Originally Posted by
vecvechookattack
Lean is a set of tools and techniques designed to reduce and eliminate waste or non value added activity in any given process.
(my bold)
The LEAN machine arrived at Cosford during 2006 and began looking at, amongst other things, the length of time alloted to training courses and the activities undertaken therein. The team concluded that the particular course I taught was one week too long and contained, in their view, a wasteful activity. The latter conclusion was drawn because whoever wrote the course syllabus had the foresight to include an alternative (a simulator) to using a 'live' aircraft for the activity should the jet be unserviceable.
Value, in a training course is quite hard to quantify - believe it or not they or not written up on the back of a fag packet! That last hour of the day when the studes have switched off adds no value if you try to carry on blah blahing right up to 5pm. Letting them go at 4pm when they have had enough adds much value as you keep them on board, however that hour is seen by LEAN as waste. Students are not VCRs, recording the lesson as it proceeds, they need time to learn and assimilate the information. Furthermore, using simulators is fine, but utilising a real jet adds greater value to the experience however it is seen as waste by LEAN.
After LEAN had run its course, the conclusion these three visiting sages drew was that we had one week too much time; ergo it was chopped. This caused mayhem, students found they were spending 3-5 hours an evening self-study to try and learn what had been covered that day; in short we had time to teach it, they didn't have time to learn it!
The disgusting thing was, that after leaving us with this unholy mess the LEAN team just vanished to jump on its next victim. It took us six months of studys, letters and student surveys to claw back two days with no comeback on those who had dropped us in it
