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The "Toyota Way" is about process control in manufacturing. When will people learn that you don't manufacture code.
by richcollins 18y ago
The "Toyota Way" is about process control in manufacturing. When will people learn that you don't manufacture code.
- mseebach 18y agoLean is more of a operations philosophy than process control. There are elements that are perfectly applicable to software: Kaizen: Floor-employees are encouraged, expected and empowered to make a Kaizen event when they observe that something can be done better. Andon: Production-line employees are empowered to stop the line if they observe a quality problem. A central pillar of lean is always to look at what you do, and figure our how to do it better, and to trace problems to the source and fix them there. It's easier to do in mass manufacturing, in no small part due to the fact that it's much easier to measure quality along a supply chain, than in anything custom built, including software. It's basically about realizing that it's the people who do the actual work who are able to tell where, when and why your quality isn't good. At least every week there's a story on the daily WTF about a manager who "knows better" and overrules a developer with bad consequences.
- joe_the_user 18y agoThe principles of lean could also be describes as "eliminating poor quality beforehand is far cheaper than scanning for poor quality afterwards" - ("Do not depend on (quality) inspection - build quality into the product and process" EF Deming). Seen this way, lean is even more necessary in software development than in manufacturing. The problem is that, as you say, determining the exact source of poor quality in software development is more difficult than in manufacturing.