This is an excerpt from the book "Five Minute Lean", by David McLachlan - a wonderful book that blends teaching of the tools, culture and philosophy of traditional Lean with a modern-day Lean parable. You can get the whole book on Amazon here and enjoy your own copy.
Where Lisa Pulls the Trigger
Something strange was going on at the Shoe Emporium. Lisa had barely seen Anne, Jerry or Ron ever since they had mapped out their process and found so many places for improvement. If she didn’t know better she would have thought they were avoiding her.
But now they were all seated together at the coffee station, and Lisa took a deep breath and walked down to see them.
“Hi Jerry, hi Anne and Ron,” said Lisa, mustering the biggest smile she could as she approached.
Jerry looked around hesitantly. Realising they couldn’t just leave, Jerry, Anne and Ron simply stopped what they were doing and stared wide eyed in her direction.
“Guys – have I done something wrong?” Lisa asked. “We were making so much progress. If we kept at it I know we could make a huge difference here.”
Jerry slumped a little as he spoke. “We’re not supposed to be talking to you, Lisa. It’s Robert. A few days ago he sent us an email saying that if he ever caught us trying to help you again, he would fire us on the spot.”
Lisa’s jaw dropped slightly as she looked at Jerry, stunned. “Robert did that?” she said. She had expected bad things from Robert the Boss, but even this seemed a little too much.
Jerry looked away. “I need this job, Lisa. I wish we could help, but…”
And with that they walked away, leaving Lisa alone.
Making her way back to her desk, Lisa thought hard about what she could do next. She had come so far already – fixing up the outgoing department, mapping the Shoe Emporium process. But without her team-mates, she was stuck.
As she sat back into her chair Lisa felt someone standing next to her desk.
“Excuse me, but are you Lisa?”
Lisa looked up to see a well dressed woman in a skirt, shirt and suit jacket, neatly pressed and looking at her with a questioning look and a deep focus. She was quite obviously a woman of power. Despite her intensity, however, she gave Lisa a warm smile. Lisa instantly smiled back.
“Yes, I’m Lisa,” she said, only slightly taken by surprise.
“Fabulous!” said the well-dressed lady. “I wanted to come and thank you personally.”
Lisa could hardly think of what to say, so the well-dressed lady continued.
“I’m the manager for our incoming and outgoing items, and part of my team is the mail area over there.” She gestured to the mail area, which until a few days ago had looked like a disaster. Now, the space was neatly arranged, labelled, and it not only seemed more organised, it seemed calmer.
“The changes you made have had a huge impact on our team,” said the lady. “I’ve been able to move three of my staff on to other duties and train them up to help in other areas. They are over the moon, but as well as that our orders have never come in and gone out faster. We’re saving days at a time.”
“Really?” said Lisa. “It helped you that much? But, how did you know it was me?”
“It’s my job to know these things,” said the lady, and she winked, adding:
“I see big things for you, Lisa. Keep this up, and you’ll be telling me what to do someday. Assuming we don’t all lose our jobs, of course.” And with that, the well-dressed lady disappeared.
Lisa let out a deep breath, looked up at the ceiling and smiled. Finally, something had gone her way.
She pulled up her emails and immediately a new message appeared on screen.
It was from Steve, and it simply said: “Yacht club after work?”
*
The sun was warm on her skin as Lisa made her way down to the yacht club that afternoon. Looking around the entrance, she certainly felt out of place here, and under-dressed. This was obviously a place for big earners – it looked like the place a CEO might hang out, not someone who worked in a call centre.
Thankfully, an energetic wave from across the entrance caught her eye, and she immediately felt more at home. Despite his zany sense of humour and sometimes ragged style, Steve seemed to fit into this environment as though he was born into it. Of course, Lisa knew that he had come from humble beginnings, much like where she was now.
“Hi Lisa! Are you ready for your next lesson? I chose this place especially,” said Steve, bounding over.
“Lesson? And here I was thinking we were going to enjoy a nice meal,” Lisa said with a smile.
“Oh, this is going to be much better, I promise. Besides, I can’t stand the food here. Give me a burger and fries any day.”
Steve handed his ticket to the valet who radioed for Steve’s car to come around. While they were waiting another car pulled up – a beautiful red convertible – and two people who were just as beautiful got in and drove away.
“Do you see what’s happening here?” asked Steve.
“What, you mean apart from the fact that everyone seems to be driving cars worth as much as my house?” joked Lisa.
“Well, apart from that. Dig a little deeper – it’s to do with the process,” Steve said, and continued:
“The cars only come around when they are needed. By giving this nice young man my ticket, I’ve triggered a call to action where they bring my car around. In other words, they deliver to me – their customer – only when I request it.
“Can you imagine what would happen if they kept bringing cars around, whether we asked for them or not?”
“Well, they’d have a build-up of unwanted cars,” observed Lisa. “I think things would get pretty crazy around here pretty fast.”
“Exactly,” said Steve. “And here’s the kicker – most businesses are run like a valet bringing cars without a ticket.
“They create product without customers requesting it because they can’t make it on time and by request. And they push work onto the next people in the process, regardless of whether they are ready for it and regardless of how much of it piles up. And then everyone wonders why they have so much unused inventory left hanging around! All of this results in waste.”
“And I’ve already seen first-hand how waste can ruin a company. I’m working in it,” said Lisa.
“That’s right,” said Steve. “So by using the tools you’ve already learned, you can make a process work quickly and work towards a Pull System, where you only create product or move work at the request of your downstream customer.”
The valet brought Steve’s car around and offered him the keys.
“Now,” said Steve as he got in and sat behind the wheel. “Feel like something to eat? I’ve got a craving for some French Fries.”
“Count me in!” said Lisa.
It wasn’t long before they were doing a very comfortable speed down the main road towards their local burger joint. As old friends, it was easy to hold a good conversation. The top was down and the wind in her hair gave Lisa a feeling of freedom.
“So I’ve been hearing some very disturbing things about your company,” said Steve. “People are starting to talk as though it actually might not make it.”
Lisa sighed uncomfortably. As hard as she wanted to believe that one person could make a difference, it truly seemed as though the odds were against her.
“It’s true Steve. Robert the Boss told me a few days ago that what doesn’t get closed down in the next two weeks will probably be sent off-shore. He said they are having one last meeting with the board of directors in two weeks’ time to decide.”
“Two weeks eh?” said Steve. “Hey look, I know things are hard for you right now. You’ve got problems with your team-mates, your job, but there are still a few more things we can do. As far as Lean tools go, we’re just getting started.”
Lisa looked over at her friend, but found it hard to shake her worried expression.
“Steve, you mentioned using a Pull System before. Is there more to it? I’m still not quite sure I understand it completely.” These daily lessons were a lot to take in, but Lisa was determined to learn as much as possible.
“Of course,” said Steve. “The idea is simply that we don’t work on anything unless it is triggered by our downstream customer – whether it is the end customer or just the next “customer” of our process. The most common way to do it is with a Kanban signal. It’s a signal sent to your supplier to say that you’re ready for more product – often with the item details and amounts.
“Take this car for example. When the car needs more fuel, the fuel light goes on. This is a basic example of a Kanban – it is a signal given to me as the supplier, to replenish the fuel.”
A look of clarity came over Lisa’s face. “That actually makes a lot of sense!”
“I just came up with that,” said Steve, looking pleased, and he paused for a moment as though he was filing it away in his memory so he could use it later. “But, while we’re on it, there is something else in this car that I can show you.
“Do you see that USB port? Many cars have them these days, and many computers.” Steve gestured to the dash.
“Of course,” said Lisa.
“Well have you ever tried to put a different plug into a USB port?” continued Steve.
“No, that would be ridiculous, it simply wouldn’t fit,” said Lisa.
“Exactly!” smiled Steve, looking over but with one eye still on the road. “They have made it impossible to make a mistake. For us, we call this Error Proofing. You’d be surprised at how many things in your job you can change so that it is impossible to make a mistake, and the results are incredible.”
“I can think of a few things already,” said Lisa. “The payment forms our customers fill out often have mistakes on them, forcing us to call our customers back more than once. I know some companies have drop down boxes that make sure they only choose the options available to them to save them time.”
“Yes!” said Steve. “There you go!”
“But Steve, if you’re going to be teaching any more lessons this afternoon I am definitely going to need something to eat. A full head and an empty stomach is not a good combination.”
“I agree, we’re almost there,” said Steve as he turned in to the burger drive-through. “I just love this place. Burger and fries?”
Lisa enthusiastically nodded her approval.
They ordered their meal and drove through to the pick-up window. Steve shifted in his seat and craned his neck to try and see inside. “This is just the best thing,” he said.
“You must really like burgers, Steve,” said Lisa, her stomach grumbling.
Steve got back into his seat. “I do, but I love their process of making burgers even more. These guys have stores all over the country, and you know what? The experience is the same no matter which store I visit. Hot, fresh food delivered quickly. Not only that, but almost the entire store is run by young men and women, often just out of school. How is it that these people can make such a world-class experience in their company?”
Despite her hunger, Lisa’s brow furrowed in thought. “You know, Steve, I never thought about it like that,” she said.
Steve continued. “The difference is that they have a single standard process that they teach and enforce throughout their company. Using this, it is done the same way every time. They also make things very visual. With the monitors, the beeps and alarms, it is fairly obvious if something is ready or is not working as it should, and everyone can do something about it. And what’s more, the set timers for cooking each product are a great example of error proofing – it’s almost impossible to get it wrong.”
“Wow, Steve. I’m kinda glad we didn’t eat at the yacht club now. This is really an experience.” Lisa’s mood brightened a little, and then brightened even more as the service staff brought their meal.
“Boy am I looking forward to this,” she said and, before they had even driven away, she was digging into a freshly cooked burger and fries.
*
It was late in the evening by the time Lisa walked through her door. It had been another long day of hard work and hard learning but, despite how draining it should have been, Lisa had never felt more alive.
In fact, she felt as though she was working towards something worthwhile. But the night wouldn’t stop here. Lisa sat down at her computer, logged into her emails and began putting the finishing touches on her Value Stream Map. As she worked and checked through her emails there were two that caught her eye. One read:
>From: Jerry, Anne, Ron
>Subject: We’ll do it. Count us in.
Lisa breathed a sigh of relief. They were willing to help! But at what cost, she didn’t know. As long as Robert the Boss didn’t find out, Lisa hoped they would be OK.
But the other email read:
“Robert: Important Information Regarding Your Job”
I can’t imagine anything worse than another announcement, thought Lisa, and she clicked on the email from Robert the Boss.
But as the email opened and she began to read, Lisa realised something terrible. She looked at the contents of the email – and she read it again because it just couldn’t be right. It was worse than an announcement, much worse.
Life at the Shoe Emporium was about to take a terrible turn.
This is an excerpt from the book "Five Minute Lean", by David McLachlan - a wonderful book that blends teaching of the tools, culture and philosophy of traditional Lean with a modern-day Lean parable. You can get the whole book on Amazon here and enjoy your own copy.
Selected chapters from the story within Five minute Lean:
- Lean Parable – Where Lisa Makes a Change
- Lean Parable – Where Lisa Discovers a New Way
- Lean Parable – Where Lisa Performs a Balancing Act
- Lean Parable – Where Lisa Pulls the Trigger
- Lean Parable – Where Lisa Sets a New Standard
- Lean Parable – Where Lisa Becomes a Leader
Check out these selected chapters from the teachings within Five Minute Lean:
- Five Minute Lean – Collect and Measure Feedback With the Net Promoter Score
- Five Minute Lean – Work Towards One-Piece-Flow (and Reducing Silos or Batching)
- Five Minute Lean – Value is Determined by the Customer
- Five Minute Lean – Create a Future State Value Stream Map
- Five Minute Lean – Put it Together With Design for Ease of Use
- Five Minute Lean – Eliminate the Eight Wastes to Improve Flow
- Five Minute Lean – Use Pareto to Find Where to Start
- Five Minute Lean Summary
- Five Minute Lean – Create a Pull System with FIFO, Kanban Triggers and Visual Management
- Five Minute Lean – Go to the Gemba
- Five Minute Lean – The Power of Incentives – What is Measured and Rewarded Improves
- Five Minute Lean – Use Feedback to Fix and Guarantee
- Five Minute Lean – Build in Quality with Error-Proofing and Autonomation
- Five Minute Lean: Glossary
- Five Minute Lean – Help Your Process Flow with Line Balancing
- Five Minute Lean – Gather Direct Feedback and Indirect Feedback
- Five Minute Lean – Implement With Agile for Fast Iterations and Feedback
- Five Minute Lean – Add Important Data to Your Map
- Five Minute Lean – Make Feedback Meaningful with Kano Analysis
- Five Minute Lean – Present and Manage Your Change Using an A3 and LCA