improving

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From The Mind of War

He also came to appreciate the routine practice and repetition that was required to become really good at something and to overcome the boredom by focusing on minute improvements.

From Taiichi Ohno's workplace management

Once he asked me how the terms kaizen and kairyo (reform) were differentiated in the West. I said that while kaizen means to make improvements by using brains, kairyo means to make improvements by using money, and that in the West, most managers only think of improvement in terms of money. [Massaki Imai]

From Nudge

The best way to help Humans improve their performance is to provide feedback.

From Becoming a Technical Leader

People improve their performance not by amputating their old behaviors, but by adding new ones.

From The Toyota Way

Extra inventory hides problems... Ohno considered the fundamental waste to be overproduction, since it causes most of the other wastes… big buffers (inventory between processes) lead to other suboptimal behaviour, like reducing your motivation to continuously improve your operation.

From Smart Swarm

If individuals in a group are prompted to make small changes to a shared structure that inspires others to improve it even further, the structure becomes an active player in the creative process.

From Peopleware

The more you improve the way you go about your work, the harder the work will be.

The paradox of the CMM is that process improvement is good, but process improvement programs aren't, or at least they often aren't.

From Implementing Lean Software Development

The paradox is that in our zeal to improve the predictability of software development, we have institutionalized practices that have had the opposite effect. We create a plan, and then we act on that plan as if it embodies an accurate prediction of the future.

From Dr Deming

To improve output, production, sales, profit, quality, or any other important factor, every part of the organization had to improve.

From Toyota Kata

The improvement kata does not come to life in an organisation simply because it is a good idea.

In many cases the normal operating condition of an organisation - its nature - is not improving.

At Toyota, improving and managing are one and the same.

From Certain to Win

If a just-in-time production line had to wait for a formal decision process to work, it would hardly move at all, and it would never improve.

From Toyota Production System

Improvement is eternal and infinite.

From Quality Software Management: Vol 4. Anticipating Change

You need stability in order to make improvements.

Testing to improve, not to prove.

If leadership improves then the culture must improve.

Taiichi Ohno's workplace management

is an excellent book by Taiichi Ohno (isbn 978-0-07-180801-9). As usual I'm going to quote from a few pages:

When I was a middle school student in the old system, we studied the Chinese classics, and during this class we learned from the Analects of Confucius. In these writings Confucious says, "The wise will mend their ways" and "The wise man should not hesitate to correct themselves."... Confucius was saying that we should change gracefully... I think his words mean that in the end it is not good if you hold onto your ideas too strongly and try stubbornly to justify them.

When we said we would set up a centralized grinding operation, one experienced worker said, "No, we tried that during the war, but it failed. That's why we do it the way we do now." [I said] "I did not see it fail during the war. Show me again how it fails. If I am persuaded by this, I will let you continue doing it the way you do it now."

If you asked me, "What is the most important part of production control?" I would say it is to limit overproduction.

The kanban was a slip that indicated how many pieces they were coming to get, so that if they were going to take ten parts this became a production instruction slip directing the production line to make ten pieces.

When lot sizes are small, you need to do changeovers more frequently.

Stopping the line causes a great loss, so this forces us to think, "How do we keep them from stopping the line?" and this results in more and more quality kaizen.

You can only really tell what is better based on results.

Accounting cannot do any cost reduction... The shop floor reduces inventory. This money goes to the bank... Instead, accounting thinks it just needs to allocate cost savings targets.

There is something called standard work, but standards should be changing constantly. Instead, if you think of the standard as the best you can do, it's all over. The standard is only a baseline for doing further kaizen. It is kaiaku if things get worse than now, and it is kaizen if things get better than now. Standards are set arbitrarily by humans so how can they not change?

You must create a standard for comparison.

Drop a nut once and pick it up. Working at the average time is like trying to catch the nut halfway because letting it drop all the way down takes too long... There is no such thing as average value in this world.

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the old masters, seek instead what these masters sought. [Matsu Basho 1644-1694]

Once he asked me how the terms kaizen and kairyo (reform) were differentiated in the West. I said that while kaizen means to make improvements by using brains, kairyo means to make improvements by using money, and that in the West, most managers only think of improvement in terms of money. [Massaki Imai]

Let the flow manage the processes, and not let management manage the flow.

The aim of kanban is to make troubles come to the surface and link them to kaizen activity. I tell people, "Let idle people play rather than do unnecessary work."

The production line that never stops is either excellent or terrible.

Costs exist to be reduced, not to be calculated.

the right stuff

is an excellent book by Tom Wolfe (isbn 978-0-099-47937-6). A marvelous tale of courage. As usual I'm going to quote from a few pages:

In the military they always said "flight test" and not "test flying".

Once the theorem and the corollary was understood, the Navy's statistics about one in every four Navy aviators dying meant nothing. The figures were averages, and averages applied to those with the average stuff.

What people were seeing on television were, in fact, ordinary test events. Blown engines were par for the course in testing aircraft prototypes and were inevitable in testing an entirely new propulsion system, such as jet or rocket engines.

Conrad stares at the piece of [blank] paper and then looks up at the man and says in a wary tone, as if he fears a trick: "But it's upside down."

This obsession with active control, it was argued, would only tend to cause problems on Mercury flights. What was required was a man whose main talent was for doing nothing under stress.

The boys' response, however, had not been resignation or anything close to it. No, the engineers now looked on, eyebrows arched, as the guinea pigs set about altering the experiment.

The esprit throughout NASA was tremendous... Bureaucratic lines no longer meant anything. Anyone in Project Mercury could immediately get to see anybody else about any problem that came up.

They had barely moved the first stick of furniture in when the tour buses started arriving, plus the freelance tourists in cars. ... Sometimes people would get out and grab a handful of grass from your lawn. They'd get back on the bus with their miserable little green sprouts sticking out of their fingers. They believed in magic.

Herein the world was divided into those who had it and those who did not.

the teachings of don juan

is an excellent book by Carlos Castaneda (isbn 978-0140192384). As usual I'm going to quote from a few pages

By experiencing other worlds, then, we see our own for what it is and are thereby enabled also to see fleetingly what the real world, the one between our own cultural construct and those other worlds, must in fact be like.

There is nothing wrong with being afraid. When you fear, you see things in a different way.

Fear is the first natural enemy a man must overcome on his path to knowledge.

You dwell upon yourself too much. That's the trouble. And that produces a terrible fatigue.

Are you angry at me don Juan? I asked when he returned.
He seemed surprised at my question.
No! I'm never angry at anybody! No human being can do anything important enough for that. You get angry at people when you feel their acts are important. I don't feel that way any longer.

What will happen to the man if he runs away in fear?
Nothing happens to him except that he will never learn.
He will never become a man of knowledge. He will perhaps be a bully or a harmless, scared man, at any rate, he will be a defeated man. His first enemy will have put an end to his cravings.
And what must he do to overcome fear?
The answer is very simple. He must not run away. He must defy his fear, and in spite of it he must take the next step in learning, and the next, and the next. He must be fully afraid, and yet he must not stop. That is the rule! And a moment will come when his first enemy retreats. The man begins to feel sure of himself. His intent becomes stronger. Learning is no longer a terrifying task. When this joyous moment comes, the man can say without hesitation that he had defeated his first natural enemy.
Does it happen at once, don Juan, or little by little?
It happens little by little, and yet the fear is vanquished suddenly and fast. But won't the man be afraid again if something new happens to him? No. Once a man has vanquished fear, he is free from it for the rest of his life because, instead of fear, he has acquired clarity - a clarity of mind which erases fear. By then a man knows his desires; he knows how to satisfy those desires. He can anticipate the new steps of learning, and a sharp clarity surrounds everything. The man feels that nothing is concealed.

The freedom to choose a path imparted a sense of direction through the expression of personal inclinations.

Exertion entailed not only drama, but also the need of efficacy. Exertion had to be effective; it had to possess the quality of being properly channelled, of being suitable.

To become a man of knowledge was a task that could not be fully achieved; rather, it was an unceasing process comprising (1) the idea that one had to renew the quest of becoming a man of knowledge; (2) the idea of one's impermanency; and (3) the idea that one had to follow the path with heart.

zen bow, zen arrow

Is an excellent book by John Stevens, isbn 978-1-59030-442-6. As usual I'm going to quote from a few pages:

He never missed a day of teaching, regardless of the weather, and would often sit for hours in the dojo watching and instructing, even if it was freezing outside.

Gratitude will make you brave.

Learn from a teacher everything he or she has, all the way - that is the real secret of training that will give you great results.

Self-reflection encourages great bravery. Rationalization is your greatest enemy.

Fostering the spirit is painful, hard work; shoot each shot as if your life depended on it.

The essence of Buddhism is not meditation or liberation from samsara. It is kenso, "seeing into your nature."

Do your best at each and every thing. That is the key to success. Learn one thing well and you will learn how to understand ten thousand things.

The two greatest virtues: self-control and returning kindness.

Human beings always cling to things. Practice begins when you stop clinging.

One day of effort is one day of bliss; One day of sloth is a hundred years of regret.

Slack

is the title of an excellent book by Tom DeMarco. This second snippet (here's the first) continues my tactic of rereading good books several times. As usual I'm going to quote from a few pages:

Talented managers are ... all sense organ, constantly attuned to the effect their leadership is having on their people ... Managers without such talent find themselves relying on formulas and "principles" of management. They reason, "This thing I'm trying to do should work; the fact that it isn't working probably suggests that I'm doing it half-heartedly." And so they do more of whatever they've been doing.

When the new automation is in place, there is less total work to be done by the human worker, but what work is left is harder. That is the paradox of automation: It makes the work harder, not easier.

In my experience, standard processes for knowledge work are almost always empty at their center.

The power you've granted is the power to err. If that person messes up, you take the consequences. Looked at from the opposite perspective, it is this capacity to injure the person above you that makes empowerment work.

When there is neither time nor staff to cope with work that runs more slowly than expected, then the cost of lateness is paid out of quality. There is no other degree of freedom.

... voluminous documentation of everything that will hold still for it.

Successful change can only come about in the context of a clear understanding of what may never change, what the organization stands for... the organization's culture... If nothing is declared unchangeable, then the organization will resist all change. When there is no defining vision, the only way the organization can define itself is its stasis.

stuka pilot

is an excellent book by Hans Ulrich Rudel (isbn 978-1908476876). As usual I'm going to quote from a few pages:

He tells me that a large scale offensive is in preparation in my sector... approximately three hundred tanks are to be employed in this operation... The number three hundred flabbergasts me... I reply that I find some difficulty in believing it... He says to me, half in earnest, half in jest: "If I didn't know you, for two pins I would have you put under arrest for saying such a thing. But we will soon find out." He goes to the telephone and is connected with the Chief of the General Staff. "You have just given the Fuhrer the figure of three hundred tanks for operation X." "Yes I did." "I want to know the names of the divisions concerned with their present strength in tanks. I have somebody with me who is well acquainted with the position." ... the Chief of the General Staff has the bad luck to begin with the 14th armoured division. He says it has sixty tanks. Goering can hardly contain himself. "My man reports that the 14th has one!" A lengthy silence at the other end of the line. "When did he leave the front?" "Four days ago." Again silence. Then "Forty tanks are still on their way to the front. The rest are in repair shops on the line of communications, but will certainly reach their units by zero day, so that the figures are correct." He has the same answer for the other divisions. The Reichsmarschall slams down the receiver in a rage. "That is how it is!" The Fuhrer is given a totally false picture based on incorrect data and is surprised when operations do not have the success expected... The South Eastern zone with its network of communications is being incessantly blanketed by the enemy's bomber formations. Who knows how many of those forty tanks, for example, will ever reach the front or when? Who can say if the repair shops will get their spare parts in time and if they will be able to complete their repairs within the specified time?

In ministries and departments, however, mistakes are denied on principle.

Another confirmation of the truth of our old Stuka maxim: "Nothing comes off - except what you have practised."

We have long since ceased to develop practice from theory; we do just the opposite.

The fitters have their hands full, for the aircraft have been heavily damaged by flak. The life of such an aeroplane will always be limited.

Little by little I discover all the tricks. Skill is often the result of getting hurt.

I now see that perfectly plainly. We are alone to possess this knowledge; the responsibility is ours.

certain to win

is an excellent book by Chet Richards (isbn 1-4134-5376-7). As usual I'm going to quote from a few pages:

Man is the child of custom, not the child of his ancestors. [Ibn Khaldun, 1377 A.D.]

Financially massive organizations warp the environment they inhabit much like the way gravitationally massive bodies warp space-time in physics.

Since what you're looking for is mistakes, a general rule is that bad news is the only kind that will do you any good.

A similar effect, a breakdown in the quality of energy, is well known to students of physics as "entropy". The energy is still there, but it isn't available for doing work. The insidious thing about entropy is that within a closed system, it always increases. In other words, closed systems run down.

The more you try to control people, the less control you get.

If a just-in-time production line had to wait for a formal decision process to work, it would hardly move at all, and it would never improve.

Complex methodologies can turn the attention of the company inwards.

We polish individual techniques and also train as a group.

It is not a matter of "getting it", it's a matter of doing it.

Mutual trust comes from mutual experience.

Most readers are familiar with the dualities that seem to inhabit everything oriental, the best known being the yin / yang. Yin signifies such things as endurance and the maintenance of the present states, while yang represents vitality and change. In the Taoist cosmology that underlies eastern strategy, neither can exist without the other, and the familiar symbol shows each depending on and containing the seed of the other.

security scan kanban

There's something about the typical kanban board I see that feels wrong. Let me try to explain. It's to do with what kanban means; what a kanban is. A true kanban is a physical thing used to regulate supply and demand. For example, consider putting your hand-luggage through an airport security scanner. You put your hand-luggage into empty trays. The trays go through the scanner. At the other side you take your hand-luggage out of the trays. The emptied trays go back to the start (often on a separate conveyor belt underneath) for someone else to put their hand-luggage into. Often you're ready to put your hand-luggage through the scanner but you have to wait because there are no empty trays. The number of trays represents the capacity of the system. Each tray is a kanban.

Now let's take a look at a typical kanban board such as the one on the left. It has two columns; one column for the activity of Wibbling which has a work-in-progress (WIP) limit of 5, and one column for the activity of Fubaring which has a work-in-progress limit of 4. There are 3 blue stories being Wibbled and 4 blue stories being Fubar'd.

How is this board supposed to be used? I count the number of blue stories currently being Wibbled - 1,2,3. I look up to the top of the Wibbling column and see its WIP limit is 5. I know 3 is less than 5 so I know there is some spare Wibbling capacity. If I want to know how much I can do the math, 5-3==2. And repeat... I count the number number of blue stories currently being Fubar'd - 1,2,3,4. I look up to the top of the Fubaring column and see its WIP limit is 4. I know 4 is the same as 4 so there is currently no spare Fubaring capacity.

It seems odd to have two columns that look exactly the same when one has spare capacity and the other does not!

My problem is that 5 and 4 are abstractions!
5 is not the same as 5 trays.
5 is just 5.
But 5 trays is [Tray Tray Tray Tray Tray].

What's important about the 5 isn't the 5.
What's important about the 5 is that it represents 5 trays.
What's important about the 5 is the relationship between the 5 and the number of blue stories it limits. The Wibbling blue story WIP limit is abstracted to a 5 but the blue stories are not. I have 1,2,3 blue stories in the Wibbling column but I'm not representing them with a 3, I'm representing them with 1,2,3 actual blue story cards.

Here's the alternative 'scan kanban' I'm thinking of.
I remove the 5 WIP limit from the top of the Wibbling column. Instead I put in 1,2,3,4,5 orange  Tray s.
I remove the 4 WIP limit from the top of the Fubaring column. Instead I put in 1,2,3,4 red  Tray s.

I add the rule that every  Story  must always be in a tray.

Now I can instantly see the Wibbling column has some spare capacity because there are some  Tray s with no  Story  in them. I can count the spare capacity if I want -  1 ,  2 . No math needed. Easy. I can instantly see the Fubaring column has no spare capacity because all the  Tray s contain a  Story .

Now I have a kanban board that actually has kanban on it!
Each tray is a kanban.
Now I can experience pull.

Suppose the workers to the right of the Fubaring column use green  Tray s. They send an empty  Tray  to the Fubaring column to signal they're ready to pull a  Story .

The workers in the Fubaring column move a done  Story  from their  Tray  into the empty  Tray .

The workers to the right of the Fubaring column pull the  Story  in its  Tray  back into their column.

The workers in the Fubaring column now have an empty  Tray .

The workers in the Fubaring column can send their empty  Tray  to the Wibbling column to signal they're ready to pull a  Story .

Thus each  Story  flows left to right while each empty  Tray   Tray   Tray  moves right to left.

Once we have a system under control we can try to improve. For example, we can see what happens when we reduce the WIP limit by 1 in the Wibbling column. We simply remove a  Tray .





Caveat Emptor: I've never seen this style of kanban in actual use. It's just an idea so far. As always, if anyone has any feedback it would be much appreciated.

Update! Here's a follow up blog entry.

the mind of war

is an excellent book about John Boyd by Grant T. Hammond (isbn 978-1588341785). As usual I'm going to quote from a few pages:

…in order to determine the consistency of any new system we must construct or uncover another system beyond it… One cannot determine the character or nature of a system within itself. Moreover, attempts to do so lead to confusion and disorder.

he was always testing the limits - of airplanes, people, science, the military, and, most especially, bureaucracies.

In dozens of interviews, conducted for this book, the most consistent theme and nearly universal comment was that John Boyd was the essence of an honourable man and incorruptible.

Oral, not written, communication and conviction, not accuracy, still rule in military culture.

Boyd liked putting things together (synthesis) better than analysis (taking things apart)...

He also came to appreciate the routine practice and repetition that was required to become really good at something and to overcome the boredom by focusing on minute improvements.

He observed very carefully.

Boyd could go from 500 knots to stall speed, practically stopping the plane in midair, which would force any aircraft on his tail to overshoot him and thus gain the advantage for Boyd. In another trick, he would stand the F-100 on its tail and slide down the pillar of its own exhaust. Fire would come out of the intake in the nose of the aircraft and the tailpipe simultaneously. A seemingly impossible feat, it was challenged by others. Boyd when to Edwards Air Force Base in California, where NASA had two fully instrumented F-100 aircraft, and demonstrated it and other techniques to a series of nonbelievers. The test pilot at Edwards who challenged him at the time was a fellow by the name of Neil Armstrong.

Boyd had never designed an airplane before, but as he told Colonel Ricci and Gen. Casey Dempsey, "I could fuck up and do better than this."

The rule of thumb in the Air Force is that a plane will gain a pound of weight a day for the life of the aircraft.

High entropy implies a low potential for doing work, a low capacity for taking action or a high degree of confusion or disorder… The tendency is for entropy to increase in a system that is closed or cannot communicate with the external systems or environments.

A natural teacher, he understood that if he told you something, he robbed you of the opportunity to ever truly know it for yourself.

We are never deceived. We only deceive ourselves. [Goethe]

Boyd's dictum: "Ask for my loyalty and I'll give you my honesty. Ask for my honesty and you'll have my loyalty."