This month A Lean Journey
Blog turns 15 and as I look back on how I got started and who influenced my
journey I wanted to revisit a previous series I started in 2012 called the
Meet-up.
One of the things I am so
found of in the Lean community is the general wiliness to share with each
other. I have learned some much from my
very experienced colleagues since I have been an active contributor. Every month I roundup the best Lean related
posts and articles I found particularly valuable from these fellow bloggers and
contributors. Each one has their own story and opinions to share.
The goal of Meet-up is
provide you an opportunity to meet some influential voices in the Lean
community. I will ask these authors a
series of questions to learn about them, their lessons, and get their
perspective on trends in industry.
In today’s edition, we are
going to meet-up with Guy Wallace. I met Guy online of course as we shared a
passion for Lean and blogging. Here are
his answers so you can learn more:1. Who are you, what organization are you with,
and what are your current lean-oriented activities?
I
am Guy Wallace. I’ve recently retired after 44 years in Enterprise Learning
& Development.
2. How, when, and why did you get introduced to
lean and what fueled and fuels the passion?
I’ve
not been in TQM/Lean directly, but I have used the lean/ process streamlining
principles learned initially at Motorola in 1981 from my training development
work with my internal manufacturing, materials, and purchasing clients,
including Bill Smith who taught me that before Six Sigma it was called VR –
Variability Reduction. And from Geary Rummler, whose work at Motorola and
elsewhere was focused on streamlining work processes to reduce touch times,
cycle times, and costs. Then, in 1990, my client at AT&T Network Systems
gave me a book that all the executives were reading, The Machine That Changed
the World.
After
Motorola, I joined a small management consulting firm in 1982 and was asked to
create a Training Practice function, where I created Performance Based
Instructional Systems Design (ISD) methods that years later led to my 1999
book, lean-ISD.
3. In your opinion what is the most powerful
aspect of lean?
The
measurable reduced work process cycle times, and costs.
4. In your opinion what is the most
misunderstood or unrecognized aspect of lean?
For
me, it was in the early 1990s when Six Sigma practitioners told me that Lean
efforts should follow their efforts. They were wrong, of course, and that
brought to mind what I had learned from the TQM folks at Motorola, which was
that we were still Opportunity Rich.
5. In your opinion what is the biggest
opportunity for lean in today’s world? How can that be accomplished?
With all of the
focus on Workflows, Work Processes, or Workstreams today, the notion of
“streamlining” (versus “lean” perhaps) is a no-brainer to many clients and
stakeholders.
Depending on
the client and the language they are familiar with, I’d start the conversation
with the word “streamlining” and then “lean” and show them examples of the measured
results from lean efforts that are as close to their processes as possible,
including the time and resources required.
Through their
answers to these questions hopefully you will get a sense of the thinking
behind those who are shaping the Lean landscape. I continue to keep learning and thankfully
with the willingness of these practitioners to share I am positive you will,
too.
