A Factory of One

vii

Contents

Introduction ................................................................. xi

Acknowledgments ..................................................... xvii

  1  What’s Your Job? ......................................................1

Why Is It So Tough to Create Value? .................................. 5

What the Heck Is Your Work, Anyway? ............................. 7

Going to the Gemba ........................................................... 9

What’s It All about? ............................................................12

Next Steps ..........................................................................12

Notes ...................................................................................13

  2  Spotting Value, Spotting Waste..............................15

Allison’s Story .....................................................................15

Introducing 5S ....................................................................18

What Is Information 5S? .....................................................20

A Lesson from the Chefs ....................................................24

Applying 5S to Information ...............................................26

The $14 Million Check ...................................................... 28

The Desktop .......................................................................30

The Absurdity of “Out of Sight, Out of Mind” ..................33

Frequency-Based Organization .........................................35

John Wooden’s Shoelaces ..........................................35

Working Files ..............................................................37

Reference Files ............................................................38

Archive Files ...............................................................39

viii  ◾  Contents

But First … .........................................................................40

Translating the Concept to Electronics ..............................40

E-mail: The Problem Child ................................................43

Back to Allison .................................................................. 44

Systemic Information 5S ....................................................45

Remember, It’s a Means to an End ................................... 46

Next Steps ......................................................................... 46

Notes ...................................................................................47

  3  Flow .......................................................................49

Flow ....................................................................................50

Daily Work Processes ........................................................54

Processing Your Work: The 4Ds ................................54

The $327 Million E-mail .....................................58

Worst First ...................................................................59

One Thing at a Time—Please ....................................62

Serial Tasking ......................................................65

Lowering the Water Level ..........................................67

The First Step, but Not the Last .........................70

Routine Work: Your Job Requires More than Just

Creative Genius (Unfortunately) ........................................70

Find the Predictability ................................................73

Excessive Choices = Paralysis ....................................73

Transforming the Creative into the Transactional .............75

Both Transactional and Creative .............................. 77

Applicable to Almost Any Work ................................78

Next Steps ..........................................................................78

Notes .................................................................................. 80

  4  Visual Management ................................................83

Introduction ........................................................................83

What Is Visual Management? ............................................ 84

The Irony of “Out of Sight, Out of Mind” .........................87

Why All Those To-Do Lists Don’t Work .......................... 90

Living in the Calendar .......................................................91

The Calendar as Kanban ...................................................92

Contents  ◾  ix

The Calendar and the Task Pad ........................................94

Caution: Don’t Treat Your Calendar Like Your Gas

Tank ................................................................................97

The Old Movies Had It Right .............................................97

Sometimes a Little Inventory Is Okay .............................. 99

Of Course, Life Never Goes According to Plan ..............101

Assessing Personal Production Capacity .........................103

But, What if You’re Allergic to Calendars? ......................103

The Simpler Method: The Personal Kanban ...................105

Four Easy Steps ................................................................106

The Incredibly Flexible Kanban ......................................107

Other Types of Visual Management ................................108

Reflexive versus Cognitive Systems .................................110

Reducing Ambiguity .........................................................111

Next Steps ........................................................................112

Notes .................................................................................112

  5  From Bad to Good, and From Good to Great ...... 115

Like an Air Traffic Controller ........................................... 115

The Twin Pillars of Kaizen .............................................. 117

Standardized Work ...........................................................120

Creative Types Need Standard Work, Too ......................122

Creating Mental Capacity for Improvement ....................124

Now, It’s Your Turn: Step 1 ..............................................128

What Is Your Problem? Your Real Problem? ...................128

Five Whys .........................................................................130

Your Turn: Step 2 .............................................................132

Implementing Improvement: A3 Thinking .....................133

Continuous Improvement ................................................141

Notes .................................................................................142

Conclusion ..................................................................143

Endnotes ........................................................................... 145