Comments on: Is Batching Always Bad?

By: Bhavin Kamani

Bhavin Kamani — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 08:30:52 +0000

I think it depends on from whose point of view you are viewing a given operation. In case of an email, if the point of view is from a person waiting for my reply, I guess he would prefer me to apply single pice flow. Whereas if it is just informational mail (where I am the customer), then I may be more efficient with batch and queue.

Having said that, in any batch and queue scenario, there is always WIP. Its best to keep this WIP optimal. For example, pile up of too many informational mails for days/weeks may not be a good idea. Daily or weekly clearance of informational mails in small batches helps.

My takeway – Batch/Queue or Single piece Flow? Batching looks more efficient for the task executor. However, task customer will always perfer single piece flow. One has to strike a balance between these two bi-polar needs

By: 5 Practical Ways to Climb out of Any Slump | Lean Six Sigma Academy

5 Practical Ways to Climb out of Any Slump | Lean Six Sigma Academy — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:29:41 +0000

[...] messages you need to clean it out. Down to zero. Yes, zero emails in your inbox. This might require batch processing but I won’t think less of you if you do batch [...]

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 09:32:18 +0000

Depends on what your value is…is it the speed at which you read your emails or is it the quality and timeliness of information flow.

By: Kim Niles

Kim Niles — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 18:17:23 +0000

I disagree. I’ve tried to write emails, articles and books via batch and queue of ideas … it doesn’t work for me. I end up re-reading or re-writing the same things over and over in different parts of the article because I forget what I’ve read or written earlier. It’s very inefficient. It’s always best to develop the outline (equivalent of process) then populate each section in one sitting (equivalent of single piece flow). Reviewing that work after it’s done is like having an inspection point beyond the production of the part.

Regarding emails, sorting out the different types of subjects is like sorting materials to different production lines. Batch and queue under this context would be like sorting out all the emails of a certain subject then compiling and pasting in one email to respond to all the emails… which no one does because we naturally know it’s inefficient.

By: Six Sigma :Your Resource for Strategic Management - » The SixSig Roundup

Six Sigma :Your Resource for Strategic Management - » The SixSig Roundup — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 04:06:56 +0000

[...] an old process, which is fathering a baby girl. Congrats, Ron! But he has an interesting post about batching, a process that may not be lean but can be equally efficient as well. I joined the discussion and [...]

By: Meikah Delid

Meikah Delid — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 03:47:37 +0000

Yes, batching my tasks do good for me, too. You see am not only updating blogs but also project managing two websites. So, every day, I am torn between creative (which is blogging/writing) and technical (the work on the websites) work.

It came to a point that I felt inefficient doing both every day. What I did, I did batching, much like what Darren is doing. Now, I have 3-4 posts in my every other day, which I think is more effective.

During off-blogging days, I can give more concentration on my website projects.

As they say, do what is best and most effective for you and for your processes.

By: pete abilla

pete abilla — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:18:47 +0000

In transportation, it sometimes makes sense to batch instead of sending less-than-truckload, especially with gas prices the way they are. In this energy-challenging environment, I’m sure Toyota is doing less of the “small batches, frequent trips” strategy in their supply parts business (I was on that side of the business) and opting for “a little bit bigger batches, but less frequent trips”. In either case, Toyota still does batches — the question is about “how big should the batch be?” The goal should be a batch-size of 1, but if not, then you increment from there.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:01:08 +0000

There’s two things here, firstly clarification as to where you’re batching and where’re not. Just because you don’t read your email as it turns up doesn’t mean you’re batching, it just means you’re not stopping what you’re doing to change onto that. (writing a book even more so)

Secondly, you are quite correct, the goal is to reach single piece flow however you can’t just stick single piece flow in somewhere and expect it to work brilliantly. You need to improve the system to make single piece flow achievable. Is the system to moderate guest authors posts too clumsy or complicated to switch into and out quickly?

By: Andy Wagner

Andy Wagner — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:29:19 +0000

Remember, it’s not single-piece flow for it’s own sake. It’s single piece flow to provide value to the customer as quickly as possible. By focusing on one task through to it’s conclusion you serve that goal. I suppose somebody unfamiliar with lean terminology might call that batching, but I’m not sure I would.
Reading and writing email a few times per day means fewer interruptions to the flow of other tasks. That’s certainly lean. The unit size is not each individual email message, it is the daily task of handling all email.
I suppose the question is, who is your most important customer, the emailer, or the customer for all the other tasks in your day.
Your quote also says that he gets down to 0 emails in his inbox. That means he’s not keeping inventory day to day. I wish I could say that.

-Andy

By: Ron Pereira

Ron Pereira — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:58:42 +0000

I hear you, Mark. Now that I think about it I’ve also done the same thing preparing for vacation. I actually wrote the “kaizen” series one evening and then had them sent out each of the next 5 days automatically.