Page 71 - Lean six sigma demystified

50 Lean Six Sigma DemystifieD

• Parallel versus sequential. Do more things in parallel.
• No action versus action. Eliminate unnecessary processing.

• No movement versus movement. Eliminate unnecessary movement.

Pull versus Push

The Toyota Production System is a pull method.
—Murumatsu Runtaro

Once you understand what the customer wants, then you can redesign the
process to produce it in a way that minimizes time, defects, and cost. The secret
is to only produce the product or deliver the service when the customer asks
for it. This is the essence of a pull system.
When I was 14, my father taught me how to shoot trap. In trap or skeet shooting,
you stand at a position, load your shotgun, and shout pull! Then a clay target flies
from the trap, left, right, or straight away. Then you do your best to break the target
with a single shot. Notice that nothing happens until you (the customer) “pull” the
clay target from the trap. Compare this with mass production that produces large
batches of finished inventory in anticipation of future demand. Instead of produc-
ing inventory for projected demand, pull thinking forces you to produce parts and
products when the customer actually orders them. If a customer orders a car, for
example, it should kick off a series of requests for a frame, doors, tires, engines, etc.
which should kick off a series of requests for raw materials, and so on.
In Tokyo, for example, you can place a custom order for a Toyota and have it
delivered within 5 days. Pull means that no one produces anything until a customer

downstream asks for it, but when they do, you make it very quickly. Optimally, you
would want to build one piece or service one customer at a time.
? still struggling

If you go into Starbucks (a pull system), they make one of a thousand possible
custom coffee drinks for you when you arrive. The barista often asks for your order
before the cashier takes your money. Speed is one of the secrets to Starbucks suc-
cess. Another is their one-drink-at-a-time (one-piece flow) strategy.