Vergence Business Associates - Catalysts For Process Excellence - Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Welcome to LeanExecution!

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Until Next Time – STAY lean!

Toyota: Managing Nightmares

The Nightmare

Toyota continues to be plagued by recalls.  The current acceleration issues (either floor mats or “sticky” accelerators), braking issues on the Prius Hybrid, and now reports in the USA of steering problems with 2009 and 2010 Corollas.  While the majority of the news reports focus on the next steps to repair faulty vehicles, the real nightmare is the human tragedy that was and may still be pending until these issues are resolved.

What is also surprising is the scope of the recalls as they extend to include 2004 model year vehicles.  This is a lot for one company to absorb over such a short period.  It is clear that a flawed design can bring a company to it’s knees overnight.  In the wake of this nightmare, it is also disappointing that Toyota has been less than forthcoming with their communication strategy.

Toyota Lessons Learned

A crucial lesson for Toyota and other companies is to learn to recognize when a problem is really a problem.  Rather than dismissing a fault or failure as a remote possibility or “highly unlikely event”, the key to solving any problem is acknowledging that one exists.  This may have been the greatest error of all in this case.

As consumers we may be too naïve to think that companies are operating with our best interests in mind and not necessarily putting the interests of their stakeholders first.  To be more specific, there is a very fine line between managing solutions, managing risk, and managing a profitable business.  Problems without resolutions or preventable measures are subject to risk management strategy and the price of many products on the market today include a company’s costs to manage risks and potential liabilities.

Responsiveness versus Excuses

Is it the investment or the lives that were lost that call for varying degrees of “investigation”, problem solving, and government intervention?  The timeline of events leading to the recall for accelerator issues spans months and perhaps even years when the problem was first reported.  What does it take before a company finally decides that an event has statistical significance?

The lesson that all companies can learn from this is that the value of human life cannot be measured or dismissed by a risk assessment or  an extremely remote chance of recurrence.  There is little comfort in statistics if you happen to be that one person in a million that has the problem.  We are not suggesting that Toyota dismissed prior reports of problems; we are simply asking “out loud” if they could have had cause to act sooner.

Some media reports have suggested that Toyota grew too fast over the past few years.  How would that have any impact on the design of the vehicle?  Toyota design changes are typically perceived as enhancements and improvements over time.  Yes, Toyota gained significant increases in market share as interest in hybrid vehicles grew with ever increasing gas prices.  Yes, increased volumes place an unprecedented strain on resources throughout the supply chain and perhaps even more so for those suppliers that have been surviving on reduced staff and personnel.  None of these are excuses for a failed design.  This was not a manufacturing defect as we understand it.

Toyota Trust

Unfortunately for Toyota, this recall is not a nightmare they can just wake up from - it is a bitter reality.  Although Toyota vows to improve quality, this needs to be demonstrated.  These same words were uttered by Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe in 2006 as investigations were pending for the recall of over a million vehicles for a faulty steering component that was initially discovered in 2004.  Akio Toyoda now finds himself making similar commitments again in 2010.

When we consider the number of vehicles produced, we also have to consider the effectiveness of the solution seemingly contrived over recent weeks or, for the benefit of the doubt, months.

How do we really know the proposed solution is effective?  The reality is that we don’t.  As with the discovery of the original defect, only time will tell.  Despite all the testing performed to simulate “the real world”, it is crucial to understand that tests are only simulations – they are not real life.  Even though a failure is predictable, it is not always preventable and just because it didn’t happen doesn’t mean it can’t happen.

Restoring consumer confidence and trust will take some time and Toyota’s crisis management skills will certainly be challenged.  The communication strategy to date has been less than admirable by some accounts, while others continue to praise Toyota’s product line and have re-affirmed their confidence in the company.

Owing to their own lean principles, we are hopeful that Toyota will continue to embrace problems as opportunities to learn and to strengthen the company  and its products.  Toyota is the last company we would expect to see with this number of problems on their hands at any one time.

Our disappointment with Toyota is the lapse between discovery and fix, and subsequently the lapse in communication as the recalls are officially made public.  To this end, Toyota’s reputation may be waning.

Until Next Time – STAY lean!

Lean Analytics and a little TRIZ

We are encouraged to see a significantly increasing interest in lean and agile strategy.  As we have emphasized in previous posts, the culture and work environment are as critical to the success of your initiatives as are the specific techniques, methods, and / or technologies that you will choose to use.  One of our favorite phrases to put our work environment into perspective  is, “What you see is how we think.”  We trust you will find the references in this post to be inspiring, thought provoking, and maybe even a little entertaining.

Analytics – In Perspective

The study of data can lead to some very interesting interpretations of the results.  We all have theories and with enough time and data we can prove them right or wrong.  Most statisticians, accountants, lawyers, and politicians can attest to this.  Data is typically studied and presented from a pre-conceived framework and variations are interpreted based on our chosen understanding of the model.

We have been researching cognitive dissonance and how this may affect the success of lean initiatives.  During our research, we found an article that describes how our thinking may actually influence or impede our ability to clearly see the problems or opportunities before us.  This article is self-explanatory and does not need much more by way of introduction.

Click here to view the Wired Magazine Article.

TRIZ:  We were recently asked to present a simple example that demonstrates the TRIZ concept.  While we agree that certain aspects of TRIZ can appear to be too complex to integrate into everyday problem solving, we found an excellent real world example that may surprise you.  This short video is only a few minutes long but speaks volumes.

Click here to view the video clip we found on TED.com.

The simplicity of this example makes it easy for everyone to understand at least one of the premises on which TRIZ is based.  Secondly, it serves as an excellent example to demonstrate how our perception and perspective can affect our ability to communicate new ideas and strategy to people who may not be familiar with our culture or environment.

Until Next Time – STAY lean!

Lessons Learned from Toyota’s Stumble…e piece on Toyota recall by Steve Spear

Date: Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 12:43 AM
Subject: Lessons Learned from Toyota’s Stumble…e piece on Toyota recall by Steve Spear

I received an e-mail this morning from Steven J. Spear, author of “Chasing the Rabbit: How Market Leaders Outdistance the Competition” and thought I would share his commentary on the Toyota recall. Steven raises some interesting points that we can all learn from.

The local news here in Mississauga attempted to gain commentary from CTS employees with little success. In summary, “The parts are being produced to specifications required by the customer.” It was also reported on the news today that Toyota has found a solution and will commence with their plans to fix the problem.

Steve’s e-mail follows:

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Long the quality and efficiency standard-setter, Toyota now has an ostrich-sized egg on its face — a problem with sticking accelerator pedals that led to global product recalls and a suspension of production and sales.

There are important lessons to be learned from Toyota’s stumble:

Competitive success is fluid. It depends on continuously discovering better ways to do work. The capabilities to do this are powerful but fragile and need constant reinforcement. Relentless attention to their development can lead to great success; conversely, a loss in attention can have grave consequences.

Please see the rest of the piece, “Learning from Toyota’s Stumble,” at blogs.hbr.org.

With best wishes,
Steve Spear
Author: Chasing the Rabbit: How Market Leaders Outdistance the Competition

The Zeigarnik Effect and Lean

Have you heard about the Zeigarnik Effect?  What application could this possibly have with lean?    Consider that the human brain views an unanswered question the same as an incomplete task.  The brain must satisfy it’s innate desire to answer the question.

The proof is easier to prove by example.  How many times have you been in a conversation trying to recall someone’s name?  Failing to remember, you keep asking yourself, “What was that person’s name”?  Suddenly, after a few hours or even days later, the name comes to you out of nowhere.  The “Aha, that’s it” moment arrives.

With respect to lean, there are many questions that beg to be answered:

• How can we make this process faster?
• How can we cut the cycle time?
• How can we reduce the number of steps to make these parts?
• Why do we carry all this inventory?
• Where are we most vulnerable
• How can we improve the quality of this product?
• What can we do to eliminate waste?
• What would happen if …?
• Why do we do this or that…?

We all understand the power of questions.  The news media and marketing experts are constantly confronting us with questions that need to be answered.  In the case of news media, they entice us to read the story or stay tuned.  In the case of marketing and advertising, they present their product or service solutions.  As lean practitioners, we are continually asking questions.

The evolution of lean thrives by asking the right questions.  Many of the lean tools in use today have been around for many years.  Even in organizations where lean is not a core focus, people are passively aware that lean exists.  They may also have acquired an unrealistic definition of what lean really is.  For companies that have yet to integrate lean practices, this preconceived notion of what lean is may actually hinder your efforts.  The team may be disengaged at the onset of any initiative because they think they know it already.

The prescription for maintaining momentum in your lean journey is simple:  Ask more questions than you hope to ever have answers for.  Engage your team by asking questions.  Although simply asking “Why?” can generate a lot of activity, we should be very specific with our questions.  Keep asking questions until the answers stop flowing.

As students in school, we expected the teachers to know the answers to the questions they were asking.  In a lean organization, even the teachers are students.  Are we asking the right questions?

Until Next Time – STAY lean!

A brief article that discusses the Zeigarnik Effect can be found at the following link  http://businessmindhacks.com/post/zeigarnik-effect-in-depth.

Lean Resources On Demand

On Demand

As people we have grown accustomed to service on demand.  The internet, fast food, service stations, 24 hour convenience shopping, medical services, video on demand, and so much more are available almost instantly.  Of course much of this is made possible by the latest technologies and electronic gadgets that bring the world to our finger tips at the push of a button.

Imagine if your business could experience the same level of accessibility to resources as we seem to have with the outside world in our personal lives.  Perhaps 2010 is the year to redefine how the systems and processes in your organization can emulate the “on demand” level of performance we have become accustomed to in our private lives.

Lean Resources

We predict that the year 2010 will see more specialization of service providers as companies continue to review their essential functions and resource requirements.  Although outsourcing has been a topic of discussion over the past few years, it is now becoming more prevalent as companies continue to review their organizational structures in light of declining sales and diminished profits.

The economic downturn did not limit its impact to the manufacturing sector or, more specifically, the automotive industry.  An article was recently published in our local news papers announcing the layoff of several news anchors and support staff from various television and radio broadcast stations.  Of the reasons mentioned for the restructuring, reduced advertising revenue was among them.

The Next Step

What are these people going to do?  Where will they find gainful employment in a declining market?  Are these skills no longer required?  The short answer is that their services are still required.  The problem is that one single company cannot afford to retain their services on a full-time basis.

As people affected by restructuring efforts, the best solution may be to start your own company and market your specialized skills or services.  While your former company may become one of your clients, it is possible that other companies are also in a place where they simply cannot afford to keep full-time staff to support their current needs.  Companies typically do not share resources with other companies; however, they do contract services to common service providers.  Syndication is widely used in broadcasting.

Using our personal lives as an example, we do not have our own full-time doctors, lawyers, real estate agents, auto mechanics, electricians, plumbers, and so on.  We simply hire these services on demand – only when we need them.  The focus of re-organization strategies today is to decide what services are essential to protect the proprietary nature of the business and those that could be outsourced as an on demand resource.

For the entrepreneur, as an individual entity serving multiple companies, your area of specialization can be developed and refined beyond the limits that may have been imposed by your former employer.  To explore this further, we will discuss several examples to develop the application of this concept.

The Possibilities - Examples

We all use computers in our daily lives just as you are while reading this article.  Clearly, someone was responsible for creating this wonderful technology and is presently working on the next generation computer or software program – whether we think we need it or not.  As individuals, we are immune to the multitude of tasks that this may entail.  We simply continue to enjoy the results.

Microsoft and Apple are continually developing new software capabilities and applications.  It’s common to hear, “There’s an APP for that.”  Even as these new products are released, areas of specialization evolve.  The next time you are browsing your way through a book store, look at the number of books written on Excel alone.  Books are available to teach you how to perform a variety of tasks including Dashboards, Business Applications, Charting, Pivot Tables, and even customization and advanced applications using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA).  The specialization model is further supported by the number of applications that have been developed using Excel as evidenced by the thousands of products and services available on the internet alone.

Although most companies may have a self-proclaimed Excel expert, most do not keep a full-time Excel specialist on staff.  It would not be uncommon to hire an Excel specialist to develop an application for your company.  As an independent solution provider, the Excel expert can continue to develop and hone their programming and development skills above and beyond what any person or company may need.  This in turn will result in more efficient and advanced functionality than any one company would be willing to afford.  Click here to visit our trusted Excel Web Resources.

One of the concerns at Research In Motion (RIM), creators of the BlackBerry, is finding the talent required to support their current technology.  The advancements and specialization required is beyond that taught in our universities and colleges.  This area of specialization has reached such a level, that only RIM is able to manage their product line.  It is expected that these essential services must be developed and retained internally and further enforced through their hiring contracts that are most certainly rife with non-competition and confidentiality clauses.

The medical field presents another excellent example of how increased specialization has evolved over the years to offer solutions, or cures, that otherwise would not be available today.  Today, the family doctor may just as readily refer you to a specialist and not fully diagnose your condition personally.  Even the field of dentistry has an evolved hierarchy of skills and specialization as do many legal practices.

Affordability

While we continue to enjoy ever-increasing enhancements and benefits to the products and services available to us, innovative ideas continue to surface into unique niche markets.  Because of the mass market appeal, products and services that are available to us as individuals could not be afforded otherwise.  Naturally, the same can be said for business.

We also recognize that one of the impediments to change is the significant investment that is already committed to support the processes and systems that define the current infrastructure.  Secondly, the funds to upgrade to an entirely new process or system are likely not available, especially in today’s economy.  Lastly, not all business need advanced levels of support or services and in some cases could never afford the level of performance they provide.

The price of upgrading is clear even in the simplest of operating environments.  Even today we continue to find older versions of Microsoft Office products such Excel 2000 or Excel 2003.  Although it took a while to adapt to the Microsoft 2007 environment, the enhancements and added capabilities were well worth the effort to upgrade.  Legacy software versions actually complicate the process of software development due to the programming overhead required for version specific compatibility.

As areas of specialization increase, products and services are becoming more affordable.  Companies that offer these services are creating unique venues to deliver their products or services with continually improved capabilities and options.  Even companies that could never afford an in-house ERP system may find a cost-effective solution using on-line services.  Some of the latest versions of major ERP systems provide all the amenities of real-time reporting, telecommuting, remote access, supply chain management, purchasing, on-line support, and so much more.

Summary

Clearly, using outside services that specialize in a complementary area of ability to your business can only result in a win-win outcome.  The specialist provides more knowledge and experience than your company could ever afford to learn and, as a company, you are able to focus on your own areas of expertise that in turn can only improve the products and services you provide.

As individuals - professional, skilled or otherwise - you may find that your talents are required and still very much in demand.  While companies must keep essential resources to protect the proprietary nature of their business (intellectual property and tangible assets), they are still able to use external resources to support their efforts.

From this perspective, we can learn a lot from small businesses that do not have the luxury of hiring full-time staff.  They may never afford to support traditional infrastructure often found in larger companies.  Small business entrepreneurs focus on their core areas of expertise, their essential products and services, and retain the services of outside specialists on demand.

Companies will continue to look for opportunities to embrace outside services – on demand resources – allowing them to focus on their core business activities.  While this may seem contrary to the traditional lean tenets, we would argue to the contrary.  Professional and skilled resources can save your company a significant amount of time and energy and will substantially reduce the learning curve required to integrate system and technology solutions into your organization.  Their experience is priceless.

Until Next Time – STAY lean!

Lean Breaking Through Paralysis

Welcome to 2010!  We wish all of our visitors the very best of success in 2010.  Now that 2009 is behind is really behind us, we can start looking forward to the opportunities and challenges ahead in 2010.

Page Updates:

As regular users of Excel we are always looking for excellent and trustworthy resources to help us in our day to day operations.  We just added two new links to our Excel Web Sites page that present high quality, user friendly, content.  We encourage you to visit these links to learn more about Excel.  If your interests include VBA, you will find that our selected links serve as an excellent forum to serve your needs.

Lean – Breaking Through Paralysis

Significant initiatives, including lean, can reach a level of stagnation that eventually cause the project to either lose focus or disappear altogether.  Hundreds of books have already been written that reinforce the concept that the company culture will ultimately determine the success or failure of any initiative.  A sustainable culture of innovation, entrepreneurial spirit, and continual improvement requires effective leadership to cultivate and develop an environment that supports these attributes.

When launching any new initiative, we tend to focus on the many positive aspects that will result.  Failure is seldom placed on the list of possible outputs for a new initiative.  We are all quite familiar with the typical Pro’s and Con’s, advantages versus disadvantages, and other comparative analysis techniques such as SWAT > Strengths, Weakness, Alternatives, Threats)

A well defined initiative should address both the benefits of implementation AND the risks to the operation if it is NOT.

Back on Track

The Vision statement is one starting point to re-energize the team.  Of course, this assumes that the team actually understands and truly embraces the vision.

Overcoming Road Blocks

The Charter:  Challenge the team to create and sign up to a charter that clearly defines the scope and expectations of the project.  The team should have clearly defined goals followed by an effective implementation / integration plan.  The charter should not only describe the “Achievements” but also the consequences of failure.  Be clear with the expectations:  Annual Savings of $xxx,xxx by Eliminating “Task A – B – C”, Reducing Inventory by “xx” days, and by  reducing lead times by ”xx” days. 

Defining Consequences:  Competitive pricing compromised and will lead to loss of business.  This could be rephrased using the model expression:  We must do “THIS” or else “THIS”.  It has been said that the pain of change must be less than the pain of remaining the same.  If not, the program will surely fail.

The Plan:  An effective implementation strategy requires a time line that includes reporting gates, key milestones, and the actual events or activities required.  The time line should be such that momentum is sustained.  If progress suggests that the program is ahead of schedule, revise timings for subsequent events where possible.  Extended “voids” or lags in event timing can reduce momentum and cause the team to disengage.

Focus:  Often times, we are presented with multiple options to achieve the desired results.  An effective decision making process is required to reduce choices or to create a hybrid solution that encompasses several options.  The decision process must result in a single final solution.

Consequences:  As mentioned earlier, a list of consequences should become part of the Charter process as well.  Failure suggests that a desired expectation will not be realized.  It is not enough to simply return to “the way it was”.  The indirect implication is that every failure becomes a learning experience for the next attempt.  In other words, we learn from our failures and stay committed to the course of the charter.

Example:

Almost all software programs are challenged to sort data.  We don’t really think about the “method” that is used.  We just wait for the program to do it’s task and wait for the results to appear.  At some time, the software development team must have chosen a certain method, also known as an algorithm, to sort the data. 

We were recently challenged in a similar situation to decide which sort method would be best suited for the application.  You may be surprised to learn that there are many different sorting algorithms available such as:

1. Bubble Sort
2. Quick Sort
3. Heap Sort
4. Comb Sort
5. Insertion Sort
6. Merge Sort
7. Shaker Sort
8. Flash Sort
9. Postman Sort
10. Radix Sort
11. Shell Sort

This is certainly quite a selection and more methods are certain to exist.  Each method has it’s advantages and disadvantages.  Some sorting methods require more computer memory, some are stable, others are not.  Our goal was to create a sorted list without duplicates.  We considered adding elements and maintaining a sorted “duplicate free” list in real-time.  We also considered reading all the data first and sorting the data after the fact.

The point is that of the many available options, one solution will eventually be adopted by the team.  Using the “wrong” sorting method could result in extremely slow performance and frustrated users.  In this case the users of the system may abandon a solution that they themselves are not a part of creating.  While a buble sort may produce the intended result, it is usually not the most efficient.

Another aspect of effective development is to document the analysis process that was used to arrive at the final solution.  In our example, we could run comparative timing and computer resource requirements to determine which solution is most suitable to the application.  Some algorithms work better on “nearly sorted” lists versus others that work better with ”randomly ordered” data.

Engage the Team:  The team should be represented by multiple disciplines or departments within the organization.  Using the simple example from above, the development team may create a working solution that is later abandoned by the ultimate users of the system due to it’s poor performance.  The charter should be very clear on the desired expectations and performance criteria of the final solution.

Creating a model or prototype to represent the solution is common place.  This minimizes the time and resources expended before arriving at the final  solution for implemention.

Vision:  Leadership must continue to focus beyond the current steps.  A project or program is not the means to an end.  Rather it should be viewed as the foundation for the next step of the journey.  Lean, like any other initiative, is an evolutionary process.  Lean is not defined by a series of prescriptions and formulas.  The pursuit and elimination of waste is a mission that can be achieved in many different ways.

Management / Review

Regular management reviews should be part of the overall strategy to monitor progress and more so to determine whether there are any impediments to a successful outcome.  The role of leadership is to provide direction to eliminate or resolve the road blocks and to keep the team on track.

Breaking Through Paralysis

The objective is clear – we need to keep the initiative moving and also learn to identify when and why the initiative may have stopped.  Running a business is more than just having good intentions.  We must be prudent in our execution to efficiently and effectively achieve the desired results.

Until Next Time – STAY Lean!

22 Seconds to Burn – Excel VBA Teaches Lean Execution

Background:

Excel VBA has once again provided the opportunity to demonstrate some basic lean tenets.  The methods used to produce the required product or solution can yield signficant savings in time and ultimately money.  The current practice is not necessarily the best practice in your industry.  In manufacturing, trivial or minute differences in methods used become more apparent during mass production or as volume and demand increases.  The same is true for software solutions and both are subject to continual improvement and the relentless pursuit to eliminate waste.

Using Excel to demonstrate certain aspects of Lean is ideal.  Numbers are the raw materials and formulas represent the processes or methods to produce the final solution (or product).  Secondly, most businesses are using Excel to manage many of their daily tasks.  Any extended learning can only help users to better understand the Excel environment.

The Model:

We recently created a perpetual Holiday calendar for one of our applications and needed an algorithm or procedure to calculate the date for Easter Sunday and Good Friday.  We adopted an algorithm found on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computus that produces the correct date for Easter Sunday.

In our search for the Easter Algorithm, we also found another algorithm that uses a different method of calculation and also provides the correct results.  We were pleased to have two working solutions and initially did not spend too much time thinking about the differences between the two methods.  If both routines produce the same results then we should choose the one with the faster execution time.  We decided to perform a simple time study to determine the most efficient formula.  For a single calculation, or iteration, the time differences are virtually negligible; however, when subjected to 5,000,000 iterations the time differences were significant. 

This number of cycles may seem grossly overstated, however, when we consider how many automobiles and components are produced each year then 5,000,000 approaches only a fraction of the total volume.  Taken further, Excel performs thousands of calculations a day and perhaps even as many more times this rate as numbers or data are entered on a spreadsheet.  When we consider how many “calculations” are performed at any given moment, the number quickly grows beyond comprehension.

Testing:

As a relatively new student to John Walkenbach’s book, “Excel 2003 Power Programming with VBA“, speed of execution, efficiency, and ”Declaring your Variables” have entered into our world of Lean.  We originally created two (2) routines called EasterDay and EasterDate.  We then created a simple procedure to run each function through 5,000,000 cycles.  Again, this may sound like a lot of iterations but computers work at remarkable speeds and we wanted enough resolution to discern any time differences between the routines.

The difference in the time required to execute 5,000,000 cycles by each of the routines was surprising.  The test times (measured in seconds), were recorded for three separate studies as follows:

• Original EasterDay:  31.34,  32.69,  30.94
• Original EasterDate:  22.17,  22.28,  22.25

The differences between the two methods ranged from 9.17 seconds to 8.69 seconds.  Expressed in different terms, the duration of the EasterDay routine is 1.39 to 1.46 times longer than EasterDate.  Clearly the original EasterDate function has the better execution speed.  What we perceive to be virtually identical systems or processes at low volumes can yield significant differences that are often only revealed or discovered by increased volume or the passage of time.

In the Canadian automotive industry there are at least 5 major OEM manufacturers (Toyota, Honda, Ford, GM, and Chrysler), each producing millions of vehicles a year.  All are perceived to be producing similar products and performing similar tasks; however, the performance ratios for each of these companies are starkly different.  We recognize Toyota as the high velocity, lean, front running company.  We contend that Toyota’s success is partly driven by the inherent attention to detail of processes and product lines at all levels of the company.

Improvements

We decided to revisit the Easter Day calculations or procedures to see what could be done to improve the execution speed.  We created a new procedure called “EasterSunday” using the original EasterDay procedure as our base line.  Note that the original Wikipedia code was only slightly modified to work in VBA for Excel.  To adapt the original Wikipedia procedure to Excel, we replaced the FLOOR function with the INT function in VBA.  Otherwise, the procedure as presented was used without further revision.

To create the final EasterSunday procedure, we made two revisions to the original code without changing the algorithm structure or the essence of the formulas themselves.  The changes resulted in significant performance improvements as summarized as follows:

1. Where integer division is required, we replaced the INT (n / d) statements with a less commonly used (or known) “\” integer division operator.  In other words, we used “n \ d” in place of “INT( n / d)” where integer results are required.  This change alone resulted in a gain of 11 seconds.  One word of caution if you plan to use the ”\” division operator:  The ”n” and “d”  are converted to integers before doing the division.
2. We declared each of the variables used in the subsequent formulas and gained yet another remarkable 11 seconds.  Although John Walkenbach and certainly many other authors stress declaring variables, it is surprising to see very few published VBA procedures that actually put this to practice.

Results:

The results of our Time Tests appear in the table below.  Note that we ran several timed iterations for each change knowing that some variations in process time can occur.

EasterDay = 31.34375	Original Code uses INT( n / d ) to convert Division Results
EasterSunday = 20.828125	1.  Replaced INT ( n / d) with (n \ d)
EasterDate = 22.28125	Original Code – Alternate Calculation Method
Re-Test to Confirm Timing
EasterDay = 30.9375	Original Code uses INT( n / d ) to convert Division Results
EasterSunday = 20.921875	1.  Replaced INT ( n / d) with (n \ d)
EasterDate = 22.25	Original Code – Alternate Calculation Method
Re-Test to Confirm Timing
EasterDay = 30.90625	Original Code uses INT( n / d ) to convert Division Results
EasterSunday = 21.265625	1.  Replaced INT ( n / d) with (n \ d)
EasterDate = 22.25	Original Code – Alternate Calculation Method
Re-Test to Confirm Timing
EasterDay = 31.078125	Original Code uses INT( n / d ) to convert Division Results
EasterSunday = 9.171875	2.  Variables DECLARED!
EasterDate = 22.1875	Original Code – Alternate Calculation Method
Re-Test to Confirm Timing
EasterDay = 31.109375	Original Code uses INT( n / d ) to convert Division Results
EasterSunday = 9.171875	2.  Variables DECLARED!
EasterDate = 22.171875	Original Code – Alternate Calculation Method

The EasterSunday procedure contains the changes described above.  We achieved a total savings of approximately 22 seconds.  The integer division methods used both yield the same result, however, one is clearly faster than the other.

The gains made by declaring variables were just as significant.  In VBA, undeclared variables default to a “variant” type.  Although they are more flexible by definition, the result may be significantly diminished performance.  We saved at least an additional 11 seconds simply by declaring variables.  Variable declarations are to VBA as policies are to your company, they define the “size and scope” of the working environment.  Undefined policies or vague specifications create ambiguity and generate waste.

Lessons Learned:

In manufacturing, a 70% improvement is significant; worthy of awards, accolades, and public recognition.  The lessons learned from this example are eight-fold:

1. For manufacturing, do not assume the current working process is the ”best practice”.  There is always room for improvement.  Make time to understand and learn from your existing processes.  Look for solutions that may be outside of your current business or industry.
2. Benchmarking a current practice against another existing practice may be just the incentive required to make changes.  Why is one method better than another?  What can we do to improve?
3. Policy statements can influence the work environment where procedures or methods are executed.  Ambiguity and lack of clarity create waste as additional resources are expended that may not be required.
4. Improvements can be made to an existing process with results that out perform the nearest known competitor.  We anticipated at least being able to have the two routines run at the similar speeds.  We did not anticipate the final EasterSunday routine to run more than 50% faster than our simulated competitive benchmark (EasterDate).
5. The greatest opportunities may be found where you least expect them.  Learning to see problems is one of the greatest challenges that most companies face.  The example presented in this simple analogy completely shatters the expression, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
6. Current practices are not necessarily best practices and best practices can always be improved.  Focusing on the weaknesses of your current systems or processes can result in a significant competitive edge.
7. Accelerated modeling can highlight opportunities for improvement that would otherwise not be revealed until full high volume production occurs.  Many companies are already using process simulation software to emulate accelerated production to identify opportunities for improvement.
8. The most important lesson of all is this:

Speed of Execution is Important >> Thoughtful Speed of Execution is CRITICAL.

We wish you all the best of this holiday season!

Until Next Time – STAY Lean!

Notable EXCEL anomalies, nuances, subtleties:

At the onset of the Holiday project, the task seemed relatively simple until we discovered that the rules for Easter Sunday did not follow the simple rules that applied to other holidays throughout the year.  As a result we learned more about history, astronomy, and the tracking of time than we ever would have thought possible.

We also learned that Excel’s spreadsheet MOD formula is subject to precision errors and the VBA version of MOD can yield a different result than the spreadsheet version.

We also rediscovered Excel’s Leap Year bug (29-Feb-1900).   1900 was not a leap year.  The leap year bug resides in the spreadsheet version of the date functions.  The VBA date function recognizes that 29-Feb-1900 is not a valid date.

Seasons Greetings

This year has been filled with many new experiences, hard times, great times, and many opportunities for learning.  While some may prefer to see this year pass sooner than later, 2009 is hopefully a year that presented many new opportunities and even greater challenges.

As lean practitioners, we learn to appreciate failure from a different perspective than most people would enjoy.  The focus is not the failure itself, but rather the causes and events that lead up to the failure that are significant.  To those who reflect on this past year and consider the many successes, we also suggest basking in some of the learning from the failures.  Learning what not to do is often the hardest and most costly lesson of all.

Of course, understanding our successes is of equal importance.  The objective is success by design.  Understanding the reasons for our success serves to confirm the effectiveness of current practices.

We are presently working on new discussion topics for the new year.  Overall Equipment Effectiveness has been one of the core topics over the past year and more recently our focus has shifted to problem seeing and solving.  We are evolving into a culture where AGILITY is quickly becoming one of the defining traits of today’s successful companies and new businesses.

Intelligent metrics demand effective and efficient measurement and analysis to be used in real-time.  By our definition, an Agile company is one that already understands and demonstrates lean practices.  A truly agile company is now looking at metrics to dynamically lead and manage the business, responding to events and developing strategy in real-time.  Their agility is demonstrated by the speed of execution and their continued list of successes as a result.

We have been developing some new spreadsheet templates that we plan to release in the new year.  The free downloads page and sidebar widget have proven to be a great success.  To achieve greater functionality, we will be using VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) in some of our future releases.  We have learned that Excel has a few limitations (and the odd bug) that require the use of VBA for our applications to perform as intended.

We are looking forward to 2010 and remain optimistic as the economy begins its slow recovery.  We will likely have a few more posts before the year ends, but knowing that some will soon be traveling or breaking early from work, we would like to wish all of our visitors best wishes for the holiday season.  We look forward to an exciting new year in 2010.

Until Next Time – STAY Lean!

The Language of Lean

Getting people engaged and “on the same page” requires everyone to understand the language used to convey the message.  Even the method of disseminating information can create confusion.  Oral presentations can convey a completely different message than one delivered in writing.

The tone used in an oral presentation cannot be delivered in writing using the same words.  Voice inflections, body language, and atmosphere all add to the message.  How many times have you heard the expression, “When s/he spoke those words, you could almost hear a pin drop”.  It is obviously not just the spoken words but how they are delivered that create an aura of suspense or awe.

How does this apply to lean?  The answer is quite simple.  Don’t assume that people understand – just because you told them either verbally or in writing.  Lean is ”hands-on” management.  Go to the process and see what is actually happening (or not happening).

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words would it take to describe the experience of seeing the real process first hand?  “Don’t just tell me – show me” are words that should be uttered most often by leadership, managers, or any lean practitioner.

The first step to implementing lean is going out to SEE what opportunities exist.  Unlike computer programs that have explicit meanings, people are intelligent and capable of interpreting the real message behind the words.  Computers do not have an intuitive sense.

The Language of Lean can be summed up in two words – QUICK ACTION.  Successful lean organizations understand that ACTION is truly LOUDER than WORDS.  See it, Solve it, Share it executed in real-time.

Until Next Time – Stay LEAN!

Lean Execution: Competing with Giants – It’s all about Speed

Sometimes you need a break from reading and learn from others who are truly walking the talk.  We trust you will find this video, “Competing with Giants – It’s all about Speed“, featuring Dominic Orr, CEO of Aruba Networks, as interesting and thought provoking as we did.

This short clip will be done in less time than it takes to make popcorn.

Another clip that expounds on the first – wonderful insights for business and entrepreneurs:

Enjoy!

Until Next Time – STAY Lean!