Lightning Versus Lightning Bugs

Evolving Excellence (Waddell) - The formula for success is to identify value as the customer defines it, and focus your efforts on enhancing that value, while eliminating efforts and expenses on anything that does not add to that vale. Straightforward enough, and the challenge is really in defining value. Whether you do so through your own lens, however, or whether you can actually see how value looks from the customer's lens is - to steal a phrase from Mark Twain - the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.

Here we have a group of folks in New Zealand who understand the basic principle very well: "Mr Agius said that 'lean manufacturing' had a simple set of concepts. It identifies the fact that 'customers will not pay for the mistakes or activities that doesn’t make their product more complete, but only for the value of the product or the service they receive. The impact on this thinking is huge on the manufacturing process. … It made people define value of the product from the customer’s point of view, not from the internal manufacturing point of view.'"

I have never been a believer in innovation as the core strategy for manufacturers, but when basic innovation in the industry whacks you on the side of the head - a sea change is occurring in how value can be delivered in a radically less wasteful manner - you have to pay attention.

VA/VE - Value Analysis and Value Engineering - may be old fashioned ideas but the fact is that they are as valid now as they ever were.  Lean is all about optimizing the value proposition, and they are essential tools for making that happen.  You have to see things from the customer's eyes, however, or neither lean nor VA can save you from yourselves.