Stop Doing Stupid Things

Stupid is a loaded word. I hesitate to use it but, what the hell, it is part of a good story. Early in my consulting career, I worked with a manufacturing company. During my introduction to thirty or so welders, one of the more talented and experienced in the group, shouted, "We just do stupid things." I love that kind of honesty.

First, I need to say that businesses usually do not do stupid things on purpose. A definition of stupid is "Given to unintelligent decisions or acts." Individuals and businesses are not stupid and do not carry out "unintelligent actions" on purpose. Sometimes they make "unintelligent decisions" that lead to "unintelligent actions". I help them see these "unintelligent decisions".

The LEAN Approach

Immediately after the introduction, I gathered the plant manager, the area supervisor, and several of the welders including the vocal one. I told them I wanted to understand the "unintelligent action" he was talking about and make and intelligent decision to do it better. The plant manager nodded his approval. While he was skeptical that some guy off the street (me) could show him how to run his business better, he restated his commitment to learn to do the work better. Good. Identify value. And we established management commitment.

I asked the vocal one to explain the specific "unintelligent action" he mentioned previously. As the group described the process, I drew it out on a flipchart. In a short time, we agreed with the process. I re-drew the process as a value stream map. Then I asked some clarifying questions to get estimates on wait time and wasted effort. Now we all had a common understanding of the process and managed to see the problem. Good. Map the value stream. Identify the waste.

Next, I talked a little about how to make the product flow. Now, they could see the current flow was haphazard and disruptive. They knew it before, but now the could see it. We listed several options to improve the flow and selected a couple of things we could do immediately. We made a list of tasks to make it happen. Good. We had a plan improved flow and eliminate waste.

Finally, I asked the group the most meaningful question. "Is there any reason you can not do this by yourself, without permission from management, without spending money, or without help from other areas." They all agreed that could make it happen. Their supervisor, with a wry smile, agreed that there was no reason to keep doing things the old way, the "unintelligent actions", now that they had made an "intelligent decision". Good. They recognized their empowerment.

Results

This all took less than 45 minutes. They had three big pieces of paper to show others to implement the changes. Admittedly, this was only one small change to streamline the business. It required very little management attention. The actual improvement was relatively small. The biggest benefits were learning to see the "unintelligent actions" and feeling empowered to stop doing stupid things.

I worked with this company for almost a year on their Lean journey. Much of my work focused on management and information flow using their ERP system. I used the same Lean approach to help them see and resolve their "unintelligent actions".

Information Management

Many Lean engagements start on the shop floor where we look for product flow. If we leave it there, we are missing much of the benefit. I have found that the Lean approach yields great results in other areas of the business, including information management, by focusing on information flow.

How great could we be if we learn to see the "unintelligent actions" and learn to make more "intelligent decisions" when applying information technology to solve business problems?