Don’t let Lean be a local event

  • Published
  • By Col. David Penny
  • C-17 Program Integration Office chief
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  As with all new programs designed to increase the efficiency of our Air Force, 'Lean' is a fantastic philosophy being employed across all commands to focus our efforts and trim unnecessary use of resources.

Lean is something the Air Force has been doing for nearly six decades, it's just worn other names.

What is different about Lean though, is the approach. By focusing on specific tasks or work spaces, and optimizing resource consumption, various Lean initiatives underway here are helping our Airmen understand the entirety of a specific area.

However, we must be careful; optimization at the local level can lead to some unforeseen and expensive results. For example:

One day, a pair of bricklayers was building a large gated entryway at a local mansion. The mason on the left of the driveway, Lonnie, was a grizzled old man with 40 years of experience and rarely thought about how he did his job.

Four decades of the 'mason's beat,' scoop-slop-drop-tap-scrape, provided him with all the process he needed to complete his task before sundown.

The mason on the right, Ronnie, had been a mason for 10 years, several of them in the U.S. Air Force. Now he was home, plying his trade once again.

Unlike Lonnie, the art of brick laying was not as instinctive, so Ronnie had to think about the standard process. Not surprisingly, his recent exposure to Lean training led Ronnie to initiate a few changes to his process in order to cut resource consumption, time, bricks, mortar, etc.

First, Ronnie looked at where his supplies were located relative to his work area. He immediately noticed that the brick pallet and mortar-mixing bucket were not directly next to his work area and that every so often, he would have to walk over to the middle of the road and take the bricks and mortar back to the right side of the entryway.

Ronnie quickly computed the wasted mileage for the day's labor to be a half mile and decided that moving all the bricks and mortar to the right side of the road would cut his transit time by 30 minutes a day.

After the first break, he told Lonnie that he wanted to move all the supplies closer to the right. Lonnie refused this suggestion, because it would just increase his own travel time.
Undeterred, Ronnie observed Lonnie performing tasks identical to his. Immediately, he knew that if they both worked on his wall it would be complete in half the time.

Running some numbers through his head, he determined that if they both worked on the same wall and alternated the masons' steps, he could get his wall done in less than half of the original plan, thus guaranteeing an improvement over independent efforts.

Finally, Ronnie determined that if the work would be much faster than originally planned, they could mix larger batches of mortar, thus saving another 30 minutes from the day's schedule. Combining all the improvements together, they would finish a full two hours early.

At their second break, Ronnie proposed the process changes to Lonnie. After half an hour of debate, the old mason reluctantly agreed to the process changes. So, they moved all the supplies to the right wall, mixed an extra large bucket of mortar and proceeded to start building.

Lonnie applied the mortar, slop-drop-scrape, and Lonnie placed the bricks, drop-tap. This all seemed like a good plan.

The new rhythm seemed to provide the masons with an optimized build process. Then, in a scene that could have been a 'Three Stooges' episode, Lonnie dropped some mortar on a brick, Ronnie tried to pick it up and they bumped heads.

Lonnie reverted to owning the full process because he had lost the old-fashioned rhythm and all synergies fell apart. Worse, the mortar they had mixed hardened too fast and several layers of bricks had to be removed due to poor adhesion.

In the end, the job took twice as long and the two masons bore a grudge for many years.
What's the moral of the story? Don't let Lean be a local event - always look at the full scope of proposed changes to ensure the entire system benefits more than just your side of the driveway.