Introduction 1.4: Heavy Lean Principles

The practices of Heavy Lean were developed to address the specific process constraints associated with heavy parts and heavy machines.  However the primary principles of Heavy Lean are universal across all types of processes.

1.    Maximize value.

Any process converts inputs into outputs.  Inputs are the raw material of the process.  Outputs are the products or services created by the process.  Heavy Lean has an unrelenting focus on maximizing the value from the outputs of a process.

2.    Minimize waste.

Waste is the opposite of value.  An activity of a process may create any combination of value and waste.  Reducing waste is one method to achieve the first principle of Heavy Lean.  Minimizing waste also lowers costs by not paying to produce what no one wants.

3.    Achieve continuous flow.

The outputs of one activity of a process flow to become the inputs of the next.  Outputs flow to inputs across functional boundaries and even organizations.  One of the primary inventions of Heavy Lean is how to achieve continuous flow while maximizing value and minimizing waste.  Continuous flow produces more value faster with less waste.

4.    Pursue perfection.

Another invention of Heavy Lean is that perfection is possible.  New methods to increase value, lead to new methods to reduce waste, which in turn lead to new methods for achieving continuous flow.  Any enhancement resulting from the first three principles creates new opportunities to apply the other principles in the ongoing pursuit of perfection.

Figure I.1:  Spiraling in on Perfection

 

The definition of perfection cannot be known in advance.  It takes a journey.  Applying the principles of maximize value, minimize waste, and continuous flow defines each today what is possible tomorrow.

None of the Heavy Lean principles listed above specifies a practice for how to realize those principles.  Toyota developed practices based on the principles of Heavy Lean in the pursuit of perfection over the last 50+ years.  Those practices not only allowed Toyota to maximize value, minimize waste, and achieve continuous flow.  They also allowed Toyota to increase both employee and customer satisfaction, improve quality, reduce cost, and increase revenue year-after-year.^[i],[ii]

If only Heavy Lean practices weren’t so heavy.  The opportunities and constraints of heavy manufacturing processes are greatly different than those found in information intensive environments.  Information workers do not have the same operational characteristics as heavy machines or their operators.  Information does not have the same flow characteristics as heavy parts.  A different approach is needed to apply the principles of Heavy Lean to information-centric processes.

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[i]    James P. Womack, Daniel T. Jones and Daniel Roos, The Machine that Changed the World, HaperCollins  (1991) pg. 80

[ii]  Jeffery K. Liker, The Toyota Way, McGraw Hill (2004) pg. 5