Nearly all organizations have gaps between their aspirations and their actual performance. These gaps typically are the result of the structure of the organization, the environment in which the organization operates, the capabilities of individuals and infrastructure in the organization, and the interactions of these elements. The way we think about these gaps usually affects how successful we will be in addressing the underlying causes of these gaps over time.

A learning organization can incorporate these performance insights into behavioral changes quickly, efficiently, and effectively. For this learning to gain traction, an organization must design interventions which are affordable, which mitigate the constraints which arise in different situations, and which are appropriate to situations as they arise. Such changes are more likely to get traction when they emerge from the collective insights of the team members rather than mandated interventions from above. Read more »

Throughput can be defined to be the average rate of successful deliveries of acceptable products through a production channel. Architectures are often driven by throughput considerations and design constraints. This throughput (and the reliability of its assessment) is impacted by many factors, including the regularity of its inputs, the usable bandwidth and availability of production channels, production losses due to coordination or quality issues, and impacts due to congestion.

A depiction of system throughput and the challenges in implementing changes to it within an organization are shown in the graphic on the right. For a larger representation of this picture, click on it.

In Systems Thinking: Managing Chaos and Complexity, Jamshid Gharajedaghi describes the key requirements for improving the throughput of a system: Read more »

Many manufacturing industries have made great gains by utilizing lean principles in the factory. These principles, which have perhaps been most successfully applied in the Toyota Production System, can be summarized as follows: Read more »

The largest and most successful efforts to apply lean within engineering environments have occurred within the software engineering field. Within these projects, the most common approach has been to leverage the introduction of lean practices through adoption of compatible agile techniques. There is an understandable tension in this arena to strike the right balance between flexibility and discipline.

It is important to recognize that adoption of such new approaches, like any innovation, will take time, focus, and regular evangelism in order for any such change to stick. More importantly, there are critical project 'human factors' to consider when chosing to pursue lean techniques for a group. Any such effort should include: Read more »