Simplify Before You Automate

So, how much non-value-added is okay? Strictly speaking, none of it is okay, but high-efficiency companies typically will have 70% or more nonvalue- added activity, as measured by time spent in the process. If we think of an assembly process, the value-added steps would be those which actually join parts together. Nearly all other steps, such as transferring parts into position, pre-positioning parts, starting fasteners and transferring the assembly out, are non-value-added.

Many of the non-value-added steps may be necessary, but only because we can conceive of no way to accomplish overall process objectives without them. If we could, it would be a simpler process. In a physical process, there are things that go wrong and often a need to detect and act upon such conditions. Both the detection and the correction are non-value-added because they would be unnecessary if the error could be avoided from the start.

If a product design calls for 18 screws to secure an access cover, of course we need to move 18 screws into position and drive them home, perhaps repositioning the assembly between driving screws. But if the product could be redesigned so that the access cover slid into a channel in the rest of the product, requiring only two screws, that would be a much simpler design to assemble. Simplifying the product that is assembled by a physical process will not only save cost but also improve the profitability of the product itself.

It is not the intent of this article to show how this simplification is done, only that it should be done. The method for simplifying a product was developed in 1947 by Larry Miles of General Electric, known as Value Analysis and Value Engineering (VAVE) and added to by Boothroyd and Dewhurst in the 1960s in their Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA). These techniques are basic engineering approaches that are all too often overlooked at great cost.

Another technique for process simplification is to eliminate opportunities for errors by mistake-proofing (pokayoke). Suppose a part that is inserted upside down will assemble but cause the finished product to be defective. We might build sensors into the process to detect such a defect, alarming or causing the defective product to be ejected from the process. All of the steps that would be taken to correct the problem would be non-valueadded. It may be more cost effective to repair a minor error than to scrap the assembly, but none of those steps would be needed if the error had not happened. Mistake-proofing prevents the error from ever occurring, so the correction, and even the detection, can be eliminated from the process itself. Shigeo Shingo has developed a host of methodologies for this and has been published extensively.

Eliminating Waste
Transactional processes nearly always contain much waste, but unlike physical processes, the waste is hidden. Defects in a physical process are often very obvious, whereas defects in a transactional process may simply cause work to be corrected somewhere downstream. Transactional processes, by their very nature, are invisible. If you watch workers in a physical process, you will see parts added and adjustments made, and will often be able to see the product emerging. Workers in a transactional process may be equally busy, but all you will see is their dealing with paperwork, typing at a computer or talking on the telephone. The process by which they do their work is not evident and neither is most of the waste.

To simplify a transactional process, we first have to make the process visible. This is typically done by process mapping, also known as flowcharting. By collaborating with those who actually do the work, we document the sequence of steps by which the work is done. Usually, the outcome of process mapping shows the process to be more complex than anyone had imagined. The fact is, in transactional pr ocesses, simplicity happens as the result of simplification efforts, while complexity happens all by itself. Over time, transactional processes change and steps get added, but there is usually no explicit effort to eliminate steps that are no longer needed. As a result, work that is no longer needed may continue for decades.

For instance, a shipping process in a Michigan furniture manufacturer had more than 200 steps. Leadership was amazed that something as simple as putting product in a truck could be so complex. Of all of these steps, very few involved touching product, but rather processing information (packing lists, bills of lading, customs documents, etc.).