Reflections from my Hiatus

It has been a long time since my fingers last visited this blog.  Ironic, really, because just before I went on a hiatus I blogged about how you have to be disciplined and "make" time.

Well, I have been making time for a lot of things.  Probably too many things.  But not blogging.

My writing energy has been devoted to a couple of other projects.  This summer, I'll be using a new textbook that a colleague and I wrote and edited, for our MBA strategy/capstone classes.  I developed a paper with another colleague about measurement systems for social ventures; it won a "distinguished" research award and is forthcoming in the Academy of Entrepreneurship Journal.  My favorite, though, is an article I wrote to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Fredrick W.Taylor's Scientific Management. The call for papers from the Journal of Management asked whether his work was still relevant in today's businesses.  You betcha!

A key insight of Taylor's was that overloading workers made them less productive.  Well, that's certainly still true today, although the overload tends to be mental rather than physical.  My paper specifically addressed the issue of information overload, why it is so detrimental, and how scientific management and lean manufacturing principles could alleviate the problem.

All this is to say that I have realized I need to take a dose of my own medicine.  I am overloaded.  And very, very tired.   So the stories I will be writing this summer will be reflections about applying scientific management and lean principles to my personal and professional lives.  Comments and suggestions are welcomed!

Eliminating Waste?

I've been thinking about lean operations, a lot, lately. What makes them lean is that they eliminate waste, i.e., any activity that does not add value. Generally credited to Toyota, the main sources of waste are typically:

1. waiting
2. defects
3. inventory
4. overproduction
   
5. unnecessary transport
6. unnecessary human motion
   
7. unnecessary processing.

As I explain in my forthcoming book, McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course in Operations Management, "In examining a lean transformation system, activities are considered value-added (e.g., patient diagnosis); non-value-added but necessary (e.g., requiring patients to sign a HIPAA form); or non-value-added and not necessary (e.g., waiting for the doctor)."

Lean concepts are applied to a wide variety of operations, and can certainly apply to personal effectiveness. I recently learned of an application than I thought might have gone too far.

According to American Public Media's radio show, "Marketplace," Ireland-based "Ryanair, a budget carrier... is considering a plan to charge for use of its lavatories on short flights." Unnecessary... processing? According to the report, the airline wants to modify passengers' behavior on short flights. I can only imagine. I suppose an infrequently used toilet requires less service? Ultimately, if they are able to reduce the number of lavatories needed on each plane, they can add more revenue-producing seats.

But really, is it in the spirit of lean operations that they are eliminating... eliminating waste?