Here’s a great example of lean in action within a non-manufacturing situation!  Oh, and for the record, my kids figured some of this stuff out months ago! 

I’ve sensed an unusually strong disturbance in the Continuous Improvement force the past month or so.

It seemed to start with the announcement that iSixSigma was about to close their doors.  Perhaps I’m partially to blame as I wrote an article where I shared my opinions on what I feel is a very sad situation.

In any event, there seems to be more bickering than normal across various Social Media sites such as LinkedIn and Twitter.

You see, many, but not all, hard core Six Sigma practitioners will find ways to snub their noises at the lean crowd while many, but again not all, hard core lean practitioners will find a way to poke at the six sigma folks. 

With this said, I often wonder how effective the continuous improvement world could truly be if we focused less on labels (lean, six sigma, TOC, etc.) and more on learning new things and helping others.

Again, I’ll shoulder may share of the blame here… just look at the name of this blog!  I fell right into the same labels game when first starting LSS Academy.

In the end, Social Media outlets like blogs, LinkedIn, and Twitter can be very powerful when leveraged for good… but when they become ideological battle fields for people to attack others under the guise of continuous improvement… well,  I sometimes wonder if they’re helping at all.

What do you think?

Note from Ron: This is  a guest post from James Lawther.  Enjoy!

Here’s an interesting link for you. It shows the prices of some domestic appliances in the 1950’s. Sixty years ago you could buy:

• A Sylvania 17 inch black and white TV for $179.95
• An Admiral fridge freezer for $399.95
• A Roll Round vacuum cleaner for $49.00

I had a quick look on Amazon, today I can buy:

• A Phillips 22 inch colour TV for $179.99
• A Sanyo fridge freezer for $329.99
• A Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner for $54.99

Over half a century later I can still buy the same item for the same price, except it isn’t the same item, nothing like the same.  Do you fancy staying in and watching a night’s entertainment on a 17 inch Sylvania?

Why do we pay more for services?

Here is another interesting site for you. It calculates inflation statistics. Since 1951 inflation in the US has been 761%. Or to put it another way the $50 you spent in that restaurant last weekend would have cost you $6.57 in 1951.

Now this begs a question. Why is it that we are paying 7 times as much for services now than we were 60 years ago, but we can buy a bigger, better, more reliable TV for the same price? You don’t have to be Einstein to see that something strange is going on.

What is it? Is it that labour costs are lower? Is it raw material costs? Is it energy costs? Is it technology? What is so much cheaper in the manufacturing industry than the service industry? None of those reasons really cut it, to a greater or lesser extent they apply to the service industries as much as they do manufacturing.

Process Improvement

My guess is that it all comes down to process improvement. Over the past six decades manufacturing industries have had wave after wave of productivity improvements, from Deming and Juran, through TQM, 6 Sigma and Lean there has been a remorseless effort to cut costs and improve quality. Once one company started the others just had to follow suit or they would have been out of business, it is what Charles Darwin called survival of the fittest.

The service industries are just starting to get to grips with process improvement. Once they do it will lead to a similar onslaught of productivity improvements. So, if you work for a bank, or a restaurant or a body shop, maybe now is the time to learn a little more. It has been a while since you could buy a Roll Round cleaner.

About the Author

James Lawther gets upset by business operations that don’t work and apoplectic about poor customer service. Visit his web site “The Squawk Point” to find out more about service improvement.

photo credit: 1