Implementing Lean at Scale to Learn Fast and Deliver Faster

Pat Elwer

Principal Engineer

Intel Corporation

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Systemic Barriers to Innovation • Variation Kills Innovation

– Some teams getting better results than others

• Overburden Kills Innovation

– Product roadmaps ungoverned by organizational capacity become exercises in survival

• Accommodation Kills Innovation

– A wasteful systems create firefighters, not scientists

• Innovation requires capacity - Waste, Variation and Overburden consume it

– Lean is a powerful enabler for innovation

2

Product Development Engineering

Design Product

Development Manufacturing

Marketing

Feasibility Studies

“Test to Failure” Data and Analysis

Test Program and Collaterals A Test Program is . . .

• Everything we know about how to manufacture the chip in a software format

• Over 2 million lines of code • Delivered every 2 weeks 3

What are the Challenges?

Test Program

Package Technology

Software

Robotic Handlers

Tester Interface

Units Testers

Fab Process

Processor Design

4

Our Starting Point was a Chaotic Environment

No Standards

Constant Thrash

Poor Quality

High Turn Over

No Continuum

Huge Waste

5

The Wastes • Over Production – Extra Features

– Over-designing, unnecessary complexity, gold Plating

• Inventory - Partially Done Work

– WIP, Long Feedback Cycles

• Over Processing – Re-Learning

– Wishful Thinking, Scatter, Lost Knowledge

• Motion – Task Switching

– Unprioritized Work, Too Many Meetings, No time to “Focus”

• Waiting

– Delays, Red Tape, Queues

• Transportation - Handoffs

– Separating Responsibility, Knowledge, Action and Feedback

• Defects

– Bugs, Rework, Detecting instead of Preventing

• Variation

– Unevenness in the arrival and execution of work

• Overburden

– Loading of people, systems, and equipment beyond capacity

From Poppendieck - Implementing Lean Software Development

1. See Done Well

Done Poorly

Right Thing Wrong Thing

3. F

inis

h

Do the right thing and do it well… 1. See: Discover that

the right thing is now the wrong thing.

2. Move: Do the new right thing, but do it poorly at first.

3. Finish: Eventually do the new right thing well.

First Step was Understanding Change

Black & Gregersen - It Starts with One 7

A “Green Eggs and Ham” Problem

You do not like them.

So you say.

Try them! Try them!

And you may.

Try them and you may, I say.

Are you clinging to what is comfortable and known? What might you be missing? Dr. Seuss – Green Eggs and Ham 8

Executive Sponsorship is Critical

Source: Lean Enterprise Institute 2007 Survey; Lean Strategies Benchmark Report 2004, The Aberdeen Group

Primary barriers to lean initiative adoption

Primary barriers to lean program implementation

Lean Manufacturing Development (LMD)

Lean Manufacturing

• Tools Like 6S, Kaizen Workshops, VSM, etc.

Lean Development

• Tools Like Scrum, XP, LFPD, SAFe, VSM, etc.

Definition, Rules, Principles, Learning Model, Leader Standard Work, Waste, and Value

Execution Value Stream

Knowledge Value Stream

Poppendieck - Implementing

Lean Software Development

Flinchbaugh - The Hitchhiker’s

Guide to Lean 10

1. Systematically Eliminate Waste See and attack waste. Don’t accommodate it

2. Build Quality In and Root Cause Problems Immediately Strive for defect prevention, not detection

3. Reduce Learning and Execution Cycle Times Establish a short cadence and limit work to capacity

4. Learn, Innovate and Improve Use the scientific method to learn and innovate rapidly

5. Make Data Driven Decisions Use set based thinking to learn first, then decide

6. Engage Everyone Tie work to business value and drive decision making to lowest responsible level

7. Optimize the Entire System Correct governance and incentive systems that encourage local optimization

A Principle Based Approach

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First Steps – Drain the Chaos On the Floor and On the Carpet

Galsworth – Visual Workplace

Druckman – 30

Days to Better Agile 12

Team

SM

PO

Plan Do Check Act

Agile provides a cadence of delivery and a cadence of improvement

First Steps Provided a Good Start

1. Systematically Eliminate Waste 2. Build Quality In and Root Cause Problems Immediately 3. Reduce Cycle Times 6. Engage Everyone

• Productivity Increased by 3x over 2 years

• Team was engaged, improving quality, making and meeting commitments, and uncovering “hard” problems

• Provided a path to the remaining principles…

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Building a Knowledge Creation System

+ Learning models that focus

on driving to root cause and building consensus on

action to be taken.

Simple problem solving and documentation standard for communicating and

capturing the results

Ward – Lean Product & Process

Always done in pairs – the teacher and the student

Plan

Do

Check

Act

A3 Knowledge Brief

14 Shook – Managing to Learn

Point-Based:

Set-Based Decision Making

Set-Based:

Analyze &

Critique

Improve

Architect

Developers

Testers

Designers

Manager

Design

Solution

Pick One

Deliver

From Durward Sobek.

Pick Several

Discard those that

won’t work.

Decide with

Data

Deliver

Carefully analyze

the remaining

options.

Solution Space

Solution Space

Leader Standard Work

Reinforce Direction

Identify Waste

Grow Problem Solving

Make Decisions

Visible

Daily Reflection

16 Kennedy – Ready, Set, Dominate Rother – Toyoda Kata

Closed the Loop on the Rest 2. Build Quality In and Root Cause Problems Immediately 4. Learn, Innovate and Improve 5. Make Data Driven Decisions 6. Engage Everyone 7. Optimize the Entire System

• Productivity Increased to 9x total over next 3 years

• Team transitioning from firefighters to scientists, getting good at experimentation and learning to value “proof”

• Success bred new problems – Implement it everywhere

– Working well for a few hundred at two sites

– Scaling to thousands at more than a dozen sites?

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Attacking Variation • When a large organization comes together, many

opposing standards come with it.

• Lean’s tool for removing variation is standardization

• Many benefits, but we chiefly sought to:

– Provide a baseline for improvement and innovation

• Had to build a process to get standards in place quickly

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“MY” WAY STANDARDIZE MOVE TOWARDS IDEAL

Decide Plan Deploy Improve

Mentors:

Make Decisions Visible guide decision making, prepare Owner for IE

Owners:

Reinforce Direction Establish Governance to encourage and continuous improvement and invest in training to re-purpose freed up resources

Reinforce Direction: Guide Owner to answer for every product, prioritize effort by Business Value

Grow Problem Solving: Mentor problem solving on issues team uncovers Identify Waste: Help the team see system level trade-offs

IE #1

IE #2

KR IE #3

Choose 1 Tool or Process from many

Determine Product Intercept Strategy

Do the hard work of implementing the standard everywhere

Continuously make the standard better via LAMDA-PDCA

Every Standardization Project has a K-Brief, Every K-Brief an Owner, every Owner a Mentor, and every Mentor a Coach

Decide Plan Deploy

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Integrating Event (IE) • IE is the final Check in our Plan-Do-Check-Act

• We are checking that we have built consensus on the decisions that have been made

Experts, Enablers and Affected should not be surprised!

21 Kennedy – Ready, Set, Dominate McGoff – The Primes

Attacking Overburden • When a large organization comes together, many

execution models come with it.

– How do we insure we prioritize based on business value and respect sustainable pace?

• Lean’s tool for this is Leveling

• At our smaller scale, we got leveling though Agile

– Small batch sizes executed on a fixed cadence allowed us to measure team capacity and plan properly

– How to Scale Agile “Up” to hundreds of agile teams working together?

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Scaled Agile Framework Goals • Code Quality

– “You can’t scale crappy code.” - Leffingwell

• Execution

– “Agile Release Trains – self organizing teams of agile teams – reliably and frequently deliver value on demand” - Leffingwell

• Alignment

– “More value is created by overall alignment than with local excellence” – Reinertsen

• Transparency

– “Transparency builds confidence, alignment and trust” – Leffingwell

Leffingwell – Agile Software Requirements 23

24 http://scaledagileframework.com/

Innovation at Scale • Standards provide an experimental baseline for

improvement and innovation

– Mentors insure “proof” is brought to the table

• Reflection Events create Cadence of Improvement

– At least 1 Improvement every 2 weeks in every 10 person team

– Quarterly Inter-Team problem solving on every train

• Innovation Sprints create Cadence of Innovation

– Every quarter in every 10 person team

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Summary • Waste, Variation and Overburden are big impediments

to Innovation

– Standardization and Leveling drain chaos from planning and execution to eliminate overburden

• Lean provides a means to create capacity to innovate

• Large scale lean is possible using mostly industry standard, off the shelf, tools and frameworks

– Must understand and apply a change model

– Lean must be lead – executive sponsor, system level thinkers, and active mentors

– Don’t overlook agile frameworks because you don’t do software

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Thank You!

Implementing Lean at Scale to Learn Fast and

Deliver Faster

Pat Elwer

Intel Corporation

patrick.elwer@intel.com

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