Lean Education

The Mind Lab by Unitec | Lean Education | 20161

Lean Education

Dr David Parsons, National Postgraduate Director

The Mind Lab by Unitec, Auckland, New Zealand


What is ‘Lean’?

★ An approach to manufacturing that has its roots in the Toyota Production System in the 20th Century

★ Applied to the development of software in the 21st century (post-agile)○ Lean: Poppendieck & Poppendieck (2003)○ Kanban: Anderson (2010)

★ Some ideas that may transfer to education


The Machine that Changed the World

In their book The Machine That Changed the World, James Womak, Daniel Jones and Daniel Roos explained how the Japanese car industry, led by Toyota, had moved from mass production to lean production (Womack, Jones & Roos, 1990)

http://www.lean.org/Bookstore/ProductDetails.cfm?SelectedProductID=160


Lean Production

➔ Lean production was able to reduce waste, upskill workers, improve quality and provide more variety in products

➔ Since then, people have looked for ways of applying these lessons to their own activities

➔ This has been particularly true of the software industry

➔ Can they also be applied to education?


Lean Thinking

Womak & Jones followed up this work with ‘Lean Thinking’ (2003) which applied lean production ideas to a range of other industries


The Challenge of Lean Thinking

❖ A series of industry case studies about the long, slow and endless process of lean transformation

❖ Lean is not a simple, easy solution❖ Why read about reducing inventory and shortening

the supply chain, when our 'product' is such stuff as intellectual property and graduating students?

❖ The challenge is to look at our systems through new eyes, to understand the value of education


Lean Thinking for Education

★ Womak (2006) defines education as three processes○ Design (knowledge creation and delivery)○ Make (providing learning experience for students)○ Use (continuous learning)

★ Can we make all three of these processes lean?


Why is it Hard to Define Value?

“Why is it so hard to start at the right place, to correctly define value? Partly because most producers want to make what they are already making and partly because many customers only know how to ask for some variant of what they are already getting.”

Womak & Jones (2003)


The Value Stream

★ Every step in the educational supply chain should deliver value to the learner○ Does this part of the curriculum deliver value? ○ Does this form of assessment deliver value?○ Does this step in the enrollment process deliver

value? ★ Focus on delivering value for the learner, not the

provider


Types of Muda (Waste)

➔ Type 1 muda◆ Waste required by fixed components in the way the

current system operates (e.g. a student management system) and can't be removed just yet

➔ Type 2 muda◆ Waste that can be eliminated immediately

➔ What kinds of muda do educators encounter?◆ Quite a lot of type 1?


Batch and Queue

● Every semester a set of classes is delivered○ Over a fixed period of weeks○ May have no relationship to how long it takes

someone to learn something● Every year a batch of graduates is produced

○ Who may or may not be prepared to take advantage of the opportunities currently offered by the world around them


Flow

● Learning flows seamlessly by right-sizing what is offered to the learner

● Instead of broadcasting batches of content in mass production lecture halls, the lean educator would be engaged in the whole learning value stream○ Working closely with their colleagues across the

total process○ Not just batch-blocks of material


Push vs. Pull

❏ Push model:❏ Educational content pushed towards the learner,

over a timescale dictated by the institution

❏ Pull model:❏ The learner pulls from the system what they need,

when they need it


The Lean Enterprise

● You may be able to squeeze the muda out of your school, department, faculty etc,

● However, the lean enterprise spans the whole value chain○ It may involve many organisations

● How can you convince all the stakeholders in the value chain to cooperate in becoming a single lean enterprise, setting their own agendas aside?


Lean Learning

1. A curriculum delivered by multiple organisations, tailored to suit the learner

2. No restrictions on hours per week, or total time span, or how learning components may be combined

3. Walk-in / lifelong enrollment4. Any combination of blended learning modes5. Instant assessment feedback6. Add your own...


Kaikaku and Kaizen

★ There are two ways of improving○ Kaikaku (radical improvement)○ Kaizen (continuous incremental improvement)

★ Neither have an end point, but the starting point can be today

★ Be constantly on the lookout for muda that we can remove from the value stream


The Gemba - The ‘Real Place’

★ Where problems are visible and where the best improvement ideas will come

★ For Lean Education, Womak (2006) suggests ★ Teach process thinking and problem solving by doing★ Develop a range of gembas for applied learning★ Use the school as a gemba if no other organizational

venues are available★ Grade students on the degree to which problems are

actually solved using a rigorous method


5 Principles of Lean Education

Adapted from Womak and Jones’ (2003) 5 principles of lean thinking

1. Precisely specify value by specific learning experience2. Identify the value stream for each learning experience3. Make learning flow without interruptions4. Let the learner pull value from the educator5. Pursue perfection


ReferencesAnderson, D. (2010). Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change for Your Technology Business. Sequim, WA: Blue Hole Press.

Poppendieck, M. & Poppendieck, T. (2003). Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit. Boston MASS: Addison-Wesley Professional.

Womack, J.P., Jones, D.T. & Roos, D. (1990). The Machine That Changed the World. New York, NY: Free Press.

Womack. J.P. & Jones, D.T. (2003). Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Free Press.

Womak, J.P. (2006). Lean Thinking for Education. Paper presented at the 2006 Lean Educator Conference, Worcester, MA

http://www.amazon.com/Kanban-Successful-Evolutionary-Technology-Business/dp/0984521402

http://books.google.com/books?id=hQk4S7asBi4C&pg=PA182

http://www.lean.org/Bookstore/ProductDetails.cfm?SelectedProductID=160

http://www.lean.org/Bookstore/ProductDetails.cfm?SelectedProductId=88

http://www.leaneducatorconference.org/proceedings/doc_download/69-lean-thinking-for-education.html

Lean Education

Education

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