Lean 2012

Posted by Logi Helgu on May 6, 2012 in Blog, Lean | 0 comments

Lean 2012 is the first Lean conference in Iceland (I think). I attended and I put down a few notes:

Introduction speech
Pétur Orri talked about the change of scenery of business today. How outlearning your competitor is the most important things in order to stay on top.
Old ways of Lean management was just standardizing the production line but today we need more in order to succeed. If you are outwitted you might just loose everything over night.
A good workplace needs happy and engaged workers and people need purpose.
Then he related to Nokia as an example of a product where they lost customers and mentioned briefly that Iceland now has 17 airlines flying to Iceland…I don’t know if that’s really a good thing for the long run…well see

The Toyota way to Excellence
Jeffrey K. Liker
He honestly begun by admitting that when he was inved to talk at the conference he had to take out a globe to see where Iceland was and he was very impressed by the Golden Circle tourist trip he took upon arriving.
His talk discussed how Toyota developed their culture: a culture of continuous improvement. How lean is very similar to the word learn: learn to be healthy and being able to run “fast” for a long time.
Toyota history, how the Toyoda family grew from hard work into Toyota and the culture behind the ideology…
The Toyoda Cultural values

• contribute to society
• customer first/company second
• respect for people
• know your business
• get your hands gritty
• hard work, discipline
• teamwork
• always innovation

“It is a big world out there, open the window”
Ideology of JIT was founded by the Toyota thinking where there aren’t enough resources around.
Ohno wrote down the Toyota Production System. The TPS House drawing by his pupil to explain the thinking behind the system.
A lot of history and basic ideology where Lean comes from and how the mentality and culture is the most important part of it all.

What is Kaizen and how we use it as Össur
Viktoría Jensdóttir
Explaining how continuous improvement is a great tool. Kaizen days (3-5) to focus on specific tasks and find better ways. 2-4 weeks are in preparation mode and follow up 30/60/90 days after where they measure changes. Business cases are created to show off to upper management.
Whent through how they use Kaisen’s to become the best company that they can be.
Insiprational how enthuistatic Össurs employees are about Lean/Kanban and focused as presented in the slides.

One size does not fit all…the need to continually evolve the approach to quality & productivity
Brenton Harder
We are all chief sustainable change managers.
Has learnt more about how not to do it rather then how to do it
Check out Honeywell operation system: From bitter to sweet (economist), good story…
Always look out for the best way to go without holding on to a specific methodology or fad.

• Transformation – BIG changes (Lean)
• Streamline – Make it better (six sigma)
• Enhancement – Small thinks, quick wins (workout)

Meaningful buy-in from management and epmpoyess is needed.
“It’s not one person, not one team, its the whole business”

Lean Management: From Thinking to Acting
Ýr Gunnarsdóttir
Worked at Toyota and they din’t call in Lean, they do many things that have been formalized in Lean talk but you might not find the terms within Toyota. Somethimes they referred to Lean as “George”.
“I am responsible for the custom experience”
Create and communicate your Lean plan. Get confirmation, get feedback.
Keep everybody enlightened.
Agree on your Lean mission.
State and agree on your Lean objectives.
She stated that she was a Lean fanatic and spoke very fast and had a lot to say. That made it a little hard to keep up with everything she said and take notes, so I might have forgotten to write some things down.

Lean deployment in a greenfield on the edge of the world
Magnús þór Ásmundsson
Talk about how Fjarðaál was set up. Went into a lot of details of how they’ve implemented the TBS via ABS. Being from the east of Iceland I’m really interested into taking a look at the plant itself…maybe I can get a tour this summer

It’s the SYSTEM stupid!
John Seddon
He started by stating that “Agile is just doing the wrong thing faster” (pun on IT projects 30% failing).
Great point about getting to know what is needed before involving IT. First build the system, make it work, improve it and have it working and first then bring in IT. Here the system is not the IT system but the “process” or how people work…get that right first and then turn it into software…then you really know what you wan’t & need and how it works.
When he came to the slide with the word Lean he said: “Don’t do this shit” (good pun for this crowd…he’s not fond of the word…and had some good points to it…just like the founders of Toyota had): Never codify method (Haiichi Ohno). You need to know before you codify…and to write it down you might fuck the future up.
A tool is for a specific purpose, if you don’t know who made it or what is was build for you can’t use it…do you have the same problem?
If you explain, they don’t get it, if they study they get it. This one is quite loaded and has a direct link to “Teaching by questioning”…
Get a tool or fashion one for yourself.
Study the work beforehand!
I thought this was a really good ending, not only did he have some excellent points & truths but he also questioned the whole “Lean” religion. The latter may have been more rememberable at this conference, but I liked it…good to get someone who’s not a fanatic to keep people open minded

The Panel
Q: What’s your take on John’s talk on Lean not being good?
A: Can’t find Lean at Toyota. Toyota is not using these tools, they are solving problems in the system. Lean has a lot of value in the word today.
A: Learn what are you problems, don’t have someone else come in and learn for you!
A: It’s about understanding where you are and where you wan’t to go.
A: Change the system = redesign the process. Learn all things through your process…Learn!
A: Many tools, know them and fit the right one for you problem…or create a new of you can’t fint the appropriate tool. Ask the who, what & why before starting…don’t follow blindly a single tool or methodology.
A: management thinking has to change!
A: not many of us are the top leaders, how do we get them on board. DO ANYTHING TO MAKE THEM QUORIOUS! (Get them on to learning)

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The Lean Startup

Posted by Logi Helgu on Mar 22, 2012 in Blog | 0 comments

Attented Petur Orri’s talk today about the Lean Startup arranged by Agilenetið and Dokkan. I’m very intrigued by Lean and believe I can learn a lot from it…but I also have my doubts about Lean and software development since it requires more creativity and innovation than manufacturing does. Even though there are the Lean Software Development principles I’m still on the road to mastering Agile and only peeking into Lean as I travel along the Agile landscape. I’ve been planning to read the book for some time…but I haven’t gotten around to it yet…it’s on my TODO list

Peter praised the book and the ideology as I’ve heard & read many do lately. It feels like people have gotten a little bored with Agile & Scrum and are looking for the “next thing” and maybe this is the next step in better software development.

I wasn’t sold on the concept from this lecture. For me it felt like Agile/Scrum with more focus on the PO through the Customer. That is a great move since I truly believe that the PO is the most crucial role in Scrum and almost impossible for a single person to deliver the job by representing all stakeholders. I’m not that familiar with “Customer Development” as of now to comment on it but at first glance it seems to be about defining how to learn what the customer really want’s…something that can get lost in the process and really needs to be in focus all the time. I really like the “Development” part of that phrase…how doesn’t wan’t to develop his customer

Even though I wasn’t sold I’m looking forward to reading the book…maybe I’ll see the light when I’ve finished.

I really liked one of the last slide that said “We only meet our customers by leaving the office”… a good reminder that I take with me.

Afterwards there were some good questions and answers but I was missing some discussions part, but since this was just a talk that wasn’t even on the agenda. They might appear on the next Open Space meeting at Agilenetið.

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Fun in teams

Posted by Logi Helgu on Feb 3, 2012 in Blog | 0 comments

Fun in teams was the title of the talk that I attended at Betwere held by Gauti Guðmundsson. He wen’t over the importance of humor & fun in team building and part of project management. Fun in the end it’s always based on individuals and you can’t force this and even some situations when humor is not the right tool. He researched how fun should be a factor in managing work just as other important even though not as measurable from management point of view. He showed fun facts from his workplace and gave some examples that really made this a very fun talk and the turn up was pretty good…everybody wants to be reminded of this and learn a few tips on how to build up a good moral He even formalized his ideas into a simple production circle Have Fun Deliver Value and even abbreviated it to HFDV

All in all a really good talk for anyone, not just for managers of projects and teams but also the team members that also have to take part of the process. The idea to create a great team (that delivers great work) won’t happen unless you have something pulling you there and fun & humor can be a key element there and might even be essential for many teams. Really nice to have a talk about the human side of Individuals & Interactions…in the end the people and how they communicate is the most important part of every team/organization. It’s the people who are the company and happy individuals should make a happy company

To top the lecture I was pleasantly surprised when I met the lecturer (Gauti) since he’s related to my brothers wife. Somehow I didn’t notice it when I signed up…I think I just saw the title and was sold at that point and didn’t read the details. Nice job Gauti

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Agilis 2011

Posted by Logi Helgu on Nov 25, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments

I attended Agilis2011 and noted a few things down:

Activating Your Agile Leadership Gift (Key speech)
Christopher Avery
I really enjoyed the simplicity Avery’s speech. He had about 3-4 slides and really kept focus for the 30 minutes discussing and explaining The Responsibility Process (find it at his website) that had a nice human touch to it and really inspired people. The importance of responsibility is a good thing to constantly think about (not just in work) and it comes hand in hand with the Agile “feeling” of ownership that is so important to get teams into.
Don’t have anything to add, was a great lecture.

Implementing Large-scale Kanban
Olav Maassen
I found myself thinking about some ideas for Kanban & writing down some too…not sure if they came from the lecture or just my wondering thoughts…I wasn’t following everything and found myself drifting into related thoughts.
I was missing some connection or more concrete details to the examples he was giving…and sometimes even had to focus on understanding him.

Effective Retrospectives
Rachel Davies
Good historical insight of retrospectives. Rachel feels so down to earth and knew this so well that in a way I was hypnotized throughout the lecture and left without almost any notes.
Would have liked to have walked away with something more, but I’m guessing I’m to practical to take much notice of history so it might have been my foult that I came empty handed.

Google Chrome continuous integration infrastructure
Marc-Antoine Ruel
Some good things we’re in here…Code review = 1st line of defense…auto upgrade of software.
I had a hard time with understanding Ruels english and that really took a lot away from the presentation for me

Creative Agility
Clinton Keith
Nice looking slides and very well organized lecture. “All process is evil” was a little gold nugget I like…but people do love & believe in processes
Talked about how specialization is necessary but much more important is the sharing & collaboration. There’s a subject always being misunderstood in Agile that everybody should be able to everything…that just makes no sense =)
Felt really good to just sit back and stop having someone speaking fluent english. He did play a video that I had already seen online…always feel bored when I’m watching something again and can’t help feeling a little cheated

Open Space
I really enjoyed the Open Space meetings and really like this format for deciding the topics just when needed I’m never to good at leaving a discussion an checking others, but this format can really give people much more that just listening to presentation after presentation.

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