Slow Down To Speed Up with Lean

I’ve been reading this excellent post from Jon:

One of the people I most respect as a business leader often repeats the phrase “go slow to go fast”. There is a nearly identical Toyota way principle which states that slow and deliberate planning will speed up execution of that plan greatly. The reverse is also true. Quick and shallow planning leads to poor execution with many delays and rework, and this is too often the case. Of course companies can have quick planning and a great culture of execution but this has a higher cost both in terms of effort and the organizational learning that fails to happen as a result of curtailed feedback to the next cycle of planning.

via Lean Manufacturing Blog, Kaizen Articles and Advice | Gemba Panta Rei.

This reminds me of the following book:

In Praise of Slow: How a Worldwide Movement Is Challenging the Cult of Speed

This book looks at speed, how we live and work, and seeks out the flip-side: people around the world who have changed the way the live, and who eschew some of the trappings of the modern road warrior in exchange for simpler, slower living. They spend more time with their kids, get to do things they’ve always wanted to do and calm down. They feel better, live less expensively (when you’re not in a hurry, you learn to appreciate what you have, not what others have), and get to know their friends and family better.

Fast and Slow do more than just describe a rate of change. They are shorthand for ways of being, or philosophies of life. Fast is busy, controlling, aggressive, hurried and analytical, stressed, superficial, impatient, active, quantity-over-quality. Slow is the opposite: calm, careful, receptive, still, intuitive, unhurried, patient, reflective, quality-over-quantity. It is about making real and meaningful connections—with people, culture, work, food, everything. The paradox is that Slow does not always mean slow. As we shall see, performing a task in a Slow manner often yields faster results. It is also possible to do things quickly while maintaining a Slow frame of mind.

The last words go to Jon:

It takes faith and commitment to “go slow to go fast” especially when there are pressures each day to speed up response time, improve quality and safety, while reducing cost. The demand for results is not slowing down. That is all the more reason to pause and check whether in all of our frantic activity there might not be some things we can stop doing, realign our vectors and strengthen consensus. We need to go slow, yet with urgency. Plans change, and when they do it is handy to have hoshin habits and a constancy of purpose towards an effective execution of our adjusted plans.

Related articles

• Lean Manufacturing Cell (learnsigma.com)
• Back to Basics (theleanthinker.com)
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• Six Sigma Blogs: Six Sigma . . . The Winning Hand (blogs.isixsigma.com)
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• Who Knew Fiat was a Lean Company? (leaninsider.productivitypress.com)
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• Poka Yoke Mistake Error Proofing (Lean Manufacturing Tool) (learnsigma.com)
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• Lean Manufacturing Flow Example (learnsigma.com)
• Lean Manufacturing Takt Time Marker (learnsigma.com)
• Lean Manufacturing – Kaizen Continuous Improvement (learnsigma.com)
• Defining Lean Manufacturing (learnsigma.com)
• Kaizen or Continious Improvement Explanation (learnsigma.com)
• Lean Manufacturing in Aerospace (Rolls-Royces) (learnsigma.com)
• everybody everyday lean – Continuous Improvement System (learnsigma.com)

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