Lean 4.0: What to look for when improving a digital process?

As more and more processes are digitized, Value Stream Managers, waste hunters and process improvers have to adapt their approach as many of their beloved methods and tools may not work anymore. Take the example of manufacturing a widget that is now 3D-printed and doesn’t need all the previous traditional manufacturing steps of metal cutting, …

Process Mining Software can draw your spaghetti diagrams

One underrated tool in the Lean toolbox is the spaghetti diagram. Usually long and requiring painstaking efforts to draw, it may be shown only once, but the displayed Current Reality in the single picture is well worth the thousand words, and the investment to draw it. In the digital age, spaghetti diagrams now come almost …

Process Mining is no substitute for investigating the gemba

When I started to share my thoughts about Process Mining vs. Value Stream Mapping, I figured this would be a two-articles mini series. But some readers’ comments inspired me to clarify one important thing: Process Mining is no substitute for investigating the gemba. Missed previous articles? Check out Is Process Mining the VSM killer? and Stop mapping, …

Stop mapping, start improving

This post is part 2/2 of the series is Process Mining the VSM killer? With Process Mining on the rise, Value Stream Mapping (VSM) may live its last years as a Lean favorite tool. In part 1 of this two-part series, I stressed the limitations of VSM. Those were acceptable as long as no better …

Is Process Mining the VSM killer?

Value Stream Mapping (VSM) may live its last years as a Lean favorite tool, challenged by the rising Process Mining. If my hypothesis will prove true, Lean practitioners will have to adapt, either learning to use this data analytics tool or teaming with data scientists to exploit it. Now this is not necessarily bad news. …

Lean 4.0: where will you Gemba Walk when most of the processes will be digitized?

Here is a prospective thought of mine. Gemba Walks are a one of Lean’s tenet and any practitioner is urged to go around the Gemba and see for him/herself in order to learn, understand and eventually improve processes. But where will we Gemba Walk when most of the processes will be digitized? How to observe …

The blurring definition of waste in a 4.0 world – Part 2 of 2 – Robotic Process Automation

In part 1 of this series I took the example of Additive Manufacturing vs. traditional machining to explain the blurring definition of (Lean) waste and value. In this post, I propose another take with Robotic Process Automation (RPA). With RPA, some tasks considered unnecessary and wasteful in the classic Lean point of view are automated …

The blurring definition of Lean waste in a 4.0 world – Part 1 of 2 – Additive Manufacturing

Until recently in the Lean community, the definition of waste was “simple”: waste is any activity consuming resources without producing value for the customer. In this definition time can be  considered a resource and “customer” is extended to anyone beneficiary of the outcome, like a patient in a hospital getting faster and better care. Focusing …

Will 5S resist 4.0 tech?

April 2019, in the corridors of our offices I picked a statement made by a young consultant about one of his clients: "It's a real mess in their warehouse, they do not manage storage and have no defined storage locations. They lose an incredible amount of time searching for goods. Introducing RFID tags would allow …

Lean 4.0: nothing but rebranding good old Lean Manufacturing?

Skeptics and critical thinkers (I count myself to the latter) may argue that Lean 4.0 is nothing more than a rebranding of good old Lean Manufacturing, and new opportunity to sell refurbished Lean Manufacturing training and consulting, boosted by the Industry 4.0 hype. You have no clue what Lean 4.0 is? Read my post: What …