Batch on Flow
My name is Bob Batcheler, but my friends and colleagues call me Batch. I am new at Planview AgilePlace. When I started here, I expected the ritual hazing about my last name, mostly having to do with my marital status, but Planview AgilePlace broke the mold.
Early on, either @leankitjon or @indomitablehef (AgilePlace’s COO and CEO, respectively) commented that I may have to change my nickname from Batch to Flow — definitely an “inside Lean” joke. The more I thought about it, I realized it would be a great topic for my first blog post. So, here you go — Batch on flow.
Boost Productivity: Introduce Slack
When I was introduced to Lean, one of the first challenges I experienced was that so much of Lean seemed counterintuitive. This is because we are selectively programmed to pay attention to things that fit our existing mental models — otherwise known as cognitive selection bias.
One such bias tells us that if we want to produce more, we have to work harder. But this isn’t the case; the key metric isn’t effort, it’s results — throughput. To increase the productivity of a system running at 100%, we have to decrease the work in progress, or WIP. In Lean terms, we have to introduce slack (this slack, not this one).
Several writers appropriately use a rush hour highway to illustrate this concept. We all know that having too many vehicles on the road creates traffic jams; a highway at capacity is a highway at a standstill. The same is true for teams — when a system is always at or near capacity, it introduces more friction. The result? Everyone slows down.
Capacity and Flow
As a civil engineer by training, the highway analogy resonates strongly with me. But that’s not the only civil engineering example that supports this principle.
Think of the culvert under a roadway, where water flows through by gravity. Interestingly enough, the pipe will carry more water when it’s flowing at 90% of the diameter than when it’s flowing full.
The physics behind that phenomenon applies to our discussion on WIP: When water flows at 100% capacity, the roof of the pipe creates additional friction, reducing the throughput of the pipe. The same is true of any process — as a system approaches its capacity, increased “friction” reduces throughput faster than it increases utilization. In simpler terms: The more you try to do, the harder it is to get anything done.
The Bottom Line
The laws of physics make it easier for us to accept the truth that evidence clearly shows — if you want to achieve flow, you have to introduce slack.
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