Lean leadership
To implement Lean is not an initiative and is a long-term journey.
Area-Specific Interpretation
Employee empowerment:
Management provides clear guidance for employees on expected results and skills.All involved people stick to decisions and follow the fair process principles of discuss, decide, execute.
Employees have the authority to decide the best way to do their work. They also take responsibility for the results of their actions.
QCD in one hand:
Product Owner is accountable for Quality, Cost and Delivery of a product or service throughout the entire product lifecycle.
Cross-functional team:
The basic unit of planning and execution is an elementary, cross-functional team, whose size varies from five to 12members.
Work is planned at the team level, rather than the individual level.
Prioritized backlog at all times:
A prioritized and ranked backlog is available at all times.
The different backlogs (product, release and sprint) provide a comprehensive end-to-end breakdown, from customer and stakeholder requirements to the tasks of the implementation teams.
The backlog is a living artifact because its entries can be re-prioritized by the responsible Product Owner. It is used by all teams as the instrument to steer their work.
Takt:
All work within a program is organized in time-boxed iterations with a well-defined length known as a takt.
A takt comprises a complete “Define, Build, Test and Accept” cycle and strives for built-in quality.
A takt length is fixed, between 2 and 6 weeks and enables frequent validation with customers and stakeholders and a faster response to feedback.
Each takt has a well-defined objective set by the Product Owner.
Standard process:
A standard process, based on agile methods, with a set of defined rules and feedback loops is documented and used.
The process leaves enough room for individual practices and creativity.
Usable software each takt:
At the end of each takt a software increment, which can be easily consumed and validated by the customer / stakeholder, is delivered.
Transparency of processes and product maturity:
A basic and minimal set of KPIs is defined and communicated to the relevant teams.
KPIs are measured, evaluated and validated with dedicated pilot teams. KPIs are used within program reporting.
Continuous improvement process and structure:
The continuous improvement process (CIP) is designed to constantly evaluate and improve processes, established in the overall organization and actively supported by all employees.
Eliminate waste
Differentiate between activities that add value and those that cause waste to increase efficiency.
General ideas
- Activities with added value the customer is willing to pay for.
- Activities with obvious waste do not make an obvious contribution to value creation
- Activities with hidden waste do not contribute to value creation but need to be carried out
**Identifying Waste **
If it does not add to product value, then it is a waste
Ask three questions:
- Which of the tasks performed are essential for the production process?
- Which of the tasks only increase product cost instead of product value?
- Which of the tasks have a genuine influence on what customers see or on what is important to them?
Guidance
- Eliminate waste (replace waste with value-adding tasks) to increase the proportion of value-adding tasks. Do not add more workload.
- To eliminate any excess safety buffer is the recommended method of reducing waste.
- The vision of Lean is a low-waste process that is achieved by means of the JIT system (will be introduced soon).
Continuous Improvement
Continuous improvement is an ongoing, never-ending process.
Comprise Go and See, Kaizen and Perfection Challenge to build a culture of intervening in and fixing problems.
The full implication of Go and See, especially for managers, is to frequently spend time at the real place of work, build relationships of trust with the employees, and help them fix things.
Kaizen means ongoing improvement, in small and achievable steps, involving everyone, including both managers and employees.
The idea of Perfection Challenge is to repeat cycles of improvement experiments indefinitely; to never be satisfied with the status quo.
Respect for people
(advice for managers)
- Good people build good products -> Develop people, then build products.
Understand and act on the goals of “eliminating waste” and “continuous improvement” in actions and decisions.
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Respect the knowledge of the individual as part of a team. Develop and empower teams:
Commitment to education and development
Don’t force employees to do wasteful work and don’t make them wait
Don’t impose wishful thinking on employees and don’t overload them
Maximize Customers value and speed
