lean teaching

							lean teaching
                              Toyota

        “Brilliant process management is our strategy.

        We get brilliant results from average people
        managing brilliant processes.

        We observe that our competitors often get
        average (or worse) results from brilliant people
        managing broken processes.”


Source: quoted by Dan Jones
Lean Thinking - Principles

  •   Defining Value
  •   Value Stream Analysis
  •   Flow
  •   Pull
  •   Perfection
              Defining Value
“Value can only be defined by the ultimate
customer…
Value is created by the producer. From the
customer’s standpoint, this is why producers exist.
Yet for a host of reasons value is very hard for
producers to define.”
                                   Womack & Jones, 1996



Never mind defining value – we struggle to define
customer!
                  Customers
                                     Who        Who
                                   benefits?   pays?
Students                                       
Government / Society / Taxpayers               
Employers                                      ?

Parents                               ?         
Alumni                                         
Academic staff                                 ?
  Indicators of Value to Customers :
           student demand

                                                           cumulative   cumulative
              Year 1   Year 2   Year 3   Year 4   Total   % of courses % of students
BABS-M         107      68       46       63       284         8.3%        21.5%
BABS           69       52       44       91       256        16.7%        40.8%
BAAF           72       74       41                187        25.0%        55.0%
HND + TOPUP    55       58       38                151        33.3%        66.4%
BAIB           28       15       24       44       111        41.7%        74.8%
BAIFCMS        24       22       27                 73        50.0%        80.3%
BALWB          34       33                          67        58.3%        85.3%
BABS-L         27        8       14       14        63        66.7%        90.1%
BABS-F         19       16       12        7        54        75.0%        94.2%
BALWA          17       11       20                 48        83.3%        97.8%
BAWL            6        6        4                 16        91.7%        99.0%
BABS-eC         9        4                          13       100.0%       100.0%
Indicators of Value to Customers :
    destination of leavers 2003
                                   Entered         Total      % in perm
                                  permanent                  employment
                                 employment
         BAAF                         29            35           82.9%
         BABS-L                       8             10           80.0%
         BAIB                         20            25           80.0%
         BABS                         43            55           78.2%
         BABA TOP-UP                  35            45           77.8%
         BABS-F                       6              8           75.0%
         BABS-M                       20            27           74.1%
         BAWL                         4              6           66.7%
         BALWA                        8             14           57.1%
         BAIFCMS                      9             17           52.9%

                         University average (2003) = 70%
UK averages (2005) Business = 86%, Accountancy = 84%, Economics = 65%. Law = 50%
 Do we need so many courses?
• Even though students are mostly combined into
  other groups for teaching, this still produces
  admin complexity:
  – Timetabling classes – makes timetables worse for
    staff and students
  – Timetabling exams
  – Course admin: handbooks, academic health reports
    etc
• Suggestion: should we close some of the
  smaller courses?
       Value Stream Analysis
“The value stream is the set of all the specific
actions required to bring a specific product through
three critical management tasks:
     Problem-solving – concept, design,
       engineering, product launch
     Information management – order-taking,
       scheduling, delivery
     Physical transformation – from raw
       materials to finished product”
                                 Womack & Jones, 1996
                IGOE for HE
       Course & module specifications, GEAR, QAA…

                        Guides
Qualified
applicants
                      Transformation
                         Process
     Inputs        (teaching, learning &      Outputs
                    assessment for 3-4
                          years!)            Graduates


                       Enablers

                Staff, rooms, IT, library…
      Value Stream Analysis
Womack and Jones propose that types of
action occurring along the value stream can be
categorised into those that:

1. Unambiguously create value
2. Create no value but are unavoidable with
   current technologies and assets (Type 1 muda
   = waste)
3. Create no value and are immediately
   avoidable (Type 2 muda)
         A new interpretation…
           High


                               Swamp         Rainforest
Resource
(including staff
and student
time)
                                Tundra           Meadow
                Low
                          Low                         High
                                         Value

   Source: Turner & Rospigliosi, 2005
 Getting out of the swamp…
           High


                               Swamp         Rainforest
Resource
(including staff
and student
time)
                                Tundra           Meadow
                Low
                          Low                         High
                                         Value

   Source: Turner & Rospigliosi, 2005
                Example 1
• To get an extension – current process:
  – Student gets four-part form and completes it
  – Student finds course leader
  – Course leader approves extension
  – Form goes to admin office
  – Admin office records extension date on
    assessment “tick-sheet”
  – Copies sent to student and module leader
  – Module leader bins the forms
Example 1 - from Swamp to Tundra
• To get an extension – future process:
  – Student emails extension request to course
    leader
  – Course leader replies with approval and date,
    and sends copy to admin office and module
    leader
                Example 2
• Student feedback that doesn’t reach the
  student…
  – Green = student receipt – now only used to
    tick names on tick-sheet
  – White = student feedback – attached to
    student report, dumped in office, student does
    not collect – so gets no feedback
  – Pink = office copy – binned
  – Yellow = tutor copy – binned
          Example 2 – from Swamp to
                 Rainforest
• Suggestion: feedback by email – an
  example from Geoff RS (group assignment)
 68 TOTAL FIRST MARK
 11 business case /20
    We are dismayed that although Value Chain - the most obvious tool of business analysis and opportunity focusing -
    appears on page 9, it is as a completely generic diagram which, despite the subsequent small paragraph, isn't used.
    Thus, although a good-looking feasibility study is done, project selection in a business needs context isn't done.
    But on you go, and we must say that the use of interview, scenarios, apparent system requirements, some benefits,
    are good and logical methods for progression with a project that is going to happen anyway.
    Later, the handful of decent ideas for development (pp 22,23) could have fed in much earlier.

 10 org data needs/15
    and the ELCD, DFD and ERD on pages 10 and 11 inspire confidence. Your page of testing is pretty good too.

 13 tables, rlnships /15
    Convincing 7-table vision with perfect relationship. Re the tables themselves: very good indeed -
    rich mixture of types, good width tailoring, use of validation etc.
                 Example 3
• The first time you are asked a question about a
  coursework assignment it adds value
• Every subsequent time you answer the SAME
  question from another student you are wasting
  your time (but not the students!)
• Only students who find you hear the answer
• The answer may change…
    Example 3 - from Swamp to
            Meadow
• Suggestion:
  – As useful questions arise (or even before)
    create a FAQ and post on studentcentral
  – Not only do you save time, all students get
    the benefit of a consistent answer
  – You can of course “recycle” the FAQ for other
    modules and/or in future years
  – When you’re asked a question, you just say
    “Read the FAQ”
                                      Flow
How do you make value flow?
  1. Focus on the product and never let it out of
     sight from beginning to completion
  2. Ignore traditional boundaries of jobs,
     careers, functions
  3. Rethink specific work practices and tools to
     eliminate backflows, scrap and stoppages


   Source: adapted from Womack & Jones 1996
      Do our students flow?
   Analysis of student timetables
                 Travel days   Contact   Uni hours   % contact   1-hour days
BABS   1   A          4          12          17        71%            0
           B          4          12          17        71%            0
           C          4          12          13        92%            1
           D          4          12          17        71%            1
BABS   2   A          4          10          16        63%            0
           B          3          10          16        63%            0
           C          4          10          17        59%            0
BAAF   1   A          4          12          18        67%            1
           B          4          12          17        71%            0
           C          4          12          19        63%            0
           D          4          12          19        63%            0
           E          4          12          17        71%            1
BAAF   2   A          3           8           9        89%            0
           B          3           8          10        80%            0
           C          3           8          11        73%            0
           D          3           8          11        73%            0


               Very good – but what about travel times?
           Do our students flow?
           Coursework deadlines
• Currently set by module leader:
   – Very few before Xmas
   – Concurrent projects for students, possibly with very
     close hand-in dates – leads to non-attendance
   – Students get little feedback before exams
• Suggestion:
   – coursework deadlines set by Programme Board in
     September?
   – first hand-in immediately after reading week in first
     term?
   – minimum 2 weeks between hand-in?
                    Pull
“… no-one upstream should produce a good
  or service until the customer downstream
  asks for it.”

• So don’t give stuff out, let the student
  “pull” the resource from studentcentral
• Give the students tasks, let them “pull” the
  information they need.
              Perfection…
• … is never achieved, but you can always
  improve.
• Continuous Radical and Incremental
  Improvement:
  – Apply the four lean principles
  – Decide which forms of muda to apply first
               I want to be lean
A possible starting point:
   – If you don’t have an electronic copy of your teaching
     material, either:
      • Download from the online library, or
      • Scan a good quality original, or
      • Create one
   – Now throw out ALL your handouts soon after the
     lecture/seminar(s) – including the master copy
   – Put all handouts on studentcentral
   – Now throw out your filing cabinet…
               References
Jones DT & Womack PJ, Lean Thinking, Simon &
Schuster, 1996

www.leanuk.org
Website of the Lean Enterprise Academy (free
registration)

Womack PJ and Jones DT, Lean Consumption,
HBR, March 2005 (available as free download
from leanuk.org)