The future of additive manufacturing

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on June 17, 2013 · 0 comments

Take some raw materials. Put a lot of energy into forming them into a part of a certain size. Then remove some of to end up with the part you need.

That seems like the very definition of waste. Yet it is how most things get made today.

To be fair, it’s how we’ve done things for centuries, and millenniums. How do you make an spear tip? Take a stone and remove some of it until you’re left with a spear tip. Until you can form your own stones, there is just no other way.

Additive manufacturing is the process of making the final part you want, usually out of loose base material. Additive manufacturing has had a very slow and painful path to maturity. The question is, are we reaching the end of that path and additive manufacturing is what it’s going to be? Or are we 3-5 technological breakthroughs from realizing additive manufacturing’s true potential?

GE has made the kind of decision that becomes the forcing function for such breakthroughs. They have decided that they aren’t just going to use 3-D printing to make prototype parts, they are going to use it for volume finished parts. This decision led MIT’s Technology Review to name additive manufacturing one of its 10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2013. One of the benefits for GE is lighter parts that leads to more fuel efficient planes. When people push the limits of the technology, especially in ways that require you to keep up and to spend money, some of the breakthroughs tend to be driven.

Breakthroughs are happening in many levels. Nanscribe recently developed a tabletop 3-D microprinter that is capable of creating complicated structures 100 times faster than the current technology.

But the limits of such thinking is not just for powered metals to be ultrasonically welded together. So much of our lives is built around an inefficient combination of destruction and building. Want a table? First, grow a tree. Cut it down. Shape the wood. Bolt, screw, and glue it together. Viola! Now you have a table. Some leading edge research into cellular engineering has demonstrated that it is possible to program cells. They’re actually already programmed, but in this case, programmed to grow a tree. But if we could reprogram them, instead of growing a tree to make a table, couldn’t we just grow a table. Imagine all the waste removed if this were possible. And it is feasible, just not yet possible.

Let’s hope that as additive manufacturing advances, people come up with better uses that the whistles and dolls the gang from Big Bang Theory made (with bonus jokes mocking both additive manufacturing and manufacturing jobs moving to China):

 
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Eliminating Waste from Your Personal Work [Lessons from the Road]

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on June 10, 2013 · 0 comments

Everyone performs work, and everyone has the opportunity to improve how that work is executed. In my last 2 columns for Industry Week, I have focused on different aspects of value, the customer, and waste elimination. I continue that theme in this month’s installment of Lessons from the Road in a column titled Eliminating Waste from Your Personal Work.

Here is an excerpt:

1. Define your own ideal state. Just like the customer defines value and therefore waste for the organization, your own ideal state can help define your personal waste. One hotel general manager defined her ideal state as “never to have to talk to a guest again.”

While that doesn’t sound like a good ideal state for the guest business, for her it was perfect. Guest conversations were only an escalation of problems. Her new customer was her staff, and her new definition of value was making processes work for them every time. And waste was anything that wasn’t helping her serve that end.

You can read the rest of the column here.

Reflection question: how have you eliminated waste from your own work?

 
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12 years of progress, and still moving forward

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on May 31, 2013 · 4 comments

It’s been 12 years since we launched the Lean Learning Center, and 13 years since we started working on the idea. Some things are the same – Andy Carlino and I are still here; and some things change – we’ve added new partners Susan Pleasant and Bill Artzberger.

The Lean Experience is still a deep learning experience for most participants. The class has evolved quite a bit in 12 years and thousands of students, but it is still one of the only places to learn lean thinking as opposed to tools and methods. Recently, an executive was helping to kick off this class for others in his company, and shared “this was one of the most impactful weeks of my entire career.” We know he’s not alone, and while we certainly strive to help our clients, its also very satisfying to know how much we’ve helped individuals as well.

We’ve had some other new developments that I would love to share:

1. Lean for HR: This has been a topic of mine for many years now. I’ve coached on it, taught it, researched it, and we finally have a class available for public-enrollment that really focuses on it. I’ll be teaching HR’s Lean Transformation this July. I hope you’ll join us, and you can read description about the course in this post.

2. We’ve been experimenting with and developing a very hands-on skill-building course called Go and See. This is an on-site course, and is very application-based. We spend only about 3 hours of the 3 days in pure instruction, and the rest of the time is spent on application, both in simulation and real processes, and on reflection of how you apply those skills in your own environment.

3. We moved! After 12 years in the same location, we have a new home. If you really love our old learning environment, you’ll love our bigger new space. Come back and see us!

I can’t wait to see what the next 12 years bring, or even the next 12 months!

 
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Ford shows a new reflective side, but how far will they take it?

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on May 8, 2013 · 3 comments

Ford has come an incredibly long way in time since Bill Ford Jr. courageously stepped aside to bring in lean thinker Alan Mulally.

Lately, they’ve been hampered by the embarrassing problems in relaunching the Lincoln brand through the MKZ. But, in the face of these problems, they are doing their best to reflect and make systematic improvements to prevent these problems in the future, as Automotive News reported.

The old behavior? Beat up the suppliers, and beat up any of the managers who allowed the suppliers to fail in the first place. Tell the dealers to stop complaining because they are lucky to have the Blue Oval anyway.

The new Ford? When you screw up, admit it. Then, reflect on why. Then, fix it.

Ford Logo Wallpaper HD

The industry has been going through many supplier problems lately. During the downturn in the industry, a lot of capacity was taken offline, both physical capacity and human capacity. As things have ramped up, it has put a strain on the supply base across the industry.

Joe Hinrichs, new President of Ford North America:

Hinrichs admitted that the frenetic pace of new- and redesigned-model launches during the past two years strained Ford and its suppliers as they were recovering from the recession. Because the rapid pace of launches will continue, Ford and its suppliers have to be prepared, he said.

To solve this issue, they are putting more resources in place closer to the point of activity, at the suppliers, to help both identify issues earlier and help resolve them. That’s the “what” of the solution. The “how” will matter greatly. Will they put in place people who act collaboratively with suppliers, and processes to enable issues to be surfaced without retribution, or are they just an earlier bat to the side of the head of the supplier? I hope the former, but execution will matter.

Another root cause of their problems relates to product complexity, where offering more choices to customers goes beyond paint color and selecting what stereo interface you receive, there are more combinations of components that affects fit and finish and assembly processes that they can’t test them all. As a result, they are trying to use more 3D modeling to identify such issues earlier in the process.

Ford has come a long way. Rarely has that change been more dependent on one person: Alan Mulally. Many, many people did the work, but he established a new culture for Ford. The real test: he has put in place steps that lead to his retirement. Will the new Ford culture continue to grow, or will it quickly revert after his departure? Only time will tell.

 
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Not every improvement has to be a breakthrough

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on April 30, 2013 · 2 comments

This post was previously shared on the Lean Learning Center’s blog page.

So many teams that I coach, assess, observe, and otherwise engage in are looking for breakthrough results. That makes sense, right? Desperate times call for desperate measures (and we seem to keep being reminded that these are desperate times). And if I’m going to work on something, I might as well make it something really worthwhile, something big. And so we look for innovative, unique, breakthrough improvements and overlook seemingly mundane, simple ones.

Here’s how simple it can be.

A few weeks ago, I was in Derby , England, at Pride Park, home of the Derby County Rams. While in a conference room overlooking the football pitch (or soccer field, for Americans), I watched one of the groundskeepers painstakingly but quickly laying out orange cones very precisely on both ends. Once I saw what he was doing, it was so simple yet effective.

Pitch

How do I cover a large, open field with fertilizer without missing spots or overspreading, in either case providing a far-from-perfect product? The evenly spaced cones gave him a simple target to aim for, allowing for the perfect distribution of fertilizer and an error-free result. The investment? Putting out and picking up cones each time.

Here’s why we overlook such simple solutions. We want to maximize ROI, or Return On Investment. So we start by sorting out our problems for the Return. Once we determine the return, we then see if it meets the Investment threshold. So we aren’t sorting ideas based on ROI. Sometimes the best way to maximize Return on Investment is not to look for the high returns but to look for the low investments. Keep it Simple…well, you know the rest.

Reflection: what do you do in your organization to encourage the seemingly small investments?

 
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The difference between tension and stress

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on April 28, 2013 · 2 comments

Although I’m a bit behind on many things, The Lean Edge asked a question that I’m just now getting around to answering. Is highlighting problems stressful and increased pressure on workers?

There is a major difference between tension and stress, and this difference when not understood causes tremendous problems. Leaders trying to create tension end up creating stress, and leaders trying to avoid creating stress end up eliminating healthy.

Stress is knowing that you’re not where you’re supposed to be, and not knowing what to do about it.

Tension is understanding the gap with a clear view of current reality, a vision of the ideal state, and action to close the gap.

Both put pressure on you, but one is usually manifested in physiological damage while the other creates focus and action. You decide which you’d rather have. But the line between the two is quite narrow, and it only takes a few off-hand comments to generate stress. There are plenty of leaders out there who purposely create stress, but most honestly do it by accident. They do intend to put pressure on the organization, but not necessarily through stress.

The role of tension has 3 core components. First, we must help people clearly see current reality for what it is, and understand why it is. Highlighting problems is part of that clear understanding of current reality. Second, we must define a better state, an ideal state, something that gives them direction to go forward in. This isn’t just about a result, but how things will be different. Third, we need action to start to close the gap. Not necessarily a grand plan that covers everything, but to start moving along the intended vector.

What do you do in order to create tension? And how can you tell when you’ve inadvertently created stress?

You can see other answers to this question on The Lean Edge.

 
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The More of Do More with Less [Lessons from the Road]

04.25.2013

In the last installment of my Industry Week column, Lessons from the Road, I talked about waste elimination. In it, I also explained that the commonly used phrase “do more with less” is often perceived about being about the “less” when I believe truly lean organizations focus on the “more.” But how do we do [...]

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5 Leadership Moves: Presentation at ISPE

04.03.2013

Today I am speaking to the pharmaceutical industry at the ISPE conference. My topic is on the 5 leadership moves for lean from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Lean. Like many of my presentations, I don’t use many slides but tend to tell a lot of supporting stories. 5 Leadership Moves for Lean Transformation from Jamie [...]

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Presentation: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Lean

03.21.2013

Tuesday I was the featured speaker at Morris Midwest‘s Morris Madness customer open house. Morris features Okuma and Tsugami machine tools. Although many of the slides won’t mean much without the words that go with them, here is my presentation. The show was well done. It was almost like a mini-IMTS. Here’s a picture of [...]

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Eliminate Waste with Purpose [Lessons from the Road]

02.20.2013

My latest IndustryWeek Lessons from the Road column has been released. This month’s topic is hopefully a fresh look at an old lean topic: waste elimination. Despite the many definitions to the contrary, many of you know that my view is that lean is not “all about” waste elimination. But it’s still important, and so [...]

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