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Lean and lego

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AgileOnTheBeach

The document describes using lean principles to build the Millennium Falcon from Lego pieces in an agile manner. A team identified bottlenecks in finding pieces and assembling them, then divided work and established queues to flow pieces through the process more efficiently. Specialists emerged who optimized piece finding and assembly. Control charts tracked variability over time, which the team worked to reduce. Defect tracking and work in progress limits were also utilized to improve the process of constructing the starship model.

1 of 78
Building the Millennium Falcon A Lean so5ware development case study
WHO AM I?
Lean and lego
XP Coach Senior Engineer Your story teller
Agenda Lego Star Wars A lean approach
Recap on Lego
Recap on Star Wars Episodes 1-­‐3: We don’t really talk about them Episode 4: Boy realises he can do magic, falls in love with girl, sHcks it to the evil empire Episode 5: Boy’s mate gets frozen, boy learns how to *do* magic, finds out his Dad runs the evil empire. Episode 6: Boy understands he loves the girl as a sister <phew>, boy fights Dad, Dad fights boy, boy beats Dad, old cackling guy fights boy. Dad beats old cackling dude. Cut to party. All clear now?
Recap on Lean A philosophy that enables moHvated people to build the right stuff for the right customers at the right Hme (me) (Your definiHon may vary)
Now… Witness the firepower of this fully operaHonal conference talk
office A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away… ^
Lean Lego
Episode 4 A NEW BOX
Lean and lego
Lean and lego
300 double-­‐sided pages
> 5000 pieces
James Alex Seema Alex Andy
The science bit…
A Story Wall
Swim lanes
Ready for development
A burn-­‐up chart
A cumulaHve flow chart
3d 1.5d 0.5d 2d 10d 30d Activity Activity Activity A value stream map
A control chart
Episode 5 THE LEGO STRIKES BACK
We took a look at the first set of instrucHons…
… and all piled in to the box
… then we all put the bits together
It went really slowly…
See? 10 mins 5 mins 1 min Finding Pieces Assembling for Step pieces
Tip 1 Understand the system you are working in
Turns out shared state isn’t that effecHve here… Pieces being Pieces being Backlog found assembled Done
Turns out shared state isn’t that effecHve here… Pieces being Pieces being Backlog found assembled Done
Turns out shared state isn’t that effecHve here… Pieces being Pieces being Backlog found assembled Done
Turns out shared state isn’t that effecHve here… Pieces being Pieces being Backlog found assembled Done
Turns out shared state isn’t that effecHve here… Pieces being Pieces being Backlog found assembled Done
Tip 2 Use Kanban / story walls to visualise your system
the result of all this?
Complete Half way through 0 Heat opened End day Cows hell pigs fly death of the box 1 come freezes the home Universe
L
Episode 6 pr ocess THE RETURN OF THE JEDIS ^
A funny thing happened next… Finding Pieces Assembling for Step pieces
We moved from this: Everybody doing this Finding Pieces Assembling for Step pieces followed by
To this: Some people Some people doing this doing this Finding Pieces Assembling for Step pieces At the same Hme as
See?
The constraint was idenHfied 10 mins 5 mins 1 min Finding Pieces Assembling for Step pieces
And elevated… Pieces being Pieces being Backlog found assembled Done …turns out you can find pieces in parallel
Tip 3 Use the Theory of Constraints: IdenHfy and Eliminate
Remember what Mary Poppendieck said about Queues..?
This started to happen…
We added a queue Pieces being Pieces ready Pieces being Done Backlog found for assembly assembled based on the pages in the manual
The folks assembling pieces pulled from the queue Pieces being Pieces ready Pieces being Done Backlog found for assembly assembled
The folks finding pieces pushed into the queue Pieces being Pieces ready Pieces being Done Backlog found for assembly assembled
Tip 4 Introduce queued states into your system to help visualise bohlenecks
And we got faster
300 266 233 200 166 # pages 133 100 66 33 0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 # hours
Tip 5 Use burn-­‐up charts and yesterday’s weather to track progress
But it didn’t stop there
The team became T-­‐Shaped Breadth of knowledge Depth of experience
Specialists in Specialists in assembling finding pieces
and those specialists noHced this… 9 8 length of time to find a piece 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 time
Finding a piece is a funcHon of piece size and the total number of that type of piece available than this This takes longer
so we did this…
length of time to find a piece 1 6 2 3 7 4 9 5 8 0 time
Tip 6 Use control charts to visualise variability And then work to reduce it
There were other interesHng things happening too
We used defects tracking…
And work in progress limits… Pieces being Pieces ready Pieces being Done Backlog found for assembly assembled Max 4
And we swarmed around bohlenecks Pieces being Pieces ready Pieces being Done Backlog found for assembly assembled
Tip 7 Limit WiP and then pull more work from *up stream* if you are blocked
…
300 266 233 200 166 # pages 133 100 66 33 0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 # hours
Lean and lego
J
Summary Understand your system – use systems thinking tools Visualise work using kanban boards / story walls Work to eliminate constraints in your system, use the Theory of Constraints Work in Progress, Swarming helped keep throughput high Yesterdays weather and burnup Use control charts to idenHfy and reduce variability
And finally This actually happened We spent nearly 6 weeks (on and off) building it The team was completely self-­‐organising No one was telling us how to do this, it just happened this way Why did it happen this way? 10,000 hours? Combined > 50 years of experience working with ‘agile’?
Thanks! jalewis@thoughtworks.com Bovon.org @boicy

More Related Content

Lean and lego

  • 1. Building the Millennium Falcon A Lean so5ware development case study
  • 4. XP Coach Senior Engineer Your story teller
  • 5. Agenda Lego Star Wars A lean approach
  • 7. Recap on Star Wars Episodes 1-­‐3: We don’t really talk about them Episode 4: Boy realises he can do magic, falls in love with girl, sHcks it to the evil empire Episode 5: Boy’s mate gets frozen, boy learns how to *do* magic, finds out his Dad runs the evil empire. Episode 6: Boy understands he loves the girl as a sister <phew>, boy fights Dad, Dad fights boy, boy beats Dad, old cackling guy fights boy. Dad beats old cackling dude. Cut to party. All clear now?
  • 8. Recap on Lean A philosophy that enables moHvated people to build the right stuff for the right customers at the right Hme (me) (Your definiHon may vary)
  • 9. Now… Witness the firepower of this fully operaHonal conference talk
  • 10. office A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away… ^
  • 17. James Alex Seema Alex Andy
  • 24. 3d 1.5d 0.5d 2d 10d 30d Activity Activity Activity A value stream map
  • 26. Episode 5 THE LEGO STRIKES BACK
  • 27. We took a look at the first set of instrucHons…
  • 28. … and all piled in to the box
  • 29. … then we all put the bits together
  • 30. It went really slowly…
  • 31. See? 10 mins 5 mins 1 min Finding Pieces Assembling for Step pieces
  • 32. Tip 1 Understand the system you are working in
  • 33. Turns out shared state isn’t that effecHve here… Pieces being Pieces being Backlog found assembled Done
  • 34. Turns out shared state isn’t that effecHve here… Pieces being Pieces being Backlog found assembled Done
  • 35. Turns out shared state isn’t that effecHve here… Pieces being Pieces being Backlog found assembled Done
  • 36. Turns out shared state isn’t that effecHve here… Pieces being Pieces being Backlog found assembled Done
  • 37. Turns out shared state isn’t that effecHve here… Pieces being Pieces being Backlog found assembled Done
  • 38. Tip 2 Use Kanban / story walls to visualise your system
  • 39. the result of all this?
  • 40. Complete Half way through 0 Heat opened End day Cows hell pigs fly death of the box 1 come freezes the home Universe
  • 41. L
  • 42. Episode 6 pr ocess THE RETURN OF THE JEDIS ^
  • 43. A funny thing happened next… Finding Pieces Assembling for Step pieces
  • 44. We moved from this: Everybody doing this Finding Pieces Assembling for Step pieces followed by
  • 45. To this: Some people Some people doing this doing this Finding Pieces Assembling for Step pieces At the same Hme as
  • 46. See?
  • 47. The constraint was idenHfied 10 mins 5 mins 1 min Finding Pieces Assembling for Step pieces
  • 48. And elevated… Pieces being Pieces being Backlog found assembled Done …turns out you can find pieces in parallel
  • 49. Tip 3 Use the Theory of Constraints: IdenHfy and Eliminate
  • 50. Remember what Mary Poppendieck said about Queues..?
  • 51. This started to happen…
  • 52. We added a queue Pieces being Pieces ready Pieces being Done Backlog found for assembly assembled based on the pages in the manual
  • 53. The folks assembling pieces pulled from the queue Pieces being Pieces ready Pieces being Done Backlog found for assembly assembled
  • 54. The folks finding pieces pushed into the queue Pieces being Pieces ready Pieces being Done Backlog found for assembly assembled
  • 55. Tip 4 Introduce queued states into your system to help visualise bohlenecks
  • 56. And we got faster
  • 57. 300 266 233 200 166 # pages 133 100 66 33 0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 # hours
  • 58. Tip 5 Use burn-­‐up charts and yesterday’s weather to track progress
  • 59. But it didn’t stop there
  • 60. The team became T-­‐Shaped Breadth of knowledge Depth of experience
  • 61. Specialists in Specialists in assembling finding pieces
  • 62. and those specialists noHced this… 9 8 length of time to find a piece 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 time
  • 63. Finding a piece is a funcHon of piece size and the total number of that type of piece available than this This takes longer
  • 64. so we did this…
  • 65. length of time to find a piece 1 6 2 3 7 4 9 5 8 0 time
  • 66. Tip 6 Use control charts to visualise variability And then work to reduce it
  • 67. There were other interesHng things happening too
  • 68. We used defects tracking…
  • 69. And work in progress limits… Pieces being Pieces ready Pieces being Done Backlog found for assembly assembled Max 4
  • 70. And we swarmed around bohlenecks Pieces being Pieces ready Pieces being Done Backlog found for assembly assembled
  • 71. Tip 7 Limit WiP and then pull more work from *up stream* if you are blocked
  • 72. …
  • 73. 300 266 233 200 166 # pages 133 100 66 33 0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 # hours
  • 75. J
  • 76. Summary Understand your system – use systems thinking tools Visualise work using kanban boards / story walls Work to eliminate constraints in your system, use the Theory of Constraints Work in Progress, Swarming helped keep throughput high Yesterdays weather and burnup Use control charts to idenHfy and reduce variability
  • 77. And finally This actually happened We spent nearly 6 weeks (on and off) building it The team was completely self-­‐organising No one was telling us how to do this, it just happened this way Why did it happen this way? 10,000 hours? Combined > 50 years of experience working with ‘agile’?
  • 78. Thanks! jalewis@thoughtworks.com Bovon.org @boicy