Identify your Muda, Mura and Muri
I've read these days a book called Gemba Kaizen, written by Masaaki Imai, a book focusing on how to continuously improve different business fields. The book shows multiple case studies from around the world met in different companies and the main idea is about applying Lean principles
Gemba refers to the place where value is created and Kaizen relates to continuous improvement. So the book refers to continuous improvement in a working environment.
The general idea is that in Gemba problems are visible and the best improvements will come directly from there, by doing a gemba walk - Taiichi Ohno developed this concept.
A gemba walk is the action to see the actual process, understanding the work, asking questions and learn. It is a fundamental part of Lean Management philosophy.
What was interesting to me reading this book is to see how Lean principles can be implemented in other business fields also and how everyone can benefit from Toyota Production System, as industries around the world become more aware of Lean principles. On the other hand, more and more methods for combining Agile and Lean principles appear in software development side too.
Today's article is about identifying types of waste and thinking of Agile practices to eliminate them
What I learned from the book are 3 Lean types of waste - called 3M.
Muda - it is widely known as simply the waste. It is represented by an activity or process that does not produce value, being a loss of time, money or resources.
There are 7 categories according to Taiichi Ohno - Toyota Production System father
Overproduction - define clearly requirements and get people on the same page related to what needs to be developed, avoiding implementing also "nice to haves" or offering more than required - gold plating.
Inventory - can be reduced as team selects a set of items to focus on during an iteration. Think about limiting WIP - Kanban practice and discuss about how work can be completed in one iteration - maybe you have to address how testing can be improved.
Transport waste can be eliminate by having team members co-located.
Over processing - discuss with your team to see if there are some overlapping processes - in terms of ways of working but also in terms of using the tools and see what can be improved. Maybe there are some meetings which don't bring value, approval process takes too long or maybe there are infrastructure improvements.
Motion - Having teams co-located would be more easier to discuss face to face when something appear.
Defect - Everyone wants working software - no defects. Recheck your Definition of Done and see if there are some points missing related to engineering practices so that risk of defects can be reduced to minimum.
Waiting - having cross functional teams will remove dependencies related to other's people availability or knowledge. Identify other types of dependencies and consider these during iterations.
Mura - is the inconsistency that creates many of the forms of waste mentioned above. The inability to set and maintain a consistent paces creates variations in the process.
I think a good example here would be a project delivery which starts slow in the beginning, team waits for approvals, plans are added in Gantt charts, meetings to get everyone on the same page are set. As time progresses, pressure related to delivery date and scope increase arise and team start to work at a higher pace. Despite great effort, team need to work nights and weekends to get all pieces together for the required date. When system is in prod, a second nightmare starts with the fixing part, as bugs are discovered. This is a sample of waterfall parts which lead to multiple wastes.
As an agile response: focusing on early and iterative delivery of working software will help in this case. Agile aims for a sustainable pace. Time boxing helps the process by setting a constant inspect and adapt loop. Also, impediments are resolved during iteration for decreasing risk, team members learn to work together iteration by iteration.
Muri - is the overburden, stress which usually results from Mura. Could be caused also by organizational issues.
As a sample here we could have: poorly work place setup, unclear instructions, lack of training, wrong tools, poor communications patterns and the list can continue..
As an Agile response: check your team's needs and see which framework would suit best and do the setup. For example Scrum is a lightweight and is easy to understand.
Once teams will understand the value, the artefacts, the ceremonies, its roles there will be less stress due to lack of training. Communication will be improved iteration by iteration, as teams learn how to work together and how to become self organized. And let's not forget that the most efficient conversation happens face to face.
As a conclusion it is very important to be careful with the 3M types of waste which might happen in your team's daily work.
Above is my perspective related to how Agile can tackle the wastes but think what would be specific in your case as situations and teams are different.
Think about the 3M meaning and observe what types of waste happens in your team.
As Taiichi Ohno would say, Go in Gemba and start to Kaizen
And remember..
Gemba refers to the place where value is created and Kaizen relates to continuous improvement. So the book refers to continuous improvement in a working environment.
The general idea is that in Gemba problems are visible and the best improvements will come directly from there, by doing a gemba walk - Taiichi Ohno developed this concept.
A gemba walk is the action to see the actual process, understanding the work, asking questions and learn. It is a fundamental part of Lean Management philosophy.
What was interesting to me reading this book is to see how Lean principles can be implemented in other business fields also and how everyone can benefit from Toyota Production System, as industries around the world become more aware of Lean principles. On the other hand, more and more methods for combining Agile and Lean principles appear in software development side too.
Today's article is about identifying types of waste and thinking of Agile practices to eliminate them
What I learned from the book are 3 Lean types of waste - called 3M.
Muda - it is widely known as simply the waste. It is represented by an activity or process that does not produce value, being a loss of time, money or resources.
There are 7 categories according to Taiichi Ohno - Toyota Production System father
- Overproduction - more is produced than required, extra features, gold-plating
- Inventory - work in progress, finished work which provides no value - partially done work
- Transportation - moving product, requirements, documents without adding value
- Over processing - extra work that doesn't add value, unnecessary approvals
- Motion - effort required to communicate or to move information from one group to another
- Defect - defective software that needs correction
- Waiting - delays waiting for reviews
Overproduction - define clearly requirements and get people on the same page related to what needs to be developed, avoiding implementing also "nice to haves" or offering more than required - gold plating.
Inventory - can be reduced as team selects a set of items to focus on during an iteration. Think about limiting WIP - Kanban practice and discuss about how work can be completed in one iteration - maybe you have to address how testing can be improved.
Transport waste can be eliminate by having team members co-located.
Over processing - discuss with your team to see if there are some overlapping processes - in terms of ways of working but also in terms of using the tools and see what can be improved. Maybe there are some meetings which don't bring value, approval process takes too long or maybe there are infrastructure improvements.
Motion - Having teams co-located would be more easier to discuss face to face when something appear.
Defect - Everyone wants working software - no defects. Recheck your Definition of Done and see if there are some points missing related to engineering practices so that risk of defects can be reduced to minimum.
Waiting - having cross functional teams will remove dependencies related to other's people availability or knowledge. Identify other types of dependencies and consider these during iterations.
Mura - is the inconsistency that creates many of the forms of waste mentioned above. The inability to set and maintain a consistent paces creates variations in the process.
I think a good example here would be a project delivery which starts slow in the beginning, team waits for approvals, plans are added in Gantt charts, meetings to get everyone on the same page are set. As time progresses, pressure related to delivery date and scope increase arise and team start to work at a higher pace. Despite great effort, team need to work nights and weekends to get all pieces together for the required date. When system is in prod, a second nightmare starts with the fixing part, as bugs are discovered. This is a sample of waterfall parts which lead to multiple wastes.
As an agile response: focusing on early and iterative delivery of working software will help in this case. Agile aims for a sustainable pace. Time boxing helps the process by setting a constant inspect and adapt loop. Also, impediments are resolved during iteration for decreasing risk, team members learn to work together iteration by iteration.
Muri - is the overburden, stress which usually results from Mura. Could be caused also by organizational issues.
As a sample here we could have: poorly work place setup, unclear instructions, lack of training, wrong tools, poor communications patterns and the list can continue..
As an Agile response: check your team's needs and see which framework would suit best and do the setup. For example Scrum is a lightweight and is easy to understand.
Once teams will understand the value, the artefacts, the ceremonies, its roles there will be less stress due to lack of training. Communication will be improved iteration by iteration, as teams learn how to work together and how to become self organized. And let's not forget that the most efficient conversation happens face to face.
As a conclusion it is very important to be careful with the 3M types of waste which might happen in your team's daily work.
Above is my perspective related to how Agile can tackle the wastes but think what would be specific in your case as situations and teams are different.
Think about the 3M meaning and observe what types of waste happens in your team.
As Taiichi Ohno would say, Go in Gemba and start to Kaizen
And remember..
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