Feasibility Study of Lean Approach Utilization in Service Design

Transcription

1 Feasibility Study of Lean Approach Utilization in Service Design Seyed Ali FAREGH*, Makoto WATANABE**, Kenta ONO*** *Department of Design Science, Chiba University, ** Department of Design Science, Chiba University, *** Department of Design Science, Chiba University, Abstract: term Lean originates from Toyota Production System (TPS) as a set of efficiency and value-driven principles for continuously improving to systematically reducing all forms of waste, started by Taiichi Ohno in Toyota Company in Japan in 1940s and it was developed to other fields such as management, planning and value engineering. Today Lean Thinking is the dominant paradigm for organizing order fulfillment systems. Although Lean has been originally propounded in manufacturing domain, it seems to have this potential to expand in service industry as well. Regarding advantages of Lean Thinking for production, the main aim of this paper is finding out relationship between Lean Thinking and Service Design. This is a qualitative feasibility study and a rationalistic approach to usability of application of Lean Thinking in Service Design ; Data gathering, including the literature review of lean thinking concept and service design specification was done by librarian method. Then using reductive reasoning, comparative survey between lean thinking in product design and service design was done with analytical descriptive research method (Content Analysis). This research shows that lean is applicable in service industry also and can be utilized for service improvement. Key words: Lean production, TPS, Vanguard, Service Design 1. Introduction Over the last four decades it has been common for services to be treated like production (Seddon & Donovan) and so companies intend to adjust service with success production rules. During the last thirty years, product companies from a wide range of industrial sectors have consider moving into service business (Young, 2008). Lean Enterprise is one of the most important methods that are applied not only in manufacturing but also in service improvement. Lean Production considers the expenditure of resources for any goal other than the creation of value for the end customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination. Lean principles have proven not only to be universal, but to be universally successful at improving results (Poppendieck, 2003). Lean was originally used as a manufacturing process improvement technique. It sought to specify customer value - requirements mainly in terms of outputs. The leadership team of the organization set the vision for the required output and the people who made the product or delivered the service were given responsibility for the redesign of the processes to increase the effectiveness of the delivery. It focused on understanding and making the end-to-end process flow smoothly. In doing that it sought to eliminate non-value adding activities - waste.

2 The Core of Lean process improvement is: Define Customers in a public sector context this can include recipients, funders and other stakeholders. Define desired outputs and outcomes in customer terms Define and map the as is processes - as they really are Design the to be processes Identify the actions to move from as is to to be Design the process to flow based on pull (i.e. demand from the customer) Regarding advantages of lean for production, this research strives to find out whether lean deals directly with service. The main aim of this paper is finding out relationship between Lean Thinking and Service Design. 2. Background & Literature Review Lean manufacturing, lean enterprise, or lean production, often simply, "Lean", is a production practice that considers the expenditure of resources for any goal other than the creation of value for the end customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination. Working from the perspective of the customer who consumes a product or service, "value" is defined as any action or process that a customer would be willing to pay for. Lean manufacturing is a management philosophy derived mostly from Toyota Production System (T.P.S) that was propounded by Taiichi Ohno and later Dr. Edwards Deming continued Japanese lean quality philosophy; He spent a lot of time in Japan during the 1950s and it was on these visits to Japan that he tough Toyota many of his ideas and shared his way of thinking as a Systems Thinker who think in terms of wholes. Dr. Deming proposed best known Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle on the assumption manager who start at plan are already System Thinker. Figure.1 - Fames Deming PDCA Cycle Deming saw Plan as have an idea based on what you know, Do was followed by Check to see if the idea was right &finally Act meant put it in the line. Although system thinking and lean production operate at tow different levels, they are closely linked, complementary and for many practical purposes are one base on similar insight; Although Lean has been mostly known in manufacturing and there is rich Lean back ground in the product sector, in the service sector maybe the most famous method of application of lean for service organizations is Vanguard. The Vanguard Method is a method used by service organizations to change a systems approach to the design and management of services. It was suggest by Professor John Seddon, British occupational psychologist. The method represents a translation of Taiichi Ohno's ideas behind the Toyota Production System for service organizations. The method makes the assumption that service is different to manufacturing. Proponents of the Vanguard method recommend that service organizations avoid the 'lean tools' developed for 'lean manufacturing' as they don't apply well in service organizations.

3 Derived from Deming, a simple, standard tree-step process call Check-Plan-Do, is used generate feedback systematically and incorporate it into the organization. Figure.2 Vanguard cycle for service organization improvement Vanguard Method starts at the Check because manages first need to see that are currently invisible to them. Usually managers will claim that they know of the problems they have, but are unaware that their actions do not lead to sustainable improvement. Check help managers to see what they may already know to be a problem from a different point of view. The Vanguard Model for Check is sequential; It starts by considering the purpose of the system from the customer s view point. Then it studies the type and frequency of demands customers make on the system. For every high frequency, predictable demand, designer/manager needs to know both the capability and predictability of the system s response. Followers of Vanguard Method claim that only after these stages, a designer/manager can study the work flow of a specific service. Figure 3. The Vanguard Model for Check They also believe there are tow kinds of workflows in a service: Value Work, the activity required to deliver what matters to the customer, and Waste. Having identified the waste, designer/manager must look for its causes. It means that they should answer to this question: What does the system behave in this way which leads to waste? These are what The Vanguard Method calls system conditions: structure, measures, process design, procedures and management roles that determine how the work is carried out. 3. Discussion According to Ohno, the father of Toyota Production System, the tow pillars of lean are Just-in Time (JIT) and Jidoka (Zokaei, Keivan & etc, 2010). The first of two pillars holding up the roof of the house is Just-in-Time (JIT) pillar. Just-in-Time relates to consumption on the production line based on demand, or sometimes called a pull

4 system. The company receives deliveries just-in-time which creates the right products at the right time in the right quantity. Figure 4. Illustration of TPS House propounded by Taiichi Ohno Services are simultaneous and are rendered and consumed during the period of same time. To deliver service, a certain degree of customer participation is necessary (Marc Stickdorn & Jakob Schneider, 2011). Service creates and delivered at the same time and is consumed at the point of sale; Services are inseparable from delivery. Think of any service offered by a design consultancy or public transport operator. None of them would be able to operate without the involvement of the customer. Services are heterogeneous also. This means services can never be exactly repeated as the point in time, location, circumstances, conditions and this specification is comparable to Autonomation or Jidoka( 自働化 ) in lean production terminology which is also a toolkit to prevent repeat a failure in the process. Furthermore, Inventory is another form of waste that lean advises to prevent storage. Inventory whether be in the form of raw materials, work-in-progress (WIP), or finished goods, represents a capital outlay that has not yet produced an income either by the producer or for the consumer. Any of these three items not being actively processed to add value is waste. Services are not tangible or standardized goods that need to be stored away in an inventory. Instead, services are created through interaction between a service provider and a customer. The inherent intention of service is to meet the customer s needs and, as a result, be used frequency and recommended heartily. As Taiichi Ohno, one of the creators of the Toyota Production System put it, all the works and processes in industrial Lean thinking must begin by differentiating value from the customer viewpoint. The first principle of

5 Lean in Ohno s quotation is Define value precisely from the perspective of the end customer, in terms of a specific product, with specific capabilities, offered at a specific price and time. (Womack, James P. & Jones, Daniel T., 1996). Similarly, services also are created through close interaction between a service provider and a customer. The inherent intention of a service is to meet the customer s needs and, as a result, be used frequently and recommended heartily. In order to importance of user satisfaction, service designer need to put the customer at the center of the service design process. A true understanding of habits, cultural, social context and motivation of user is crucial. This requires a genuine understanding of the customer beyond mere statistical description and empirical analyses of their needs. Gaining authentic customer insights includes the application of methods and tools that enable the service designer to slip into the customer s shoes and understand their individual service experience and its wider context. The understanding and disclosure of these disparate mindset and needs is where service design thinking begins. (Stickdorn & Schneider, 2011); Equivalent Specifications Service Characteristic Lean Principle Simultaneous JIT Heterogeneous Jidoka Intangible/Immaterial Inventory-less Perishable Over-Production Preventing User-Center User-Center Table 1. Conformity of Lean Enterprise & Service Industry Every designer has a slightly different approach and different design specialisms also have their own ways of working, but there are some general activities common to all designers. The Design Council has developed the Double Diamond model to illustrate this. Divided into four distinct phases: Discover, Define, Develop and Deliver, it maps how the design process passes from points where thinking and possibilities are as broad as possible to situations where they are deliberately narrowed down and focused on distinct objectives. Figure.5 overview of The Design Council s double diamond phases for design process

6 With respect to these conformities between essence of Lean and nature of service industry, it could be seems to Lean manufacturing method definitely encompasses services also and its rules can be easily expand to service design as well. But surveying deeper, Lean Thinking not only was basically introduced in products domain - not services domain - but also it mentions to manufacturing phase - not design phase; In other word, in production, manufacturing is the next step of design stage; it is equal to Deliver phase that occurs after service design; Regarding to production and service differences, if we are persuaded to extend one to one Lean Manufacturing and its principles or translate it directly to service design, there are potentially some non-conformity. Significantly, in application of Lean method and tools in service design, we will encourage with tree nonconformities problems: The first is to try to use production methods and tools in the service context (Bicheno, 2008); The second is translation of specialized special method of manufacturing step to design context; And finally third problem is applying of an improvement and developmental method for design as a creational act! More explaining about latter, lean production as a style of quality control policy implies to check available process that leads to defective output to find the wastes and their roots. This means that lean thinking, opposite of design thinking, does not start from nothing. In other word, Design involve creation phase that lead to generate new product, idea or system. But Lean according to what applies in manufacturing, play continuous role to finding out the waste and its root in a current production line and then tries to remove them to improve efficiency. Even in Lean service that has been proposed by John Seddon in Vanguard method, the process start with Check stage; So we can consequent Vanguard Method is not a startup process and does not claim to it can establish a new service organization; Rather, there is an available organization and Vanguard as a developmental and optimization method just recommends improvement advices. 4. Conclusions All of fundamental characteristics of service industry are in adaptation with the most of essential principles of Lean enterprise. So Lean approach is adjustable into service industry. This research shows that Lean as an efficient production method is applicable in service industry also and can be utilized for service providing improvement. Regarding ability of Lean method for review and editing of current process to improve value by elimination of waste, it can be considered as a user experience (UX) rearrangement by service value stream mapping. Through service providing review, it will be achieved the revision and renovation opportunity to regenerate or emend current service status; Hence Lean method can be utilized as an improvement process in service qualification and is translatable into service redesign tool. 5. References and Citations [1] Marc Stickdorn, Jakob Schneider (2011), This is service design thinking; Basics, Tools, Cases. John Wiley & Sons Inc. [2] Bicheno, John, (2008), The Lean Toolbox for Service Systems, Production and Inventory Control, Systems and Industrial Engineering (PICSIE) Books, Buckingham, England. [3] Booklet of An introduction to service design and a selection of service design tools; Design Methods for Developing Services, Collaboration Project between: Technology Strategy Board (Driving Innovation) and Design Council.

7 [4] Booklet of Principles of Lean Thinking; Tools & Techniques for Advanced Manufacturing, National Research Council Canada- Industrial Research Assistance Program, Revision D, July [5] Mary Poppendieck (2003), Lean Software Development; An Agile Toolkit, Addison-Wesley Professional [6] Young, Laurie, (2008), From Product to Service: insight and experience from companies which have embrace the service economy, Wiley [7] Womack, James P. & Jones, Daniel T., (1996), Lean Thinking; Banishing Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation, Free press. [8] Zokaei, Keivan & etc., (2010), Lean and System Thinking in Public Sector in Wales, Lean Enterprise Research Centre (LERC) of Cardif University, United Kingdom