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Questions from the Field #1: Lean Engineering

Avatar photo By Jon Miller Updated on April 3rd, 2023

We received several good questions from a manager of System and Process Improvement attempting to do kaizen in engineering. She noticed that there were significant areas for improvement (known as Lean opportunities) within the engineering department, but she was struggling to persuade the engineers to embrace Lean thinking. One of the challenges she faced was:

How do we measure what is perceived as “un-measurable”, such as the amount of time to design or research where there are many variables?”

Measuring Design and Research Activities

When implementing Lean principles in engineering, there are very few aspects that cannot be “un-measurable“. Design and research activities can certainly be measured by tools such as a stopwatch, video, spaghetti diagram, etc. The main concern is how to quantify activities such as these, which can be challenging to measure. These engineering processes may be iterative (happening over and over again), discontinuous, and invisible, as it is often being done inside the mind.

Using Measurement and Kaizen to Improve Iterative Processes

When dealing with iterative processes, it can be helpful to view each iteration as a form of “rework,” resulting from a lack of proper information, specifications, test results, and other relevant factors in the earlier iterations. Ask how the number of iterations can be reduced to get to a final design quicker. Measure each iteration and identify where value is being added and where it is simply being “reworked“. Identify and kaizen the root causes of non-value-added iterations.

For discontinuous processes, capture each segment of the process when it is happening. Look for kaizen opportunities at hand-off points. Look for ways to connect the processes and implement one-piece flow of the design. Identify and kaizen the reasons that the process can not flow one at a time continuously. By streamlining the flow, iterations can occur more rapidly while maintaining a higher level of quality.

Visualizing Mental Work for Better Flow

For work being done inside the mind (this is a challenge), make the work visual. Determine a Takt time, and periodically stop to make the output visual for the downstream process (the customer). This could take the form of a rough sketch, a spec sheet, a research brief, etc. Breaking the ‘work in the mind’ into smaller, more visible pieces allows downstream pull by the customer, resulting in better flow.

Identify the Ideal State and Begin Kaizen

As with all improvement efforts, it helps to define the goal first before measuring and analyzing it. Ask the following questions:
  1. What is the output of the design or research process?
  2. What is the desired end product, and how much time should it take to achieve this?
  3. What are the steps involved in creating the design or research output?

Once the “ideal state” is defined, it is easier to see the waste and begin kaizen.

Lean Thinking and Continuous Improvement

Using Lean thinking and continuous improvement, engineering departments can improve efficiency, quality, and reduce waste. By measuring, using kaizen, and visualization, they can identify areas for improvement and achieve their goals. Asking key questions can help understand design and research. Although some processes are hard to measure, streamlining workflows can reduce iterations and deliver better value to customers.


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