Dive Into A3: Lean Agile Scotland 2013

Every Day A Little
Better
@martinburnsuk http://everydaylean.info/tag/a3
Dive Into A3 Thinking
Martin Burns
Martin Burns
Martin Burns
With speaker voice-over
commentary

Every Day A Little
Better
Relative National Productivity,
1937
Before WWII, everyone in manufacturing assumed that
Japanese productivity was about 1/9 that of US productivity.
Over the next 8 years, Japanese productivity took a downturn,
particularly at the end.
In the late 40s, Toyota's leadership issued a challenge to the
company: Catch up with the Americans. Crazy stuff, and the kind
of thing that would make most people laugh out loud at a boss
who demanded it. And yet....
Source:
Ohno: Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-scale Production

Every Day A Little
Better
Relative Productivity, 1976
Source:
The Competitive Status of the US Auto Industry, National Academy Press 1982
2.4x
2.4x 5x5x
...by the end of the 70s, they'd achieved it,
and were accelerating away.
This was the point at which the US Auto
industry was pronounced dead, even though
the corpse continued to twitch for a while yet.
How on earth did they do it?

Every Day A Little
Better
It would be easy to assume (and far too many people did,
including all the first 3rd party writers: Womack & Jones etc) that
this was down to all the methods we know as Lean: Value
Streams, Pull, Flow, Poka Yoke, Kanban, SMED and all the rest
of it.
But that would be to fundamentally miss the point.
Taiichi Ohno
What made the difference was a management philosophy
that was all about improvement. Every. Single. Day.
The tools are just countermeasures to business problemsThe tools are just countermeasures to business problems
that Toyota has faced, and will be used only until betterthat Toyota has faced, and will be used only until better
countermeasures are found.countermeasures are found.

Every Day A Little
Better
Problem
Solving
Culture
Obsessive
What makes the difference is Toyota's Culture - truly
obsessing about improvement. Or Problem Solving -
it's the same thing.
It’s not just improvement, it’s *obsessive*
improvement.
Most companies planning to end a long running,
much improved process in a few months would tend
to think that it was now pretty damned good and to
focus elsewhere for improvements
When Toyota plan to end a product line, they keep
making improvements on it until the last car rolls off
on the last day.
The kind of company that when you've spent a lot of
time and energy working out a quality problem is
caused by contaminated coolant will then ask "Have
you considered how the coolant got contaminated?
What checks do we have to sample it? Who is in
charge of the coolant check process? How can we
prevent contamination in the future?"
It's a culture that includes humility,
open-minded curiosity, making
problems visible, following standards,
respecting people, gemba thinking,
scientific thinking, building consensus
for action, a willingness to try... and risk
failure
The kind of company that on your first
day, as your first task, gives you a real
problem to solve and a coach to help
solve it. How important would such a
company view problem solving, and
developing problem-solvers?
To what extent does this describe the
current situation at your work?

Every Day A Little
Better
Straw Poll:
In the Last Year, How Many
Improvements Did You See
Around You?
I carried out this poll with
several thousand people
in a large technology
company over the
course of a year.
And here's the result.

Every Day A Little
Better
ProblemProblem
SolvingSolving
CultureCulture
DysfunctionsDysfunctions
ProblemProblem
SolvingSolving
CultureCulture
DysfunctionsDysfunctions Who hasWho has
time?time?
It Takes aIt Takes a
GuruGuru
Whack AWhack A
MoleMole
WorkingWorking
backward frombackward from
preconceivedpreconceived
ideasideas
Jumping toJumping to
SolutionsSolutions
Solving theSolving the
wrongwrong
problemproblem
Big BatchesBig Batches
ManagerManager
Says NoSays No
BackslidingBacksliding
We don't see obsessive problem solving often.
Far more often we see these behaviours instead.
If we were a firing squad, our process
would be "Ready, Fire, Aim!" because we
all like to be solutions people.
Trying to jump to perfection in
one go. Doesn't work.
Improvement is not *additional* to 'real work'
in a problemsolving culture - it is *part* of it,
particularly for managers
So many management issues
are caused by perfectly solving
the wrong problem.
If a problem re-
occurs, it's not
solved.
Who knows the
problem best? The
people doing the work
to be improved

Every Day A Little
Better
Communicate
theProblem
Solve The Problem
Developthe
Problem
Solver
MeltsMelts
OppositionOpposition
GembaGemba
KnowledgeKnowledge
Make GurusMake Gurus
RedundantRedundant
SolutionsStick SolutionsStick
Solvethe Solvethe
RightRightProblemProblem
ThinkSafely ThinkSafely
EasilyEasily
AssessableAssessableNo-one isNo-one is
exemptexempt
Far better would be a process that focused on three core
factors, beyond simply 'solve the problem'.

Every Day A Little
Better
PDSA – the Heart of Lean
Problemsolving
Plan Do
Study
■ What are we doing to remove
the obstacles?
■ Did it work?
■ If so, how do we work like that
all the time?
■ If not, what are we trying next?
Adjust
■ What’s the Problem (in outcome
terms)?
■ What’s the Current Condition?
■ What’s the Target Condition?
■ What’s stopping us getting
there?
(obstacles) EmpiricalExperimentalMethod
Deeply understanding the problem before
suggesting a single solution avoids the
"Ready, Fire, Aim!" situation.

Every Day A Little
Better
Deadly
Warning
A3 is a
Thinking Method
not a Template
or a Tool
Deadly
Warning
Use a Pencil
Complete
One section at a time
Deadly Warning
A3s die in a Computer
Make them visual. Post
them on boards. Take
them to people and talk
them through.
You *will* be making corrections :-)
Get each section into a good shape before pushing on
to the next
This is how you engage the
people you will need to support
and implement your change,
and ensure it's as good as it
possibly can be.

Every Day A Little
Better
PDSA – the Heart of Lean
Problemsolving
Plan Do
Study
■ What are we doing to remove
the obstacles?
■ Did it work?
■ If so, how do we work like that
all the time?
■ If not, what are we trying next?
Adjust
■ What’s the Problem (in outcome
terms)?
■ What’s the Current Condition?
■ What’s the Target Condition?
■ What’s stopping us getting
there?
(obstacles) EmpiricalExperimentalMethod
Translate this to a single piece of paper and it looks like...
You could view this as TDD for Problem Solving: start
from the perspective of Acceptance Criteria ('Study') and
use the understanding gained in 'Plan' to implement
Countermeasures ('Do') that will achieve the desired
outcome (target condition)
'Test' if you prefer
Adopt, Adapt or
Abandon
Deeply understanding the problem before
suggesting a single solution avoids the
"Ready, Fire, Aim!" situation.

Every Day A Little
Better
@martinburnsuk http://everydaylean.info
More info: http://everydaylean.info/tag/A3
DODO
Strategic Background
Current Situation
Goal
Countermeasures
Confirmation
Action Plan
#
Action Owner Due Date
1
2
3
4
How will we know the
countermeasures work?
How will we make the benefits
widespread?
widespread?
Theme:
What will address the root causes
& achieve the goals?
Standardise
How will the countermeasures be
implemented?
implemented?
Analysis eg 5 Whys/Pareto
Why is this important?
Why did you pick this problem?
What will success look like in same terms as
above? Quantify. Benefits.
What’s happening now in terms of
outcomes? Quantify
outcomes? Quantify
What are we trying to do?What are we trying to do?
O
wner
C
oach
D
ate
PLANPLANPLANPLAN
What’s the real problem?What’s the real problem?
STUDYADJUST
Template Author: Martin Burns
Created: 27 May 2009
Last Updated: 9 Sept 2013
Grab a copy of this from
http://everydaylean.info/downloads/

Every Day A Little
Better
@martinburnsuk http://everydaylean.info
More info: http://everydaylean.info/tag/A3
DODO
Strategic Background
Current Situation
Goal
Countermeasures
Confirmation
Action Plan
#
Action Owner Due Date
1
2
3
4
widespread?
widespread?
Theme:
Standardise
implemented?
implemented?
Analysis eg 5 Whys/Pareto
outcomes? Quantify
outcomes? Quantify
What are we trying to do?What are we trying to do?
O
wner
C
oach
D
ate
PLANPLANPLANPLAN
What’s the real problem?What’s the real problem?
STUDYADJUST
Template Author: Martin Burns
Created: 27 May 2009
Last Updated: 9 Sept 2013
Grab a copy of this from
http://everydaylean.info/downloads/
The next slides take a walk through a simple
example
If you transfer this to one piece of paper, you get a
number of useful things:
1)You error proof the process - it forces you to be
rational. Which is really hard for humans.
2)It exposes irrationality and flaws in the logic:
nowhere to for cognitive biases to hide
3)Makes your thinking visual: great boundary
object, and quick to talk anyone through in
elevator pitch style (compare death by
PowerPoint)
4)It starts becoming a standard, and you stop
worrying about HOW to shape an argument and
can focus on the actual logic.
NOTE you may (& probably will) have a load of
detail behind what's on here. But that's your
working info, not what you take around
stakeholders.

Every Day A Little
Better
Always Two
There Are...
Who should be involved in the method?

Every Day A Little
Better
...a Problem Solver (Owner) and a
Coach
Jim Womack, Gemba Walks
http://j.mp/GembaWalks
A lean management system involves
managers at every level framing the key
problems that need to be solved and
asking the teams they lead to discover
and implement the answers
A lean management system involves
managers at every level framing the key
problems that need to be solved and
asking the teams they lead to discover
and implement the answers
The manager can’t solve the problem alone, because the manager
isn’t close enough to the problem to know the facts.
But the employee can’t solve the problem alone either, because he
or she is often too close to the issue to see its context and may
refrain from asking tough questions about his or her own work.
Only by showing mutual respect is it possible to solve problems
and move organisational performance to an ever-higher level.
Jim is one of the leaders of the Lean
Enterprise Institute.
This is a great ebook - definitely
recommended to understand all kinds of
areas of Lean Thinking
Embedding an improvement coaching
method into an organisation's
fundamental management approach is
INSTRUMENTAL in developing that
obsessive improvement culture.
Top to bottom: NO-ONE is exempt.
Who should fill these roles?
Whoever's work is impacted by the problem, and their manager

Every Day A Little
Better
This section does 2 things:
1) Ensures that we're solving something that matters
2) Starting to identify and get the attention of all the stakeholder groups you'll need to effectively solve the problem
If you're*very* lucky, you'll have a fully decomposed organisational strategy that you can point to and simply note that the
problem impacts an agreed objective. This is how A3 links into other Lean methods such as Hoshin Kanri.
In writing all these sections, take them round as wide a group of stakeholders as possible to get heterogenous input and build consensus
around your problem solving - starting from an early draft stage. Whoever else you consult, you absolutely must include a full range of
people whose work is directly impacted by the problem or any countermeasures you propose. No-one else will better understand the
problem or be better able to validate your analysis and the viability of your proposed countermeasures.
If you cannot reflect a stakeholder's views in the final version, you have a duty to go back to them and explain why. This way, you maintain
a sense of consultation & collaboration even with those you disagree with.
Team is an outsourced L2 support team, with >20 members supporting >60
applications. Each app has 1or 2 designated SMEs in the team.
Team spending lots of NonValueAdd Time redirecting calls to the right SME; it's
expensive, diverts effort from real work & is really annoying for the team (problem was
identified by the team as their top priority)

Every Day A Little
Better
These 2 sections are all about measurable data, demonstrating current state and how
it varies over time - time series charts are useful here.

Every Day A Little
Better

Every Day A Little
Better
You can use many analysis tools here, but
amongst the simplest and most powerful to
uncover the most effective countermeasures is
the '5 why' technique used here.
DEADLY WARNING: do NOT start from a
solution & work back, including defining
problem as 'lack of an X.'
Other effective analysis techniques
include fishbone diagrams, process
maps (and in particular, Value
Stream Maps), equipment sketches,
spaghetti diagrams.
Remember though that there may be
multiple causing factors that interact
in a complex way.
What we are doing
here is trying to
work out what
factors (that we can
change) contribute
to the symptoms
noted.

Every Day A Little
Better
Problem:
The caterer delivered food 2 hours late.
W
Because we did not prepare the purchase order on time.
W
Because we did not get all approval signatures on time.
W
Because we prepared the PO 3 days before the event.
W
Because we forgot to prepare a Purchase Order.
W
Root Cause
Because we didn’t have a checklist to clearly identify the
tasks we needed to complete at what time.
Another 5 Why analysis example,
showing that "Because we're lazy
lollygaggers" doesn't actually help -
work on fixing the 95% (the system)
not the 5% (the people). Make it
such that it's impossible for the
people to get wrong,

Every Day A Little
Better
Problem
The machine stopped
W
Spindle isn't turning freely, It overloaded & fuse blew
W
Spindle isn't lubricated
W
Oil Pump isn't working
W
Oil shaft bearings are worn
W
Dirt in the Oil Pump
➡Root cause:
lack of preventative maintenance on Oil Sieve
➡Countermeasure:
Regularly Oil Sieve & replace when ineffective; review all
maintenance procedures for completeness
This example shows that a
simple fix isn't enough -
there's a *process* that's
gone wrong (or isn't there)
and without it, the problem
will keep reoccurring. This
may just be the first of
many potential failures.

Every Day A Little
Better
Having understood the problem deeply, using the insight of a wide group of stakeholders, you can effectively come up with some ideas to move
from current situation towards your goal.
You may have competing ideas for this, possibly from different stakeholders. A3's empirical approach avoids arguments; you can graciously allow
a stakeholder the first trial. If their idea works (or doesn't), you can then try your idea & let the facts speak for themselves. You might both be right.
Or both wrong. You won't know until you try. (Direct marketeers may recognise this as a Champion-v-Challenger approach) That's why we don't
call this a Solution, but simply the best countermeasures we currently have. Think back to Ohno's comment from earlier...

Every Day A Little
Better
Don’t try to boil the ocean with planning. A simple plan is definitely best. Do as little as
you can get away with, to avoid paralysis by analysis. As before, you may have more
detail elsewhere, but you should be able to summarise what you’re doing in a few
lines.

Every Day A Little
Better
This is your test. How will you measure the outcome to give results in the same terms
as your prediction and current state? How often will you measure? Who will do it, and
so on.
Once you have results, they go here.

Every Day A Little
Better
If your countermeasures didn’t help the situation, then you loop back to define some more - you may have a list ready and waiting. You will also
ensure that you learn from your experiment: you have just correctly identified something that doesn’t work.
If they did help the situation, then this is where you enable the organisation to learn from the experiment’s positive outcome. If this way is better
than the previous one, how will we make this a standard such that we work like this all the time from now? Are there any other teams in the
organisation who might benefit from our experiment?
Finally, if your experiment leaves you short of perfection (and it always will), then loop back to the start and update the current state, define a new
target and continue experimenting!

Every Day A Little
Better
VisionVision
NowNow
A3 starts from a vision of True North, or
Guiding Stars. What’s the far off vision of
perfection we’re striving towards?
However, it’s not possible to reach it in
one go for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, change always causes
problems first. Performance goes
down before it goes up. The bigger
the change, the deeper the dip
and the longer it takes to return to
where you started, let alone
positive outcomes.

Every Day A Little
Better
VisionVision
NowNow
TargetTarget
Where doWhere do
we want towe want to
bebe next?next?
Secondly, trying to predict the future is a fool’s
game. It’s like walking in a fog. You may be able to
see the far distant hill, and the 2m in front of you,
but in between is obscured.
So we de-risk both factors by setting a shorter goal that is on the way
to the vision, yet is still achievable. We show benefit sooner, and we
can inspect and adapt from that point to the next short term goal.
We keep taking small steps every day, adjusting as we go along.

Every Day A Little
Better
This frequent, small improvement was the basis for the
Industrial Revolution. That the British are a culture of
tinkerers - blokes in sheds working on one small thing -
rather than revolutionaries is perhaps a major part of
why the Industrial Revolution was so much bigger in the
UK than in Germany or France.
Tale the Spinning Jenny - a fundamental example
of Industrial improvement over the course of a
century.
Invented in 1779 and allowed one worker to spin
not 1 but 8 threads at the same time. A huge
productivity gain
Then it was improved by Henry Stones, of
Horwich, who added metal rollers to the mule
And by James Hargreaves, of Tottington, who
figured out how to smooth the acceleration and
deceleration of the spinning wheel which reduced
thread snapping and meant longer runs between
thread replacement

Every Day A Little
Better
Then came William Kelly, of Glasgow, who worked out how to add water power to the draw stroke, reducing the effort of the worker
And John Kennedy, of Manchester, who adapted the wheel to turn out finer threads without snapping. Fine thread means fine cloth means
higher revenues;

Every Day A Little
Better
And Richard Roberts, also of Manchester, created the
“automatic” spinning mule: an exacting, high-speed,
reliable rethinking of Crompton’s original creation that
allowed far higher thread counts. Workers were now
machine minders, not operators.
By 1892, the number of threads per worker had grown
from 8 to 1000

Every Day A Little
Better
Does It Work...?
KaizenKaizen
HereHere
Kaizen
Here
This is an improvement in a team’s Risks process. As always, a
Risk is an Improvement which may or may not happen. Strategies
generally involve reducing probability (avoidance) and reducing
impact (mitigation).
Following improvement, the number of new issues dropped
dramatically through being better avoided in the Risk process, and
then those that did still occur were better mitigated as they had
been better anticipated in the Risks process.

Every Day A Little
Better
Does It Work...?This was the first A3 I ever coached. My team were working with a
customer’s complex systems, and we had a problem bringing new
people into the team fast enough. While the customer’s system
made it tough to start with, other process problems in new user
setup extended the time from arrival to productivity to 43 working
days.
The team lead owned the improvement, and identified a
countermeasure that cut this by 20d, and while implementing,
identified a further improvement that had 4d more savings

Every Day A Little
Better
Does It Work...?
When you’ve been doing this a
while, and have it really built
into your culture, then you can
simplify the template
significantly.
This is from a tour of industrial
sites in Japan, illustrating one
simple improvement.
Management empowered the
team to do this and update
their own work standards to
incorporate these changes.

Every Day A Little
Better
Does It Work...? Same location - can you imagine what 8 new
improvement ideas per person per month would
do for your organisation?

Every Day A Little
Better
Learn to DoLearn to Do
Learn toLearn to
CoachCoach
Implementing A3 in an organisation requires setting up
chains of coaching pairs. The best place to start with
this is at the top, but the middle can also work,
provided you have top level stakeholder support to do
it.
First you learn to do. Without this experience, it’s very
hard to coach someone else to do the job you’ve never
had to do.
Then you learn to a coach, with access to a secondary
coach who coaches your coaching.

Every Day A Little
Better
Resources
•

Every Day A Little
Better
A3 Dojo
Track 4: 11:20 - 13:00 Tomorrow
Bring Problems!
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Dive Into A3: Lean Agile Scotland 2013

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