The Lean Software Institute is the leading resource for leaders in the IT sector who want to pursue a Lean initiative. From the senior leadership to managers and individual contributors, we provide education to transfer knowledge about Lean philosophy and practices. We provide hands-on coaching and consulting to ensure a successful implementation. We also provide ongoing support to ensure that our clients stay on a path of continuous improvement.
Our service offering can be divided into three main segments:
- Kaikaku – business system mapping and redesign
- Kaizen – implementing an organizational learning system for continuous improvement
- Leadership support for cultural transformation and managing the Lean initiative
The Kaikaku service provides a process for mapping and redesigning a business system, in many cases a client’s Product Development System. We teach this process to a cross-functional change team of high-level managers and other key stakeholders and then facilitate and coach this team through a series of workshops to map the current business system, set goals for the new system, design the new system, and implement it.
We use a five-dimensional model for mapping and redesigning business systems. Unlike conventional approaches that merely map workflows, our model covers:
- Value Stream Architecture (workflow, processes, inventory queues)
- Information Architecture (knowledge management, specifications, repositories)
- Organization Architecture (organizational structure, physical workspace design)
- Product Architecture (components and platforms)
- Social Architecture (culture, leadership, behaviors)
The redesign process requires change team members to obtain the participation and assistance of employees across the organization in a grassroots manner, and there is ample room for feedback and influence from everyone. Implementation involves teaching courses on Lean principles, tools and practices. We also help the change team create a workshop in which they teach the new business system as part of the rollout process. Different portions of this workshop are taught by different change team participants, and we usually organize a Q&A session where the change team as a panel answers questions in an open-mike fashion.
Our Kaizen service involves helping the client organization establish key rituals for problem/opportunity identification, reflection, and problem-solving. Reflection (Hansei) is performed on a regular basis to discuss what problems or opportunities merit attention. Rigorous problem solving projects (using the Toyota A3 method) are launched for problems that merit careful analysis; for others the solution may be so obvious that the team may just decide to implement it. We teach the basic moves (kata) involved in performing Hansei and A3 projects, and provide consulting assistance to implement a management process to track the pipeline of Hansei observations and A3 problem-solving projects.
We provide Leadership coaching to address a wide range of challenging topics, including goal-setting and performance evaluations, what to do with leaders/managers who have difficulty adapting to a new way of working, how to establish a culture of reflection, respect, and learning, and how to track the financial results of the Lean transformation efforts. The coaching conversations can be done in person, but over time they are often held by phone or Skype.
For more information about our services and an assessment of how we might be able to help your organization, we invite you to contact us to schedule a conversation.