Lean -v- Agile

Gerry Brame Managing Director Powrmatic (& SFL) UK Ltd

7th March 2007

Definitions
What is Lean? Lean = Q+C+D Quality Cost & Delivery So what could Agile possibly be? Agile = (Q+C+D)+F where F = Flexibility

Who Promotes Lean?

Toyota, Dell, Ford, Porsche, Wiremold, Samsung, Honda, P&0, Ryan Air, Rolls Royce, Boeing, Airbus, GSK, Becton Dickenson, Parker Hannafin, Rittal, Bardon, Toshiba, Pfizer, Bespak, Tesco, Easy Jet, NHS? Nissan, Hyundai, West Pharmaceuticals, Pall Corporation, Augusta Westland, etc etc

Who Promotes Agile?

The Agile Mfg Forum Cranfield School of Management Association of Manufacturing Excellence (AME) Iacocca Institute, PA. APICS Cusumano & Nobeoka Thinking Beyond Lean

What is Lean
Lean is a business philosophy that reduces the resources and time required to complete any process by eliminating waste and making value flow to the customer at the speed that the customer requires by applying the 5 Lean Principles

What Does Lean Promote?

Specify value from the point of view of the customer Identify the value stream Make the value Flow Pull according to customer demand Aim towards perfection
Womack & Jones, 1996

What is Valued?
Reduced Safety Stocks. Reduced Order Sizes. Improved Communication. Flexibility. On Time Delivery. Quality Products, Service, Relationship. New Products and Technology. Cost Reduction.

So What is Agile?
Agile manufacturing is a term applied to an organization that has created the processes, tools, and training to enable it to respond quickly to customer needs and market changes while still controlling costs and quality. An enabling factor in becoming an agile manufacturer has been the development of manufacturing support technology that allows the marketers, the designers and the production personnel to share a common database of parts and products, to share data on production capacities and problems.
Wikipediea

Key Agility Attributess

Goldman et al. suggest that Agility has four underlying components: delivering value to the customer; being ready for change; valuing human knowledge and skills; forming virtual partnerships.

The first three of these are also attributes of lean manufacturing.

L. Goldman, R.L. Nagel and K Preiss, Agile Competitors and Virtual Organizations - Strategies for Enriching the Customer

So again, what is agile?

Technology Planning

System Modularity

Lean Enterprise
Organisation Environment Logistics Customer Service

The Agile Enterprise

What Does Agile Promote

Postponement - Benetton Virtuality Dell Commonality Software Boeing Compatability equipment- VW Modularity VW Mexico

Views on Agile
98% the same as lean with the addition of Postponement J Bicheno Big Marketing Trick by Cranfield University Darrell Mann Not a subject, still a concept Professor P Hines Lean repackaged but not endorsed by Toyota C Morse GSK Conceptually inept without a effective Lean base T Hankin Honda

Reverse Lean !
What is it ? Flow not Tools What does it achieve ? Instant T, I, OE improvements Has anyone ever done it ? Not Documented; but Alcan, Otukumpu, Powrmatic !

Flaws of a Traditional Lean Implementation

Focus misdirected; waste (Muda) not Operating Expense!! Ignores product Throughput time. Minimal attention paid to total Inventory. Total internal focus, isolation from Customer Demand & Expectation. Random Muda reductions cannot drop through diluting confidence in Lean concepts (loosing faith). 5S activities require too much time & effort to be effective & sustainable, plus no tangible benefits to the bottom line. Tools such as SMED become miss-understood, Capacity not Flexibility and miss applied ie;- Implementing SMED to non bottleneck processs. Tools are Tools not objectives or Goals.

Reverse Lean
WHY REVERSE? Massively more effective than the traditional Western approach to Lean Implementation. More replicable of original Japanese disciplines of Lean Implementation Create Flow 1st, Then use tools to Maintain Flow & to Organise for Flow WHY IS IT REVERSE? Re-Prioritisation; 1/ Mura (unevenness of operations). 2/ Muri (overburdening of equipment and people). 3/ Muda (waste).

Lean, Agile or Reverse Lean

No right answer All are very difficult & expensive >80% of all implementations fail Nobody is Lean. Toyota & Honda leading (Porsche) Chosen to suit specific need; - Competition, Crisis, Survival, Cash or Growth.

But do one !