Knowledge wastes

1. Product Development (Knowledge) Wastes
(Based on Lean Product and Process Development by Allen C. Ward, The Lean Enterprise Institute, March 2007)
Scatter Communication Barriers  Physical Barriers – Distance, location, incompatible computer formats
 Actions that make knowledge  Right knowledge, to the right  Social Barriers – Corporate “Class Systems”, management behaviors (NIH, shooting
ineffective by disrupting flow. place, at the right time. messenger, etc.)
  Skill Barriers Not knowing how to turn data into useful knowledge
The right knowledge doesn’t get to
the right place  Information Channels – multiple late and conflicting copies of the same data.
 Reorganization – obsoletes
interaction knowledge Poor Tools  Over specification of APD tasks.
 Workload variation adding resources  Written procedures that require  Cut Corners – checking off tasks rather than using them to develop knowledge.
– disrupts communication (use developers to use inefficient  More cross checks, reports and tasks – Overwhelmed developers
supervisors) processes.
 Support resources slow – Harassment
bogs down super system. Find and fix
root causes.
Handoff Useless Information  Eliminate or replace information demand.
 The most critical waste.  Doesn’t help understand  Introduce new management concepts and systems to really do what the reports were
 Separation of knowledge, customer, integration, supposed to do (FMEA’s – design to eliminate failure)
responsibility, action, and feedback. innovation or promote good
 The people making decisions don’t decisions.
have the required knowledge  Because someone wants it.
 Hand‐off implies 70‐90% of the
information is lost in transfer. Waiting  Hard sequential milestones.
 Batching tasks.
 Avoid “Push” task planning & scheduling – Look at project planning from a “Pull”
perspective
Wishful Thinking Testing to Specifications  Freezing specifications too early
 Making decisions without data or  Cannot test your way to quality – Test to ID failure points and design to eliminate them.
operating blindly.  Pass/Fail mindset
 Locking in on a single concept prior to  Employ Process Control not Product Control
SBCE.
 Murphy is dead, the moon and stars Discarded Knowledge  “Getting the product out!” ignores creating the operational value stream.
will align, and a miracle will happen.  Failure to put project  Data contains no knowledge until analyzed.
“knowledge” into a useable  Train engineers how to generate data with the potential to develop useful knowledge.
form.  Train engineers how to transform data into useful knowledge
 Capture knowledge in an effective and efficient manner so that It can be retrieved for
future use.
 What fraction of an engineer’s time is spent locating knowledge that has already been
developed at least once?