dive into a3: lean agile scotland 2013

Every Day A Little Better

@martinburnsuk http://everydaylean.info/tag/a3

Dive Into A3 Thinking

Martin Burns

With speaker voice-over

commentary



Relative National Productivity, 1937Before WWII, everyone in manufacturing assumed that

Japanese productivity was about 1/9 that of US

productivity.

Over the next 8 years, Japanese productivity took a

downturn, particularly at the end.

In the late 40s, Toyota's leadership issued a challenge to

the company: Catch up with the Americans. Crazy stuff,

and the kind of thing that would make most people laugh

out loud at a boss who demanded it. And yet....

Source:Ohno: Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-scale Production



Relative Productivity, 1976

Source:The Competitive Status of the US Auto Industry, National Academy Press 1982

2.4x2.4x 5x5x

...by the end of the 70s, they'd

achieved it, and were accelerating

away.

This was the point at which the US Auto

industry was pronounced dead, even

though the corpse continued to twitch

for a while yet.

How on earth did they do it?



It would be easy to assume (and far too many people

did, including all the first 3rd party writers: Womack &

Jones etc) that this was down to all the methods we

know as Lean: Value Streams, Pull, Flow, Poka Yoke,

Kanban, SMED and all the rest of it.

But that would be to fundamentally miss the point.

Taiichi Ohno

What made the difference was a management

philosophy that was all about improvement. Every.

Single. Day.

The tools are just countermeasures to business problems The tools are just countermeasures to business problems that Toyota has faced, and will be used only until better that Toyota has faced, and will be used only until better

countermeasures are found.countermeasures are found.



Problem Solving Culture

Obsessiv

e

What makes the difference is Toyota's Culture

- truly obsessing about improvement. Or

Problem Solving - it's the same thing.

It’s not just improvement, it’s *obsessive*

improvement.

Most companies planning to end a long

running, much improved process in a few

months would tend to think that it was now

pretty damned good and to focus elsewhere

for improvements

When Toyota plan to end a product line, they

keep making improvements on it until the last

car rolls off on the last day.

The kind of company that when you've spent a

lot of time and energy working out a quality

problem is caused by contaminated coolant

will then ask "Have you considered how the

coolant got contaminated? What checks do we

have to sample it? Who is in charge of the

coolant check process? How can we prevent

contamination in the future?"

It's a culture that includes humility,

open-minded curiosity, making

problems visible, following

standards, respecting people,

gemba thinking, scientific thinking,

building consensus for action, a

willingness to try... and risk failure

The kind of company that on your

first day, as your first task, gives

you a real problem to solve and a

coach to help solve it. How

important would such a company

view problem solving, and

developing problem-solvers?

To what extent does this describe

the current situation at your work?



Straw Poll:In the Last Year, How Many Improvements Did You See

Around You?

I carried out this poll

with several

thousand people in a

large technology

company over the

course of a year.

And here's the result.



Problem Problem Solving Solving CultureCulture

DysfunctionsDysfunctions

Problem Problem Solving Solving CultureCulture

DysfunctionsDysfunctionsWho has Who has

time?time?

It Takes a It Takes a GuruGuru

Whack A Whack A MoleMole

Working Working backward from backward from preconceived preconceived

ideasideas

Jumping to Jumping to SolutionsSolutions

Solving the Solving the wrong wrong

problemproblem

Big BatchesBig Batches

Manager Manager Says NoSays No

BackslidingBacksliding

We don't see obsessive problem solving

often.

Far more often we see these behaviours

instead.

If we were a firing squad, our process

would be "Ready, Fire, Aim!" because

we all like to be solutions people.

Trying to jump to perfection

in one go. Doesn't work.

Improvement is not *additional* to

'real work' in a problemsolving

culture - it is *part* of it, particularly

for managers

So many management

issues are caused by

perfectly solving the wrong

problem.

If a problem

re-occurs, it's

not solved.

Who knows the

problem best? The

people doing the

work to be improved



Com

municate

the Problem

Solve The Problem

Dev

elop

the

Pro

blem

Sol

ver

Melts Melts OppositionOpposition

Gemba Gemba Knowledge Knowledge

Make Gurus Make Gurus RedundantRedundant

Solutions Stick Solutions Stick

Solve the Solve the Right Right Problem Problem

Think Safely Think Safely

Easily Easily AssessableAssessableNo-one is No-one is

exemptexempt

Far better would be a process that focused on

three core factors, beyond simply 'solve the

problem'.



PDSA – the Heart of Lean Problemsolving

Plan Do

Study

■ What are we doing to remove the obstacles?

■ Did it work?

■ If so, how do we work like that all the time?

■ If not, what are we trying next?

Adjust

■ What’s the Problem (in outcome terms)?

■ What’s the Current Condition?

■ What’s the Target Condition?

■ What’s stopping us getting there?(obstacles)

Em

piric

al E

xper

imen

tal M

etho

dDeeply understanding the problem

before suggesting a single solution

avoids the "Ready, Fire, Aim!"

situation.



Deadly Warning

A3 is a Thinking Methodnot a Template

or a Tool

Deadly Warning Use a Pencil

CompleteOne section at a time

Deadly Warning A3s die in a Computer

Make them visual.

Post them on boards.

Take them to people

and talk them

through.

You *will* be making corrections

:-)

Get each section into a good shape before

pushing on to the next

This is how you engage the

people you will need to

support and implement

your change, and ensure

it's as good as it possibly

can be.



PDSA – the Heart of Lean Problemsolving

Plan Do

Study

■ What are we doing to remove the obstacles?

■ Did it work?

■ If so, how do we work like that all the time?

■ If not, what are we trying next?

Adjust

■ What’s the Problem (in outcome terms)?

■ What’s the Current Condition?

■ What’s the Target Condition?

■ What’s stopping us getting there?(obstacles)

Em

piric

al E

xper

imen

tal M

etho

d

Translate this to a single piece of paper and it looks

like...

You could view this as TDD for Problem Solving:

start from the perspective of Acceptance Criteria

('Study') and use the understanding gained in

'Plan' to implement Countermeasures ('Do') that

will achieve the desired outcome (target

condition)

'Test' if you

prefer

Adopt, Adapt

or Abandon

Deeply understanding the problem

before suggesting a single solution

avoids the "Ready, Fire, Aim!"

situation.


@martinburnsuk http://everydaylean.infoMore info: http://everydaylean.info/tag/A3

DO

DO

Strategic Background

Current Situation

Goal

Countermeasures

Confirmation

Action Plan

# Action Owner Due Date1

2

3

4

How will we know the countermeasures work?


How will we make the benefits widespread?


Theme:What will address the root causes & achieve the goals?

What will address the root causes & achieve the goals?

Standardise

How will the countermeasures be implemented?


Analysis eg 5 Whys/Pareto

Why is this important?Why did you pick this problem?


What will success look like in same terms as above? Quantify. Benefits.


What’s happening now in terms of outcomes? Quantify


What are we trying to do?What are we trying to do?

Owner

Coach

Date

PLA

NPLA

NPLA

NPLA

N

What’s the real problem?What’s the real problem?

STU

DY

AD

JUST

Template Author: Martin BurnsCreated: 27 May 2009Last Updated: 9 Sept 2013

Grab a copy of this from

http://everydaylean.info/

downloads/


@martinburnsuk http://everydaylean.infoMore info: http://everydaylean.info/tag/A3

DO

DO

Strategic Background

Current Situation

Goal

Countermeasures

Confirmation

Action Plan

# Action Owner Due Date1

2

3

4





Theme:What will address the root causes & achieve the goals?

What will address the root causes & achieve the goals?

Standardise



Analysis eg 5 Whys/Pareto







What are we trying to do?What are we trying to do?

Owner

Coach

Date

PLA

NPLA

NPLA

NPLA

N

What’s the real problem?What’s the real problem?

STU

DY

AD

JUST

Template Author: Martin BurnsCreated: 27 May 2009Last Updated: 9 Sept 2013

Grab a copy of this from

http://everydaylean.info/

downloads/

The next slides take a walk through a simple

example

If you transfer this to one piece of paper, you

get a number of useful things:

1)You error proof the process - it forces you

to be rational. Which is really hard for

humans.

2)It exposes irrationality and flaws in the

logic: nowhere to for cognitive biases to

hide

3)Makes your thinking visual: great boundary

object, and quick to talk anyone through in

elevator pitch style (compare death by

PowerPoint)

4)It starts becoming a standard, and you

stop worrying about HOW to shape an

argument and can focus on the actual

logic.

NOTE you may (& probably will) have a load

of detail behind what's on here. But that's

your working info, not what you take

around stakeholders.



Always Two There Are...

Who should be involved in the method?



...a Problem Solver (Owner) and a Coach

Jim Womack, Gemba Walkshttp://j.mp/GembaWalks

A lean management system involves managers at every level framing the key problems that need to be solved and asking the teams they lead to discover and implement the answers

A lean management system involves managers at every level framing the key problems that need to be solved and asking the teams they lead to discover and implement the answers

The manager can’t solve the problem alone, because the manager isn’t close enough to the problem to know the facts.

But the employee can’t solve the problem alone either, because he or she is often too close to the issue to see its context and may refrain from asking tough questions about his or her own work.

Only by showing mutual respect is it possible to solve problems and move organisational performance to an ever-higher level.

Jim is one of the leaders of the Lean

Enterprise Institute.

This is a great ebook - definitely

recommended to understand all kinds

of areas of Lean Thinking

Embedding an improvement

coaching method into an

organisation's fundamental

management approach is

INSTRUMENTAL in developing that

obsessive improvement culture.

Top to bottom: NO-ONE is exempt.

Who should fill these roles?

Whoever's work is impacted by the problem, and their

manager



This section does 2 things:

1) Ensures that we're solving something that matters

2) Starting to identify and get the attention of all the stakeholder groups you'll need to effectively solve

the problem

If you're*very* lucky, you'll have a fully decomposed organisational strategy that you can point to and

simply note that the problem impacts an agreed objective. This is how A3 links into other Lean methods

such as Hoshin Kanri.

In writing all these sections, take them round as wide a group of stakeholders as possible to get heterogenous input and

build consensus around your problem solving - starting from an early draft stage. Whoever else you consult, you

absolutely must include a full range of people whose work is directly impacted by the problem or any countermeasures

you propose. No-one else will better understand the problem or be better able to validate your analysis and the viability of

your proposed countermeasures.

If you cannot reflect a stakeholder's views in the final version, you have a duty to go back to them and explain why. This

way, you maintain a sense of consultation & collaboration even with those you disagree with.

Team is an outsourced L2 support team, with >20 members supporting >60 applications. Each app has 1or 2 designated SMEs in the team.

Team spending lots of NonValueAdd Time redirecting calls to the right SME; it's expensive, diverts effort from real work & is really annoying for the team (problem was identified by the team as their top priority)



These 2 sections are all about measurable data, demonstrating current

state and how it varies over time - time series charts are useful here.



You can use many analysis tools here,

but amongst the simplest and most

powerful to uncover the most effective

countermeasures is the '5 why'

technique used here.

DEADLY WARNING: do NOT start from a

solution & work back, including defining

problem as 'lack of an X.'

Other effective analysis

techniques include fishbone

diagrams, process maps (and in

particular, Value Stream Maps),

equipment sketches, spaghetti

diagrams.

Remember though that there

may be multiple causing factors

that interact in a complex way.

What we are

doing here is

trying to work out

what factors (that

we can change)

contribute to the

symptoms noted.



Problem:The caterer delivered food 2 hours late.

WBecause we did not prepare the purchase order on time.

WBecause we did not get all approval signatures on time.

WBecause we prepared the PO 3 days before the event.

WBecause we forgot to prepare a Purchase Order.

WRoot CauseBecause we didn’t have a checklist to clearly identify the tasks we needed to complete at what time.

Another 5 Why analysis

example, showing that "Because

we're lazy lollygaggers" doesn't

actually help - work on fixing the

95% (the system) not the 5%

(the people). Make it such that

it's impossible for the people to

get wrong,



ProblemThe machine stopped

WSpindle isn't turning freely, It overloaded & fuse blew

WSpindle isn't lubricated

WOil Pump isn't working

WOil shaft bearings are worn

WDirt in the Oil Pump

➡Root cause:lack of preventative maintenance on Oil Sieve

➡Countermeasure:Regularly Oil Sieve & replace when ineffective; review all maintenance procedures for completeness

This example shows

that a simple fix isn't

enough - there's a

*process* that's gone

wrong (or isn't there)

and without it, the

problem will keep

reoccurring. This may

just be the first of

many potential

failures.



Having understood the problem deeply, using the insight of a wide group of stakeholders, you can effectively come up with some

ideas to move from current situation towards your goal.

You may have competing ideas for this, possibly from different stakeholders. A3's empirical approach avoids arguments; you can

graciously allow a stakeholder the first trial. If their idea works (or doesn't), you can then try your idea & let the facts speak for

themselves. You might both be right. Or both wrong. You won't know until you try. (Direct marketeers may recognise this as a

Champion-v-Challenger approach) That's why we don't call this a Solution, but simply the best countermeasures we currently

have. Think back to Ohno's comment from earlier...



Don’t try to boil the ocean with planning. A simple plan is definitely best.

Do as little as you can get away with, to avoid paralysis by analysis. As

before, you may have more detail elsewhere, but you should be able to

summarise what you’re doing in a few lines.



This is your test. How will you measure the outcome to give results in the

same terms as your prediction and current state? How often will you

measure? Who will do it, and so on.

Once you have results, they go here.



If your countermeasures didn’t help the situation, then you loop back to define some more - you may have a list ready and

waiting. You will also ensure that you learn from your experiment: you have just correctly identified something that doesn’t work.

If they did help the situation, then this is where you enable the organisation to learn from the experiment’s positive outcome. If

this way is better than the previous one, how will we make this a standard such that we work like this all the time from now? Are

there any other teams in the organisation who might benefit from our experiment?

Finally, if your experiment leaves you short of perfection (and it always will), then loop back to the start and update the current

state, define a new target and continue experimenting!



VisionVision

NowNow

A3 starts from a vision of True North,

or Guiding Stars. What’s the far off

vision of perfection we’re striving

towards?

However, it’s not possible to reach it

in one go for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, change always causes

problems first. Performance

goes down before it goes up.

The bigger the change, the

deeper the dip and the longer

it takes to return to where you

started, let alone positive

outcomes.



VisionVision

NowNow

TargetTarget

Where do Where do we want to we want to be be next?next?

Secondly, trying to predict the future is a

fool’s game. It’s like walking in a fog. You

may be able to see the far distant hill, and

the 2m in front of you, but in between is

obscured.

So we de-risk both factors by setting a shorter goal that is on

the way to the vision, yet is still achievable. We show benefit

sooner, and we can inspect and adapt from that point to the

next short term goal.

We keep taking small steps every day, adjusting as we go

along.



This frequent, small improvement was the basis

for the Industrial Revolution. That the British are

a culture of tinkerers - blokes in sheds working

on one small thing - rather than revolutionaries is

perhaps a major part of why the Industrial

Revolution was so much bigger in the UK than in

Germany or France.

Tale the Spinning Jenny - a fundamental

example of Industrial improvement over

the course of a century.

Invented in 1779 and allowed one worker

to spin not 1 but 8 threads at the same

time. A huge productivity gain

Then it was improved by Henry Stones, of

Horwich, who added metal rollers to the

mule

And by James Hargreaves, of Tottington,

who figured out how to smooth the

acceleration and deceleration of the

spinning wheel which reduced thread

snapping and meant longer runs between

thread replacement

Author



Then came William Kelly, of Glasgow, who worked out how to add water power to the draw stroke, reducing the effort of

the worker

And John Kennedy, of Manchester, who adapted the wheel to turn out finer threads without snapping. Fine thread means

fine cloth means higher revenues;



And Richard Roberts, also of Manchester,

created the “automatic” spinning mule: an

exacting, high-speed, reliable rethinking of

Crompton’s original creation that allowed far

higher thread counts. Workers were now

machine minders, not operators.

By 1892, the number of threads per worker had

grown from 8 to 1000



Does It Work...?

Kaiz

eK

aiz

en

n

Here

HereKaize

nHere

Kaizen

Here

This is an improvement in a team’s Risks process. As

always, a Risk is an Improvement which may or may not

happen. Strategies generally involve reducing probability

(avoidance) and reducing impact (mitigation).

Following improvement, the number of new issues

dropped dramatically through being better avoided in the

Risk process, and then those that did still occur were

better mitigated as they had been better anticipated in

the Risks process.



Does It Work...?This was the first A3 I ever coached. My team were

working with a customer’s complex systems, and we had a

problem bringing new people into the team fast enough.

While the customer’s system made it tough to start with,

other process problems in new user setup extended the

time from arrival to productivity to 43 working days.

The team lead owned the improvement, and identified a

countermeasure that cut this by 20d, and while

implementing, identified a further improvement that had

4d more savings



Does It Work...? When you’ve been doing

this a while, and have it

really built into your

culture, then you can

simplify the template

significantly.

This is from a tour of

industrial sites in Japan,

illustrating one simple

improvement.

Management empowered

the team to do this and

update their own work

standards to incorporate

these changes.



Does It Work...? Same location - can you imagine what 8

new improvement ideas per person per

month would do for your organisation?



Learn to DoLearn to DoLearn to Learn to CoachCoach

Implementing A3 in an organisation requires

setting up chains of coaching pairs. The best

place to start with this is at the top, but the

middle can also work, provided you have top

level stakeholder support to do it.

First you learn to do. Without this experience,

it’s very hard to coach someone else to do the

job you’ve never had to do.

Then you learn to a coach, with access to a

secondary coach who coaches your coaching.



Resources•



A3 Dojo

Track 4: 11:20 - 13:00 Tomorrow

Bring Problems!

Grab a copy of the template

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