managing Lean Projects

Ralph L. Kliem

• Publisher: Auerbach Publications
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781498766784
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Negocios y empresa
• Subtopic: Manufactura

Lean is a set of disciplines that can result in tremendous savings and profitability for companies. It can significantly reduce cycle times and increase customer satisfaction. Lean, however, must be applied efficiently and effectively to achieve optimum results. This book discusses project management concepts, tools, and techniques as they apply to

Chapter 1

The Long Road to Lean

Lean did not just pop up overnight in the corporate world. It is predicated on a long legacy of other approaches that allowed it to become a reality, originating as far back as the 1980s, if not earlier.

1.1 Quality: A Short Historical Perspective

In large part, the rise of Lean owes its existence to the Quality Movement that took on, in the 1980s and 1990s, what was known as the Japanese challenge. Much of this movement was predicated on the works of a small handful of gentlemen, mainly American, who ironically seemed to receive more fanfare outside the United States than in it. See Figure 1.1.

Figure 1.1

The dynamic world of quality.

One of the first names in the Quality Movement in the United States is Philip Crosby. His major contribution to the Quality Movement was conformance to requirements. The idea was that whatever was delivered to the customer must conform to business and design specifications, and be as determined by the customer and other standards. He also stressed the concept of zero defects and discussed at length the impact of poor quality as well as the importance of prevention over inspection by ensuring that no defective product or service is delivered to the customer. He coined the concept “quality isn’t free,” meaning that achieving quality requires an investment that must lead to returns. Ideally, he observed that a point of equilibrium is reached between the benefits of investing in quality measures and the costs; ideally, the payback gets greater for every dollar invested.

Ironically, W. Edwards Deming became a legend in the Quality Movement in the United States long after he had become one in Japan. He advocated taking a systemic perspective regarding quality and emphasized the need for statistical analysis as a basis for achieving quality. He identified his famous 14 Steps of Quality which essentially advocate adopting quality as a philosophy that emphasizes the importance of it being in the forefront of everyone’s minds, taking ownership and responsibility for the quality of work up and down the organizational hierarchy, the existing need to eliminate psychological as well as physical barriers to quality, and providing everyone with the knowledge and other support to ensure quality is built from within and not inspected from without. Deming also adopted the formula, plan, do, check, act (PDCA), often erroneously referred to as the Deming wheel, for making improvements.

Joseph Juran is another legend in the Quality Movement. Like Deming, he received considerable acceptance in Japan before receiving widespread recognition in the United States. He is noted for giving quality a more humanistic perspective and he embraced the concept of “fitness for use” and “conformance to requirements.” The former stresses the importance of delivering or producing a product or delivering a service that meets certain requirements; the latter is that the product or service satisfies real needs. Another key concept that he advocated is the Pareto rule which essentially says that 80% of the effects are the result of 20% of the causes.

Crosby, Deming, and Juran represent the triple crown of the Quality Movement in the United States. It was their contributions, not the only ones, however, that laid the basis for the Total Quality Management, or TQM. During the 1980s, especially, TQM provided an organizational approach to quality. The basic approach was to form what were known as quality circles, consisting of a cross-functional group of people, working to solve quality problems or to improve processes, resulting in customer satisfaction. The group would apply a wide array of quality tools and techniques to define the problem or issue and then come up with one or more recommendations. Many of these tools and techniques were developed by Japanese quality experts. In large organizations, it was not unusual for an employee at any level in an organization to participate in multiple quality circles.

TQM was one of the first organizational initiatives to improve quality in organizations. Since that time, there have also been several others that either have capitalized on TQM or risen in parallel to it.

Six Sigma, originating with Motorola, is a statistical approach applied toward managing variation in processes that lead to defects. It relies on a series of statistical tools and techniques that provide greater reliability in the product or service being delivered to the customer. The idea is to reduce variability around the mean, or average, as well as meet the specifications as defined by the customer. Six Sigma basically means that 99.99966% of the output of a process is defect free; as such, it depends on heavy use of statistical methods to determine the appropriate level of quality to achieve; it requires constant monitoring to determine whether that appropriate level of quality has been met and applying the PDCA cycle to determine the effectiveness of a change, for example, and making any necessary adjustments.

Six Sigma has managed to merge, to some degree, with Lean, creating a hybrid known as Lean Six Sigma. Unlike Six Sigma, the focus shifts entirely to the customer. It requires looking at the value stream from both an As-Is and To-Be perspective and then coming up with a series of recommendations for quality improvement. The idea is to remove variation in the flow of the process stream by eliminating waste. Lean Six Sigma relies on continuous improvement as with Six Sigma. The difference is that a modified approach is adopted. The phases in the cycle increase in number and are referred to in an acronym, DMAIC, standing for define, measure, analyze, improve, and control, for improving an existing process. For a new process, the approach is DMADV, which stands for define, measure, analyze, design, and verify.

Failure mode and effects analysis, or FMEA, is another way to identify and address errors in a process, product, or service being delivered to the customer. This approach is somewhat dated in comparison with Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma. However, some of its concepts have laid the groundwork for risk management and quality as it exists today. FMEA is basically an approach to determine and improve the reliability of a system, be it hardware, software, or process. A hierarchical perspective is taken of all the components as they are exploded into finer detail. An analysis of the components is conducted to determine failure “modes,” and to identify the corresponding causes and effects. The entire effort is documented and recorded prior to a system being built. Risk mitigation is employed to deal with any threats to the components of a system. FMEA lays the basis to develop testing criteria. FMEA contributes to the Quality Movement chiefly by providing a way to ascertain threats, such as those related to poor quality in systems design, mainly hardware.

Just-in-time, or JIT, delivery has also contributed to the Quality Movement. Like FMEA, it has been around for a while. However, in the past 10 to 15 years, it has received more visibility as a means to improve customer satisfaction and to reduce operating costs. The fundamental idea behind JIT is to have timely delivery of resources to a manufacturing environment rather than have large inventories due to trying to predict future customer demand or hold large quantities for potential situations. JIT requires a steady flow of resources and information throughout a manufacturing process and today plays an integral part in the Lean process. The reason is that it depends on pull, rather than push, to meet the needs of the customer. JIT, of course, has its risks, due to the free flow of resources and a stable business environment.

Another quality initiative that occurred somewhat later is the voice of the customer, or VOC. The VOC emphasizes the importance of requirements and feedback from the customer to provide the highest level of quality possible, often referred to as best-in-class. The emp...