“gemba walk” (lean thinking term) to go to the actual place where value is added + “walkabout” (Australian aborigine) a short period of wandering bush life engaged as an occasional interruption of regular work
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I will have an updated post on my brother Dave’s situation later this week. For this post, I’m going back to discussing the Guiding Principles of Operational Excellence.
Part 1 was an overview of the Shingo Model and 2 elements (house and transformation “diamond”). The topic of this post is about the source of these 10 guiding principles.
A timeline of the history of what has become called “lean” in manufacturing is shown in the graphic below.
Another good source that I like to use for a history of lean thinking is the series of books REAL LEAN by Bob Emiliani.
A similar timeline for lean-thinking in healthcare is shown below. Earlier iterations of this different style of management have been called “continuous process improvement”. We are just starting to see the transfer of the principles and tools that have been applied in manufacturing into the health care arena.
There were not always just 10 guiding principles. The articulation of these 10 evolved over time. The diagram below shows some of the influential thought-leaders that have shaped the articulation of these 10 principles.
So, the principles have not come from any one person.
Why is it important to understand the guiding principles? We know that just learning and copying tools is not enough. Dr. Deming pointed this out in the 1980s when he commented that, “People go to Japan and copy what they are doing, but they don’t know what to copy.” I think what he meant is illustrated in the diagram below, with the quote attributed to Shigeo Shingo.
When we understand correct principles, we will design and redesign systems, which means selecting and using the best tools. We typically build the other way: we learn (copy) some tools -> which may become systems, -> then (possibly) understand the principles.
I also like to view it this way from a diagram from my friend Thom Smith.
As you can see, this diagram includes “Behaviors” which is what you want to try to affect with a cultural transformation. People will respond rationally to the system they are in. So, if you want different behaviors, you need to have different systems. In order to do this, you modify and try different tools (which are a part of the system). Systems that are guided by the 10 guiding principles are a lot different than systems that are guided by the prevailing style of management. I also like the way this diagram shows the distinction between principles and values. A lot of organizations say they have values, but are those values anchored to the correct guiding principles? In many organization, the answer is “no”.
