Key Lesson Take small incrememntal steps, with feedback to catch problems early.
Chapter summary: “Batch”
- Key Lean Insight: Small Batches
- First adopted by Toyota in car manufacturing
- “Supply Chain” management
- “Just in time” manufacturing
- “Toyota Production System”
- What is the fastest way to stuff envelopes
- Two arguments:
- Small batches detect problems earlier and allow them to be corrected
- Less “work in progress” means less handling of half-completed work product
- Less capital sitting around
- How Software Develoment used to be done
- Waterfall (MRD, Product Spec, Architecture, Development, Testing)
- What are the problems?
- Nowadays?
- All are happening at once
- Some companies “release” multiple times PER DAY!
- Some of this is new concepts and some of it is enabled by new technology.
- IMVU Story
- Design, develop, ship features one at a time
- Able to get feedback fast
- COntinuous deployment, including test and rollback
- Continuous Deployment
- “Hardware is becoming software”
- “Mass Custimization” (engraved iPhone!)
- 3D Printing of parts (in SPACE!)
- Pull don’t push
- Look for the “demand” signal and work back from there
- In software development, “YAGNI”
Discussion Guide
- Do you really believe the envelope story?
- Examples that you know about that are “Small Batch” oriented
- And of processes that still use Large Batches