smart simple design /reloaded/, Variety Effectiveness And The Cost Of Complexity, by Gwendolyn D. Galsworth, Visual Thinking Inc 2015
When author Gwen Galsworth started thinking about product variety and a better way of managing product and parts proliferation some 20 years back, it was a challenge that manufacturing and IT folks saw looming in the distance, but the tide that would swamp many systems with waves of variety - some necessary, some just part of new product introduction cycles - had not yet come in. Now, however, the impact of product variety on manufacturing and supply chain systems is daily felt and seen. But according to Galsworth, not all this variety is necessary.
The author wants to help managers "identify opportunities to simplify your company, dismantle the levels of complexity that have taken root there, and, once done, prevent their recurrence." Given that a corporation's variety portfolio may be inherited, a legacy of complex systems and thinking, the author offers the reader a proven methodology to attack variety at all levels - legacy, and new - called VEP. See Chapter 6 for step-by-step guides to reduction of corporate and product variety. The VEP Methodology: Stage 1 is a great starting place. You will be asked to form a high-level team to guide the process.
Implementers may find the most challenging and lengthy part of the process includes"
3a Find and reduce parts with low-resistance to change
3b Assess, clean up, and upgrade parts classification system, and
3c Begin to analyze and revise company policies and practices.
Galsworth's description of the Early Victories Team that worked for 90 days getting rid of the easy stuff. This is the kind of IT work that many companies may put off until it's time to install a new system, but putting more junk on a cheaper Cloud-based system is a dangerous approach. In her 90-day example one company eliminated more than a thousand part numbers. The Early Victories TEam made the process visual while building support by creating "The Chuck Wagon." As team members eliminated parts, they "chucked" them into a cart in the company lobby!
A process is only as good as the data on which it is based
Once the system has been purged, how to prevent bad variety from slipping back? Here Galsworth offers Chapter 7, "Creating A VEP-Capable Classification System" We see Eric Lail, formerly an employee of Venerable Chair Company, working through the process. Venerable's legacy story will be familiar to many readers, and the solution requires much detail work, but the result for Lail was a great learning experience, as well as a method for the future. The classification system and attribute templates, as well as other tools offered in Chapter 8 will help readers establish their own appropriate vareity reduction system.
Mill Girl Verdict: A serious read, the details and tools help prepare for the complexity reduction journey. B+
Other reviews include Bruce Hamilton - "the first thorough treatment of a method that can systemacially identify the waste of product veriety... an approaching revolution in the product and service development process... an excellent place to begin."
and Richard Schonberger - "I like this book - a lot. Among hundreds of books on lean and related topics, even today it is hard to find erudite treatments of product proliferation and variety effectiveness... the rare, fine exception.
Eric Lail, VP Transfportation Insight, "the impace of reducing the number of parts - at the part level - from the overall manufacturing system shaves years off your improvement journey. Read this book and learn how!"