He Shoots! He Adds Value!

Lean Rule Number 3: Maximize Value and Reduce or Eliminate Waste.

Lean Rule Number 2: Define Value.

Lean Rule Number 1: Identify your customer.

Who is the customer of a hockey team? The fans? They buy the tickets.  Let's go with that.


What do the fans value? Winning? Fights? Big hits? Goals? Great saves? Great action? Good plays? Beer? Loud music? Loud cheering/noise? Exciting atmosphere?

What do they not value? Losing? No action? Bad goals against? Getting outplayed? Boring atmosphere? No goals for?

So what does the Value Stream Map look like for a fan? Maybe something like this:

1) Quickly purchase ticket at a reasonable price

2) Take a simple and safe trip to the game

3) Experience a safe and exciting atmosphere inside the arena. Lots to see/do/eat/drink

4) Sit down in comfortable seats with a great view of the action

5) Home team wins the face off

6) Home team completes one or more good passes

7) Home team scores a great goal (Go to Step 5)

8) Home team wins

9) Enjoy a simple and safe trip home

So one question is do fans value good defense? Or is good defense simply a necessary non-value added activity that the home team is forced to do whenever something goes wrong with the value stream?

What other Lean principles apply to a hockey game? What about backlog as opposed to flow? Maybe passing is not value added? Maybe this equates to moving inventory around. It is necessary given the constraints of the current process. (200 foot ice surface). Consider that too much passing without a shot on net makes the fans restless and they will usually start chanting "shoot, shoot, shoot."  Maybe what they really mean is "value, value, value."

What about over production? Is it value added to see a lopsided game where the home team wins by 10 goals? Chances are in this case the team has invested in too much in talent or capability. Is this similar to the waste of having too good quality?

Whether they think about it this way or not good coaches (leaders) will break the game into a series of plays (Value Streams) designed to create value (goals). They will then spend hours going through game film trying to identify causes of waste (turnovers, goals against) and work with their teams to continually improve their processes to reduce waste and increase quality.

Furthermore teams will use quality measures (time of possession, shots on goal, turnovers) to manage their process (game) in real time to minimize waste and maximize value to the customers.

So what is your role on your team? Are you the general manager who sets the strategic direction and assembles the appropriate resources? Are you the coach who is responsible for the design and execution of the value stream? Are you a forward responsible for passing and scoring goals? Are you on defense goalie responsible for identifying and resolving defects? Are you up in the booth providing information and feedback on the process?
 
I find people get so caught up in trying to justify their roles on a team by calling what they do "value added."  When what we should be doing is finding ways to spend less time performing our usual non-value added tasks and more ways trying to find alternative ways to add value.
 
Going back to a hockey game if we buy that scoring goals is adding value and stopping shots is non-value added then consider what really good defense and goalies do.  Not only do they stop opposing players and shots on their own net (non-value added).  But they become an integral part of the offense.  Talented goalies will be able to stop the opposing team's shoot-in behind the net, then pass the puck to one of their defense (value add) who in turn will pass the puck to a forward (value add).  The better they perform the Value Stream the more time they spend adding value (passing) and the less time they spend on non-value added tasks.
 
Blocking shots hurts.  Winning feels good.  Think about it.