JIT for sustainability!

What do you see in the pic... 

Some may respond, "I see... 

- two paper cups \ glasses of water, 

- One of the cups \ glasses half full, the other one empty! 

- cups \ glasses waiting to get disposed!" and so on!

Can you make a story of it!

(Immediately after boarding a flight) I'd asked for half glass of HOT WATER!

The airhostess promptly fetched me a full glass of lukewarm water!

Second time after a while, while she was on a service round, I 'showed' her the old cup and indicated to fill in it half (glass of) HOT WATER again!

She (ignored the old paper cup &) served me lukewarm water (by mixing cold water in it) in a fresh paper cup!

What's the learning!?

My learning is: 

1.. Ask for what you want (here the HOT WATER) clearly specifying (in this cup "please" &) not to mix cold water in it! Merely showing the cup may not be enough. The supplier need to clearly communicate her inability, if any, to supply as per specifications.

2.. Never take the customer's specification for granted. Always confirm specifications of her need!

3.. It's good to share such stories to train your own staff back in your office as also at your home about the - importance of customer specification\s in the JIT¹ way as in point-1 above! - need for sustainability (to re-use) specially when the customer has specified so! - need to express inability, if any, to supply with justified reasons in an honest, caring & gentle manner - importance of observation power and alertness to learn from each moment & from each happening around in order to generate opportunities for improvement (OFI) in self if not in others. The latter may be out of one's control!

4.. Although the above behaviours look commonsensical, they rarely happen. So change in attitude is needed at personal level reflecting it in the desired behaviours.

5.. Rather than being a mere spectator, an observer around may take lead in appreciating such desired behaviours. Positive reinforcement thereby may help recurrence of such desired behaviours!

By the way, this is not a story! 

It's an actual customer-experience. It actually reinforces - how much waste (here the cup & the water served in excess over the demand) gets generated in each of such transactions between a customer and a supplier! - how badly there is a need to educate and train people to reduce waste and help the sustainability movement in order to reduce global warming!

¹ JIT is - Just (i.e. exactly) what's needed, - Just (i.e. exactly) when it is needed, - Just (i.e. exactly) how & how much amount is needed! JIT approach to work provides unending OFI's or Kaizens as done by many companies the world over.

Digital COPQ

I went to the municipality office of a metro city for the birth certificate of my grand daughter.

Process steps that I'd to take were as follows.

Step-1, For enquiry, I went to a window that was closest to the main entry. They directed me to the ENQUIRY window that actually wasn't visible moment you enter the office.

Step-2, On my turn at the 'window' that I was directed to (by the ENQUIRY window) 'asked' me the date of birth of the newborn.

Step-3, The 'window' danced her fingers 'takaa-takaa-tak....' on the keyboard. Kept looking at the screen while 'she' sipped some water reaching out for a sippy-bottle kept on a shelf a couple of arms away. Fortunately, she got the details online.

Lucky that the information from the hospital had reached the municipality office digitally!

Step-4, She gave me a printout of what she saw on the screen.

Told me to go to ENQUIRY window and enquire 'what next'.

Step-5, ENQUIRY window 'told' me to go & take a set of forms from 'that corner', fill name details of the child if naming ceremony is already done & then submit it to the first 'window'.

Step-6, I did so. Filled the forms.

Step-7, Submitted the forms to the first 'window' alongwith the printout given by her earlier. The first 'window' then told me to submit parental identity proofs online. And, to collect the birth certificate online "after the name of the newborn gets registered" two-weeks thereafter.

(Add a few sanitisation steps in-between!)

Step-8, All the above in about a couple of hours; home-to-back-home via the municipality office!

This of course, followed by the ritual of sanitisation & a full bath (the second one of the day) ... in another hour or so!

An hours' nap induced by the tiring drive under the scorching Sun!

Step-9, After getting up, I tried to login to the website but in vain! 

Another, couple of hours wasted. 

Perhaps the website was taking a nap then. 

Step-10, Now, I'm trying to get in touch with an agent and keeping my fingers crossed. 

The labor of the mother was easier, I think!

Worth researching the NVA and the COPQ in this so-called supposed-to-be online digitisation process?

Meanwhile, I am unable to understand the following.

- What was the need for me to drive 40-kilometers to-n-fro under the scorching Sun at 44-degree Celsius?

- What was the need of the ENQUIRY window in the process for the work that could've been told to me by the first 'window' itself?

- Is it that the process-designer of this digital process forgot to consider eliminating such NVAs (which is actually an inevitable step if a Lean-Kaizen-JIT Gemba-exercise is undertaken before any such digital exercise)? Or

- Is it that the VOC & the 3-D in the process (COPP, cost of poor processes) was not 'heard' adequately? Or

- Is it that the additional 'window' step was 'intentional' and on that particular day the intention got skipped inadvertently?

- Why was the sippy-bottle not kept within an arms reach (application of the orderly arrangement principle of Seiton, the Five-S system) unless of course she wanted some exercise by-design? A good thought if the latter was true! 

But, why was the ENQUIRY window itself away from the main entry door? (Missing Seiton because missing Gemba approach to Kaizen and the PDCA-audit of the Gemba itself post any such change initiative!)

About the location of the window itself, good that I didn't dare to INQUIRE!

I wonder the costs (Digital-COPQ) associated with such poorly designed digitisation initiatives particularly being during the COVID times, when in order to curb it everyone is on the journey to eliminate every possible touch-point! The Digital-Corporate-Yoga in its true sense!!

Abbreviations:

COPQ, cost of poor quality

COPP, cost of poor processes

NVA, non-value-activities as Wastes

VOC, voice of customer

3D: Dirty-Danger-Difficult

JIT Just In Time

PDCA: Systematic improvement approach Plan-Do-Check-Act

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Do You Force Customers To Quit
In-a-problem ? No-problem! Dwell-a-while!
Customer or Custo-Mer ?  
Experienced A Delightful Payment ! 
An Experience of Heart-and-Soul 
Do you keep curing your brand ?  
A customer gets what s/he deserves: Shoddy Quality!  
Listen to iceberg of VOC to acquire customers 
Less With More And More Gets Sore 
Should one care for value ?  
Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 
Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice?  
The Business Of Businesses 
That's how some business partnerships work 
Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 
Strategise To Achieve Targets Daily 
Does recognition really matter 
That's How Morons Work
Simplicity Of Theory Of Relativity

Difference between raam-&-krishna tactics

Cost-of-Quality: COQ is a relative term!

Components of the Cost-of-Quality in Kaizen parlance are as follows.

1/ Costs of external-failures incurred due to failures at customer's end.

2/ Costs of internal-failures incurred in order to handle failures at supplier's end.

3/ Costs of appraisal incurred in order to inspect/audit the adequacy and compliance of quality and quantity of work, and the workmanship as well, as per standards/procedures.

4/ Costs of prevention incurred in order to undertake improvement or failure-prevention activities (as preventative/proactive measures) & corresponding education/training for the same.

First two components are the 'cost-of-poor-quality' (CoPQ) that are incurred after failures. 

Last two components are the 'cost-of-good-quality' (CoGQ) or you can say 'investment' required to prevent a failures in the first place.

The components, rather it's terminology, is relative and hence the  term Cost-of-Quality itself is relative! Use of the components may depend upon the context of the situation.

Is the statement: "If the customer needs to administer incoming inspection on his inputs received from the supplier then that's typically the 'cost of appraisal'!", made by a participant in one of my sessions, 'true' or 'false', for instance?

The statement is 'false'!

It's actually the 'cost of prevention' for the customer. Because she wants to prevent defective inputs from going into the next process. Engaging into inspection activities on the customer's own processes or processing activities, although it's a NVA (non-value-activity or waste) however, is the 'cost of appraisal' for the customer in order to prevent the 'cost of internal failure' in the customer's processes.

Whereas the incoming inspection on his inputs may be is the 'cost of external failure' for the supplier. This is particularly so if the customer engages into 'inspection', a NVA (non-value-activity) 'forced' on to her by herself, because of lack of trust (past dissatisfaction) in the supplier's quality and hence in the supplier's brand image.

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Do You Force Customers To Quit
In-a-problem ? No-problem! Dwell-a-while!
Customer or Custo-Mer ?  
Experienced A Delightful Payment ! 
An Experience of Heart-and-Soul 
Do you keep curing your brand ?  
A customer gets what s/he deserves: Shoddy Quality!  
Listen to iceberg of VOC to acquire customers 
Less With More And More Gets Sore 
Should one care for value ?  
Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 
Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice?  
The Business Of Businesses 
That's how some business partnerships work 
Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 
Strategise To Achieve Targets Daily 
Does recognition really matter 
That's How Morons Work
Simplicity Of Theory Of Relativity

India won! But Indians lost!

Time to celebrate for Indian cricket team!

The team had completed a mission!!

India had won the 20:20 international series 2-1 against England!!!

The team had completed their tasks over-over-the-over, over-on-over I mean!

Forgetting their own assigned duties and tasks over-on-over, the restaurant staff however in a star hotel seemed to have got distracted by the over-on-over excellent performance of the Indian cricket team.

Most of them gathered around the TV watching the prize ceremony instead of being around customers, except a trainee female staff alone catering to a couple of tables.

Indifference of the manager and staff was strikingly noticeable especially when it was an a-la-carte day instead of a buffet dinner.

Couldn't they've been a little proactive each by a smiling eye-contact with customers! Hardly a  couple of tables were occupied though!

Looking at the TV screen following in the footsteps of her leader seniors, even the trainee staff was found to be filling water in the glass or picking up yet-to-be-finished plate without the consent of the customer! A Waste!!

Can you imagine the Cost-Of-Poor-Quality (COPQ) or rather the Cost-Of-Poor-Service (COPS) of such behaviour in the industry such as Hospitality where the behaviour itself is more important along with the hard quality of course!

Staff busy watching match

Customer fetching her own batch

No one around to catch

That's my Haiku poem dedicated to such Lose-Win behaviour where Indians lost while India won!

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Do You Force Customers To Quit
In-a-problem ? No-problem! Dwell-a-while!
Customer or Custo-Mer ?  
Experienced A Delightful Payment ! 
An Experience of Heart-and-Soul 
Do you keep curing your brand ?  
A customer gets what s/he deserves: Shoddy Quality!  
Listen to iceberg of VOC to acquire customers 
Less With More And More Gets Sore 
Should one care for value ?  
Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 
Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice?  
The Business Of Businesses 
That's how some business partnerships work 
Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 
Strategise To Achieve Targets Daily 
Does recognition really matter 
That's How Morons Work
Simplicity Of Theory Of Relativity

Waste generates waste!

Ting tong!

Security guard on the door: "The sweeper hasn't come today. Take your garbage cans inside."

Ok.

Ting tong! again after an hour.

This time the security guard comes with a casual (temporary) sweeper. I fetched the garbage cans to get them emptied.

(After a while) Ting tong! again the third time.

I rush out from the wash room.
This time the regular sweeper arrives and goes back empty handed.

I call back the security guard to check what's happening.
Why the bell is rung so many times in the morning rush hours?

The guard responds there was a communication gap.
The regular sweeper reported late on duty.

Can you see how the waste gets generated vis-a-vis the normal routine that should have happened in a flow without interruptions to anyone! You may compute the waste by measuring the impact of each activity that had to be performed extra (non value activity NVA that doesn't add value to the basic need) over and above the desired one.

The desired was also that the regular sweeper should've informed about autonomous change in his schedule.

Now you know why thefts happen in absence of the guard who's supposed to be on his regular duty rather than engaging himself in a NVA prompted by NVA of someone else. The theft and related activities also are a waste!

The sweeper changing his own schedule without prior intimation is not observing a SOP. You getting delayed to work with corresponding tension due to extra activities (NVA) such as opening the door three times is a waste too!

Well such things can happen!

But important is - not to repeat them by making relevant improvements (or Kaizens as they say) and - even to prevent such problems in similar situations at other places.

Can you think of some to suit your own circumstances so that not the guard, nor you get interrupted even if the sweeper doesn't report on duty for one day!

Can you also spot some waste to do Kaizens upon in your daily work (Nichijo-Kanri) that you inadvertently or unknowingly consider (rather take for granted) as a routine!

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder: Please do consider leaving a value-adding comment or consider sharing this post.

Waste-to-eat Sea-to-drink

That's How Morons Work

Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation

Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture

How To Make A Difference

Old-Problems, New-Reasons !

Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !!

Performance ... Strategise To Achieve Targets Daily

Kaizen, even in air! 

Prevention: The Best Cure! ... Is it really so?

Old-Problems, New-Reasons !

In a Problem?: No Problem ! Dwell A While !!

In-big-problem? Wear-hats-to-solve-it!

Success-or-failure! What-do-you-like?

Overworked? Tension? CPU of the mind hung-up?

Who's the 'mother' to the machine!

Tea spilled over in the plane!

Some droplets splashed on her child sitting next to her.

She didn't even bother about tea falling over on herself.

Instead, she repeatedly kept asking the child whether she was alright! She meticulously checked her for harm, if any, on her hands, her face, her body.

Not less than ten times did she enquire, expressing a great concern each time she asked.

Child, however, kept herself busy playing.

Nothing had actually happened to the child!

The child was perfectly alright although the mother herself was concerned!

How many of us do this at our workplaces!

May be we do it to people!

But what about to the 'machines' and of course to their problems?

In spite of the squeaky noise that some machines make, we stay indifferent .... sometimes even after they breakdown!

On the day we become 'mother' to the machines, not only the TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) has started but it's like reaching it the halfway at least! 

Going beyond the thoughts, the Kaizen culture itself has begun!

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder: Please do consider leaving a comment or sharing this post.

WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling

Will It Work Here?   

7-waste Process ... That's How Morons Work 

You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable

Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy

Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation

Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture

How To Make A Difference  

Old-Problems, New-Reasons !  

Who Comes First: Consumer Or Customer ?  

2-2-2-2 Winning 2-Minutes To Customer

Water Matter

Study the two videos attached!

What do they suggest?

One of the videos shows the amount of water that goes down the drain (rather gets wasted) in a single flush stroke.

The other one shows the wastage of water is reduced considerably.

The latter was a case of handling the lever consciously to release it early enough so that only needed amount of water is used.

Sometimes it's a case of wrong setting or lack of maintenance, both resulting in the lever getting stuck. See picture-1.

In any case, human is to err!
The error however results into defective output and hence it produces waste.

But then what can one do?

See picture-2. This one is a mistake-proof (called as Poka-Yoke Kaizen in Japanese industry!) design of the flush tank.

It has two levers side by side: one for economy flushing and the other for normal flushing. The user needs to choose the right one consciously of course! Another opportunity for Poka-Yoke that is!

It's good to eliminate defects and waste early enough at initial or design stage itself. That's why this pillar of TPM (total productive maintenance) is also called as 'early equipment management' or 'initial flow control' (IFC).

It's the job of everybody to think, workout and feed their ideas about probable failure modes (FMEA, failure mode and effect analysis) so that corresponding Kaizen solutions can be incorporated at design stage itself.

The objective is to make the offering easier, faster, and less costly to make it and service it as well. In fact the design should, as far as possible, be maintenance free during the life-cycle of the offering; the concept called life-cycle-cost.

Can the change advance from thoughts stage to action now?

 

Read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Change is a hearty game!

Rise-n-Fall in the Rain-Fall 

Take Habits For A Ride 
Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
Do you exercise your choice meaningfully

How To Make A Difference

WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling

Poverty-to-Power of Poetry

Bird that just chirped

Wish To Be Planet-Friendly?: Save ! 

Soon-waste-to-eat, Sea-to-drink !

Don't Save Water on Holi-day

Do You Celebrate Mean-or-Green

Not-Soon, Says Monsoon

Rise-n-Fall in the Rain-Fall   

Change is a hearty game!

I wash my cup after tea and plate after food almost immediately. As much early (JIT) you do so, as much lesser resources you consume. Because, they are easier and faster to wash with less water when they are still wet.

The other day I'd to do it with left hand because one of the fingers was swollen after clipping off my nails.

It was difficult for me because I am a right-hander.

Usually any change is difficult but possible. Try signing with your left hand if your are used to doing it with your right hand.

I'd to get the senior management team of a company to try this out the other day. The reason was their impatience on the change management initiative in their company.

It was just about a few weeks having begun the initiative. Each visit the managers would be anxious to know when would their subordinates change their work habits for the better.

Change management is about commitment to change self first (PQI, personal quality initiative). It's about putting in concerted and continued efforts during the process because it's more to do with head (mind) and heart rather than hands (physical actions) alone.

Listening to other's 'voices' (be it your employee or customer or any stakeholder for that matter) actively plays a major role in the change management process. It's not merely hearing but it's about hearing them tactfully and tenderheartedly... Hear-T in short! Active listening creates an emotional connect or a connection with their heart.

Mind (head) always connects a little later. Mind connects only after the heart gets connected. Heart itself gets connected if they see your concerted and continued actions towards the desired change rather than empty speeches and promises.

Their actions to change their habits as desired is the corollary thereafter!

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder: Please do consider leaving a comment or sharing this post.

Mosquito to teach patience
Voice of Customer

No Time? Micro-Meditate!  
What do you do when a dog barks at you?
How To Make A Difference 
Conscious Of Self-Esteem
Catch a Butterfly

Overworked? Tension? CPU of the mind hung-up? 
Do you exercise your choice meaningfully 
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important? 
Eternally Happy! 
In-a-problem? No-problem! Dwell-a-while! 
I am afraid ! What do I do !! 
Fearful-Of-Death-of-Birth
Take Habits For A Ride 
Happy-Birthday-to-Youooo
Do You Celebrate Mean-or-Green 
Big-Be Or Bug-Be ! 
Raam or Krishna-Shyam: Tell me Hey Raam! 
Are You Good If Others Are Bad?  
Want Need-Or-Want 
Love is Care.. Care is Love !  
Deity is in the eyes of the beholder 
Success-or-failure! What-do-you-like?
Ball-Basin-Team Combine !  Maketh The Smile Divine !! 

Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation

5-S reality in Virtual world!

The other day an intern requested for an industrial visit with me.

Normally, it's good to test such requests to know the purpose, their commitment and their preparation. So, I asked him to self-learn through some blogposts before he earns the privilege of the visit. He did do it and earned himself the industrial visit.

Having got impressed by the learning during the visit, he seemingly continued his self-learning.

"Sir I was thinking one thing.. how can we apply 5-S to the I.T. (information technology) industry where everything is virtual?"

I like questions!

Questions show that the mind-factory isn't on strike!!

What's the virtual world by the way?

Conventionally, virtual is virtual if it's without brick and mortar. Hardly anything in this material world is virtual in reality! Even in the spiritual world... where it is subtle though!!  The so-called virtual world does have some hardware, at the least such as, say, computer and corresponding devices for the I.O.T. (internet of things). The office itself that houses the table for the computer, the pendrives, the central processor room, corresponding SOP displays and spares, et all is a reality.

Of course, a typical virtual world primarily may have virtual files. Each file may have some words written on it. The words do get realised if corresponding thoughts are in place.

Good thoughts emerge if mind is free of clutter. Unneeded thoughts are the clutter that the Seiri step of the 5-S can help get rid off. Just as it releases some memory (brain) cells for storage of the needed thoughts, similarly doing Seiri of the virtual files and virtual folders releases some memory bytes and gigabytes for storage on the hard-disk of a computer.

A typical screen design: layout and positioning of information, color codes on it, etc. to make it look aesthetically attractive, and yet functional in performance, difficulty-free with maximum information display with optimised space utilisation, itself is about applying Seiton principles effectively and innovatively. 

Accessing the information just-in-time (JIT): easily in a single click without any waste is about applying 1-is-better principle of Seiri. It helps to keep information live and realistic so that real time changes can be effected while responding to the customer demands rather than based on forecasts.

It helps to keep information live and realistic so that real time changes can be effected while responding to the customer demands rather than from stocks based on forecasts.

Excessive stocks usually tend to be obsolete warranting Seiri on it to prevent obsolescence.

So, like in material world, all the principles of 5-Ss are equally applicable in the 'virtual and spiritual world' as well.

I could write this blogpost almost instantaneouy in reply to the query by the smart intern because Seiton of virtual files and folders was in place on my smartphone.

The picture of the book page that is in this post was handy because of its PEEP on my smartphone. I could accommodate many such value adding files on the limited space on my smartphone because of the Seiri of the unneeded 'unlimited' things (WhatsApp for instance) that don't find space on my phone.

A typical software programme itself applies Seiri technique to eliminate unneeded steps. That's why you see an APP getting smaller and smaller in (MB) size as part of its continual improvement.

So applying 5-S in virtual world is about 5 things:

5-S of the corresponding brick and mortar,
5-S of the corresponding Hardware,
5-S of the corresponding software programmes so that they become leaner,
5-S of the corresponding business related Big-Data so that extracting information out of it is faster,
5-S of the Mind (so that it helps attain meditative state faster).

Also read a few relevant blog-posts hereunder: Please do consider sharing this post or sharing your initiatives on above lines in comment box.

Make It Simpler, Rest Will Follow 
One-Is-Better for JIT 
How To Make A Difference 
Big-Be Or Bug-Be ! 
Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms ! 
Nauseous Communication Gaps 
Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis 
Raam or Krishna-Shyam: Tell me Hey Raam! 
Will It Work Here?  
Some Moron ! Some Great !!! 
That's How Morons Work 
You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable 
Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass  
WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling 
Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy 
Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 
Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice? 
That's how some business partnerships work 
Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 
Technology in-place, security dis-placed
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important?
Do you know a Best-Career-Plan 
Customer or Custo-Mer?  
Experienced A Delightful Payment ! 
An Experience of Heart-and-Soul 
Less With More And More Gets Sore 
Should one care for value?  
ABCD of India Shining
Beware Of Political-Presentations 
Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis 
Hoarders Of Filthy Hoardings

Digitally Lean, Physically Fat

Just heard from a marketer about Digital-Lean! that he was trying to sell. No wonder there's a pull of  IOT (internet-of-things) all around now.

Seems to be a new jargon though, like Lean-Six-Sigma that evolved while maturing the Six-Sigma initiative of Motorola, GE, et all.

Such jargons that evolve, rather 'revolve' at regular intervals confuse the practitioners.
That was a point of my contention in one of my books 'Stay Lean, Make Planet Green".

Proponents of various management techniques (under jargons) such as BPR, TOC, 6-Sigma, etc. in past advocated hardly anything different than the original JIT thinking itself of Toyota to attain Lean. Nothing is wrong with these approaches except a major difference that the same proponents tried to catch up with either under different jargons or under a few augmented versions.

Most of these approaches focused on working top-down on obviously visible problems (as the links of a steel chain, say, that had already given way) that had reached a crisis stage. Naturally such crises problems demand radical changes. JIT philosophy instead, as a preventive culture, exposes potentially weak (but so far ‘invisible’) links before they actually turn weak and before they give way.  

Apart from the above, the 'people' aspect of problem solving (the Hitozukuri) also got ignored in the former approaches in their enthusiasm to invent newer mathematical models, tools and jargons.

Behavioral part of JIT instead builds and nurtures an army of soldiers capable of exposing and fighting potential weak links. Thereby it preempts failure of the process of making and delivering (the Monozukuri) of the offering.

So, the Fad-of-the-day, Tool-focus is the culprit of confusion, if any.  

Only when it was realized that the 'Toyota approach' is 'much more proactive' and ‘heart-full’ than what met the eyes and gray cells of a few fly-by-night consultants on a study mission to Japan, that the ‘augmented’ versions of their management tools appeared on the horizon of  the management world.

After the Re-engineering as a tool; to BPR; to Re-engineering of Management, etc.; the latest example is the re-christening of highly digitized statistical '6-Sigma'! It was jargonised as 'Lean-6-Sigma' having realized that '6-Sigma' as a measurement was already in use at Toyota. 

Exactly on similar lines, Toyota already had its very own invented SIS, strategic information systems technology in the 1960s. Toyota did the IOT (internet of things) in its own way then. It had its own towers in order to telegraphically release management information so that they could respond to market needs just-in-time, JIT.

They knew that information systems with speed is an integral part in order to be a leaner company. So wherever possible and needed, it was a necessity to get over the bottleneck speed of  physical systems by installing digital systems in order to exchange information in real time as far as possible.

So to that extent, to the extent of available soft technology then, the lean journey at Toyota was already digital.

Today when I heard about Digital-Lean! I thought of cautioning the practitioners not to confuse themselves with it as a jargon. If they do, then the fate could be that the Digital! may get installed but the Lean! may still stay flat and Fat! or rather Fatter! to the extent of the investments made in going  Digital! without correspondingly justified returns (or benefits) over it.

Know that digital was always existing. It's its continual improvement and its development that the today's developed level of Digital! needs to be looked at. It is an integral part of the lean journey anyway.

For instance, going digital in today's context may call for aiding the physical Kanban by E-Kanban wherever possible in support of the physical Kanban (rather than to replace it). The E-Kanban is about the electronic information system about 'when and where to deliver what and how much, etc.' It was earlier existing anyway in terms of a physical card, physical stock management fixtures of needed material and corresponding visuals, etc. Both are supposed to prevent excessive stocks & the resulting wastes!

Another example of going digital in today's context is about the use of RFID tags to sense movements of physical resources during their flow across the supply chain or the value chain.

Or it's about digitally monitoring of the conditions and status of the resources like done using sensors to monitor equipment conditions on-line and using them for decision making (using advanced analytics and statistical analysis of big data) in real time.

But of what use the borrowed 'digital' brain (the digital analytics of data in soft form) is when the real brain 'walks over' (ignores) the real hard data: The data or the hard facts about the probable abnormalities in their seed stage that could be seen, heard, felt, tested (and also tasted) and sensitized in real time?

That's exactly where the caution is.    

                  

                    'Smile-day’ The October 2^nd: Smile!

That's where there's scope for the Digital! to get decimated to be a 'Fad' or 'Flavor of the month', 'Flavor of the week' or 'Flavor of the day', etc. It's much like celebrating such ‘fad-days’ as jargons if people celebrate going Digital! but in reality stay Fat! with problems surrounding them!

Rather than advocating 'fads', a good coach called Sensei in Japanese would handhold, guide and steer the learner to clear off anything that's unsustainable.

So let Digital Lean! evolve and get installed as a matter of strategic need rather than it getting installed to appear modern.

Otherwise it might get easier to digitally smile (as a typical robot would do) while in real world it might still be a physical frown. 

It happened once while I was flying on an airlines! The choice of seat with it's features was a 'window-seat', perfect as it was shown on the computer screen while booking the ticket. But in reality the seat did not have a window at all! 

The last seats normally don't have a window!!

Also read a few relevant blog-posts here-under: Please do consider leaving a comment or consider sharing this post.

Kaizen, even in air!

Digital Corporate Yoga

In a Problem?: No Problem ! Dwell A While !! 
Soon... Waste-to-Eat ! Sea-to-Drink !!
About my first book World-Of-Kaizen

Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
A customer gets what s/he deserves: Shoddy Quality! 
Listen to iceberg of VOC to acquire customers
Make It Simpler, Rest Will Follow 
How To Make A Difference 
Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms ! 
Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis 
Will It Work Here?  
Some Moron ! Some Great !!! 
That's How Morons Work 
You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable 
Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass  
WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling 
Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 
Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice? 
That's how some business partnerships work 
Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 
Technology in-place, security dis-placed
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important?
Customer or Custo-Mer?  
Experienced A Delightful Payment ! 
An Experience of Heart-and-Soul 
Less With More And More Gets Sore 
Should one care for value?  
ABCD of India Shining
Beware Of Political-Presentations 
Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis 
Hoarders Of Filthy Hoardings

Digital Corporate Yoga

I was excited when I first read about Smart cities in India! 

My city Thane (with probably the highest floating population in India) was among the shortlisted ones.

With a caveat, I feel the 'local' or layman's understanding of the 'Smart' goes hardly beyond digitally automating and monitoring human and material activities. To some prosumers and politicians alike, it's about 'showing' that we also do not lag behind in IOT (internet-of-things), in digitally connecting (and networking of) everything (devices, people and resources) everywhere in real time. In Kaizen parlor, the IOT is supposed to connect each Gembutsu at each Gemba in Genjitsu time.

In reality, Smart city initiative is supposed to be much more than synthetically planting 'digital' over its current level of physical existence. It's supposed to go to the higher level of physical, social, political, economic, 'emotional', 'mental', and 'spiritual' existence as well. I call the initiative as the Digital Corporate Yoga of the cities or rather of the universe!

I think it's of no use to call such cities Smart unless the digital progress helps them, the people (all stakeholders) and the cities alike, to evolve and get holistic experience of value.

Smart cities are supposed to house smart companies as well: the ones that are lean, digital internally and digitally connected externally to their value chains upstream as well as downstream.

Yes; being digital and lean, or in short each constituent of the smart city being digitally lean, is important.

But it's like, crudely say, the Digital or Soft or electronic form of Monozukuri that can be facilitated only through Hitozukuri as in case of smart companies in Japan. Without human involvement nothing can work as desired!

Monozukuri is about making products (rather making great offerings of products as well as services that add value) through Hitozukuri. The latter is about involving and 'making' (rather developing) people without whom Monozukuri is nearly impossible. Implementing both Hitozukuri and Monozukuri simultaneously as integral and complimentary concepts (see book 'Stay Lean, Make Planet Green') is the essence for any improvement initiatives to be sustainable at that. It's no different for digital initiatives! 

Why is it so, particularly in case of digital initiatives? 

Why do some people can't go beyond using an advanced IOT-capable smart phone (only) for socialising at higher speeds rather than for improved productivity?

Rather it's about their logical sequencing: 

The answer is in the roots of the questions such as follows!

Why do people keep going back to using Excel sheets in spite of expensively installed ERP systems in place? Or 

The answer is: Lack of Hitozukuri! 

Any ERP system in a company (be it expensive or otherwise) finds it difficult to succeed in it's true sense (to deliver the expected  levels of performance, as initially desired when the same was marketed by the suppliers) in absence of 'involving and preparing' people for the same. Same would-be the case of smart (digital) cities too! 

It's like taking up a high-tech flyover to speedily 'flyover' the problems left unattended below it, back once again to land into the traffic jam at the other end. (Extract  from Book "Stay Lean Make Planet Green, The Toyota Approach" by Shyam Talawadekar)

Smart cities will happen if people learn to take care of every little thing just like they would do for their hard earned penny. They must learn to prevent waste of any resource however insignificant it may appear to be like, say, to care for even a drop of water! 

In short, they must learn to put basics in place!

So to me, Digital Corporate Yoga is about both the Monozukuri and Hitozukuri coexisting. 

The horse before the cart; 
The Hitozukuri before the Monozukuri; 
The Smart people before the Smart cities!

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder: Please do consider leaving a comment or consider sharing this post.

Digitally Lean, Physically Fat  Kaizen, even in air!
In a Problem?: No Problem ! Dwell A While !! 
Soon... Waste-to-Eat ! Sea-to-Drink !!
About my first book World-Of-Kaizen

Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
A customer gets what s/he deserves: Shoddy Quality! 
Listen to iceberg of VOC to acquire customers
Make It Simpler, Rest Will Follow 
How To Make A Difference 
Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms ! 
Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis 
Will It Work Here?  
Some Moron ! Some Great !!! 
That's How Morons Work 
You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable 
Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass  
WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling 
Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 
Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice? 
That's how some business partnerships work 
Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 
Technology in-place, security dis-placed
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important?
Customer or Custo-Mer?  
Experienced A Delightful Payment ! 
An Experience of Heart-and-Soul 
Less With More And More Gets Sore 
Should one care for value?  
ABCD of India Shining
Beware Of Political-Presentations 
Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis 
Hoarders Of Filthy Hoardings