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I just finished spending three days with a man named Josh Springer, inventor of “Bottoms up” a draft beer dispensing system that fills the glass from the bottom. It’s probably the coolest invention I have seen in a long time and after spending a few days with Josh, I believe him to be a modern-day Henry Ford. He had a few key principles that really stood out to me, and I would like to share them with you. 

1. Good enough is a great place to start:

As we were walking around the factory talking, I asked him what was the first lean principle he started to apply, and if he could do it again, would he change anything. His answer was a bullseye. He said, it doesn’t matter where you start, the main thing is that you start. So if you are having trouble kicking off your lean journey, stop worrying about getting it right, and just get it going. Perfection is the enemy of progress. As we continued around the plant, it was highly organized, floors were spotless, and workstations were all optimized for the employees’ ergonomics and workflow.

One interesting observation was the “improvements” his team was making. Josh allows for 30 minutes of improvement time each morning for all his employees to essentially fix what bugs them. And this is the interesting part. His factory has every imaginable machine for working with metal. Bandsaws, pipe benders, CNC routers, laser cutting, press brakes, laser welding to name a few. Then a full sign making shop, 3D print lab, woodworking CNC and saws. There is literally nothing they can’t do in-house. Their products are flawless and stunning, so you would expect to see a factory where everything is made to the highest standards as well. Yet, you will find everything from a shelf made with a 2x4 and some plywood with some duct tape holding it together, all the way up to laser welded stainless steel Kanban bins and everything in between.

His philosophy is “Good enough is a good place to start.” He doesn’t want his people trying to make something perfect. In the end if it’s a true lean culture, you’re just going to improve it again soon anyway. So do what you gotta do to get it working, learn from a fast and affordable prototype, then work towards improving again. And as soon as you understand that mindset, the seemingly less than polished improvements now look like progress. He said as soon as we told his team “Good enough is a good place to start” the participation went through the roof. People were no longer afraid that what they did wouldn’t be good enough, or were no longer limited to their personal talents. 

2. Build things with the customer’s experience in mind:

I think this really separates the good companies from the great companies. We were talking about how he came up with the concept of Bottoms up Beer dispensing. And I was asking the usual questions about speed and cost savings. And although both of those things are astronomically good compared to regular draft systems, that wasn’t why he came up with it. He said he wanted to improve his experience when at his favorite pubs. The lean lesson here is to put yourself in the shoes of your customer, experience your services from their perspective. Josh would be standing at the bar waiting to place a food order, or pay a tab but the bartender was all too often stuck to the handle of a draft beer dispenser. Every human being on earth understands and has a visceral feeling when their time is being gobbled up by some non-value-added activity.

The challenge is forgetting what you know happened and feeling it from the customer’s perspective. Say an order was late, but a machine broke down. You know the reason it was late, and somewhat feel justified since you already feel punished from the repair bill. However, that’s not your customer’s problem, and quite frankly, they don’t care. It may seem cold or a little ruthless, but in the lean world, this is a gift. It helps us really focus on the fixes in our operations that will impact the customer, or more importantly, their perspective. So, it doesn’t matter if you are an inventor with an idea, make kitchens or cars, viewing your operations from a customer perspective will help you edge away from your competitors that never think outside the four walls of their factories. 

One thing I like to do to help separate from competitors is to go to the customers and watch our products being delivered. Then I look for waste that I can eliminate for them. Watch the struggles they have, see what the next five steps are. Then ask myself, how can we eliminate that waste, or build some of the next steps into our process. 

So regardless of what business you’re in, if you just jump into Lean manufacturing with both feet and observe as if you were your customer, the rest should just naturally fall into place. And by “fall into place” I mean be the hardest, most fun, difficult, rewarding thing you have ever done.