Mike DeWitt skriver två artiklar om koncept och om hur bra koncept kan förvanskas.
I första delen beskriver han hur bra koncept kan förvandlas till stora applikationer genom bra definitioner av struktur och innehåll, men också hur samma koncept kan förfelas genom att koncept och innehåll förväxlas. Mika DeWitt tar som exempel en pennvässare,
In concept the pencil sharpener is very simple:
1) A cutting surface (blade) fixed at an angle to the shaft of the pencil
2) A guide for the pencil shaft to meet the blade
That’s it!
Ett bra koncept kan också vara till hjälp när man vill förbättra produktiviteten. I artikeln tar Mike som exempel Toyotas produktionssystem ”Just In Time” som har en mycket enkelt och bra innehåll. It took years, but eventually they turned the auto industry upside down with a simple concept: constantly strive to eliminate muda, or waste, in 7 areas:
* overproduction
* transportation
* motion
* waiting
* processing
* inventory
* defects
I den andra artikeln tar Mike DeWitt Eli Goldratts bok The Goal som exempel på ett mycket starkt koncept. The book is simple and straightforward. When the system in question is properly defined allows you to correctly identify the real constraints.
According to Goldratt, in a system with any sort of complexity, there is a very small number (usually one) of real constraints of the throughput of the system as a whole. This could be an actual physical constraint (the machine named ‘Herbie’ in the book), a policy constraint, or a market constraint. The process for improving the throughput of the overall process is as follows:
1. Identify the system’s constraint
2. Decide how to exploit the system’s constraint (since updated to include eliminating the constraint completely if it doesn’t require a huge investment, such as with policy constraints)
3. Subordinate everything else to the above decisions
4. Elevate the system’s constraint
5. Go back to step one and see if there is now a new constraint. Don’t succumb to inertia. Repeat until the constraints are appropriate.
Jag tycker att artiklarna är intressanta och väl värda att läsa. Goldratts koncept är dessutom användbart i alla typer av verksamheter även inom servicesektorn. Mike DeWitt avslutar på ett tänkvärt sätt,
One key aspect of any good concept is that it has been refined so that all of its parts are necessary, and they constitute a sufficient set to be effective. In other words, it is fairly atomic. If you take anything away, you lose the power of the concept. In our pencil sharpener example, the Bowie knife is an example of omitting one of the key facets of the concept (a guide for the pencil). In the hands of an expert the knife can achieve the same results as a real pencil sharpener, but you wouldn’t mount one in the corner of a kindergarten class and expect good results.
Leave a Reply