Lean Principles for Agile LEGO Exercise

Lean
Principles
for Agile
Teams
“LEGO”
Building Block
Exercise
Feb 10, 2014

Elizabeth Woodward
Lean and Agile Strategist
evwoodwa@us.ibm.com

Requirements
For this exercise with 3 teams, you can use two boxes of Lakeshore Best-Buy Building Bricks RA401. They
come in plastic tubs with some extra larger pieces that we don’t use for this exercise, so I remove them.
These building blocks don’t stick together quite as well as LEGOs, but they worked for the purpose. For
traveling, I combined all of the building bricks into one of the plastic tubs and was able to fit the plastic
tub into a carry-on with room for extra supplies. I also purchased stacks of play money to provide
compensation.
Print out a set of the steps below for each team on a color printer. Check the darkness of the printout
and make sure that participants can see the individual building blocks.
Print out station labels on heavy paper or card stock and fold in half.

Round 1. This will demonstrate several issues related to waste and uneven flow.
Set up the room as follows:
1. Put the supplies far away, crisscross the stations. Label stations by team:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Team 1 Station 1
Team 1 Station 2
Team 1 Station 3
Team 1 Station 4
Team 1 Station 5
Team 1 Station 6
Team 1 Station 7

2. Put the cards for the steps at each station. You can modify the steps per station to
accommodate the number of people in the class. There needs to be at least one station with a
lot more work than the others.
3. Put the raw parts across the room in a difficult to reach place.
4. Announce:
a. Each station is individually compensated for each item that you are able to produce.
b. You are only allowed to do the work for your step.
c. Part of your job involves getting the raw parts that you need.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported
License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ or send
a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA.

d. Last step is QA. If an error is found, QA will identify who made the mistake and only that
person can fix their mistake.
e. We’ll call when time is up. Ready, set, go. (Call time after a couple of items have been
built.)
Discuss Observations. You should hear things like:
•
•
•
•
•
•

Materials are too far apart (Muda waste of motion)
Workspace is confused (Muda waste of motion)
There are bottlenecks (Mura, uneveness) and high stress for some (Muri)
QA is impacted at the end (Muda)
Some people had nothing to do (Muda waste of waiting)
Notice the waste of parts, extra stuff has been produced (Muda waste of inventory)


Round 2. This round we’re going to reduce the waste of motion and unevenness.
1. Ask teams to put Legos back in the box and rearrange their stations so they are more
streamlined. They can redistribute the cards at each station to improve flow.
2. Announce:
a. Each team member is compensated for what they are able to produce without regard
for what anyone else is doing.
b. Anyone who notices a problem can raise the issue and fix the problem.
c. We’ll call when time is up. Ready, set, go. (Call time after a couple of items have been
built.)

Emphasize:
Congratulate the individual person who produced the most components.
Discuss Observations. You should hear things like:
•
•
•
•

Less waste of motion now that stations are in order (Muda waste of motion)
Workspace is less confused (Muda waste of motion)
Reduced bottlenecks (Mura, uneveness) and less stress for some (Muri)
Better QA

Plan, Do, Check, Act and Scientific Method. Typically would not introduce a large number of changes at
once.
•

What can happen if we introduce a large number of changes at the same time in the work
environment?


Round 3. This round we’re going to reduce the waste of motion and unevenness and limit work in
progress.
1. Ask teams to put Legos back in the box and rearrange their stations so they are more
streamlined. They can redistribute the cards at each station to improve flow if needed.
2. Announce:
a. Each team is only compensated for the whole and we are going to subtract for any
waste.
b. Team decides how they are going to limit work in progress. (Ie, can a station have more
than 1 item completed and waiting on the next?)
c. Anyone who notices a problem can raise the issue and fix the problem.
d. Team members can help each other.
e. We’ll call when time is up. Ready, set, go. (Call time after a couple of items have been
built.)

Emphasize: The number of completed items.
Discuss Observations.
What change might you introduce next?


•

Vision


Step 1 Use two white 2x12

Step 2 Use three 4x13 yellow pieces and hold them together with the white 2x12’s.


Step 3 NOTE: You will have an extra row of yellow nibs on one side. Count the bumps.


You will add all red and blue pieces. White and yellow have been assembled for you.


Step 4


Step 5


Create the Topper with steps 6 and 7.
Step 6

Step 7


Step 8 Combine two parts—Base and Topper


Step 9. Put the plastic man on top of the structure.


Step 10 QA
Compare against the vision
If there is an error, only the person who created that part can fix it.


Lean Principles for Agile LEGO Exercise

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Featured

Featured (20)

Lean Principles for Agile LEGO Exercise