What is an example of a Lean Pull Process?
A Lean Process Improvement Pull System refers to a production or service process designed to deliver products or services only after confirming that customers or the next stage of the process need them. This system closely aligns production with real demand. It is also known as a built-to-order production or inventory system. This article also includes a Lean Pull Process case study based on McDonald’s.
What is a pull system?
A pull system is a lean technique used to reduce waste in production. In a pull system, new work starts only when there is real demand. As a result, you can minimize storage costs and overhead by using this approach.
How to Manage a Push System in Four Steps?
The concept of the pull system is now widely used in many industries. Professionals apply it not only in manufacturing, but also in software development, customer service, and many other areas.
In workflow management, pull systems allow workers to begin their next task as soon as they have the capacity. This approach helps you prioritize tasks and prevents teams from becoming overloaded. As a result, your team can stay focused and execute the most important tasks just in time.
You need to consider four main steps if you want to increase productivity and improve workflow efficiency by using a pull system. Let’s look at these steps in more detail.
1. Create a pull system by visualizing your workflow
You can only establish an effective pull system when you see the entire flow of work, identify bottlenecks, and remove wasteful activities. The easiest way to achieve this is by mapping out your workflow with a Kanban board.
It is important to understand your workflow before you create a visual version. Once you map the work on your Kanban board, you can track and record all valuable information. This visibility gives you a complete overview of your workflow and allows you to stay in control.
By using the concept of a pull system, teams pull new items into work only when there is customer demand and available capacity. In turn, this practice prevents teams from completing too many tasks at the same time and keeps the focus on the requests that matter most.
2. Use Pull Signals to Improve Flow Management
Pull signals indicate that a task is ready for the next step in a process. These signals stop team members from adding more work before completing current tasks.
In customer-facing scenarios, for example, teams often use a column where all customer tickets are stored as they arrive. Once a request enters that column, all team members can see that it is ready to be handled.
3. Control the system with WIP limits
You need to learn how to manage your visual pull system after you build it. Using work in progress (WIP) limits is a common way to manage your pull system effectively. This practice is one of Kanban’s core principles and is widely used in pull systems.
4. Make process policies explicit
Teams can use process policies to ensure consistency and display them on their Kanban boards. This Kanban practice is designed to create a shared understanding of the process among team members. Kanban policies are agreements between employees that outline clear guidelines to follow while they work.
Lean Pull Improvement Process with a Mcdonald’s Case Study
Background: Working at McDonald’s
Let’s start with a story about establishing the Lean Pull Improvement Process with a McDonald’s case study.
When I was 18, my family and I had just returned from an accompanied tour in London, England, with my father, a U.S. Marine. We were in Jacksonville, NC, for about two weeks when he received orders to ship off to the Middle East to be a part of “Desert Storm.”
I was preparing to go to college in Greenville, NC, which was about three hours from Jacksonville. When we got the news that my father would be deployed again, I changed my plans and decided to attend the local community college. That choice allowed me to watch over my mom and two sisters.
Once I registered for school, my first priority was to find a job.
The only employment I found that fit my school schedule was McDonald’s. I was hired as a night shift cook. I have always tried to be frugal with money. Like teaching, you do not enlist in the Marine Corps to get rich. I mention this because I immediately saw waste at McDonald’s, even though at the time I did not know the concepts of Lean or Six Sigma.
For those who remember the early 90s, McDonald’s used to cook burgers and place them in a heating bin. We would place a marker behind each batch of burgers to show when that batch would expire and become waste.
The old push process at McDonald’s
In this informal Six Sigma McDonald’s case study, management either used gut feeling or forecasting to predict demand. Most managers over-predicted during peak hours, especially when they heard that a bus full of hungry athletes might arrive. During non-peak times, they often under-predicted.
In both cases, they took a risk. I saw the result of that risk in the waste bin every day. This pattern remained the same during my 1.5 years of employment at McDonald’s.
Jump ahead 15 years. I was waiting in a McDonald’s line during the lunch peak and noticed that the bins were empty except for special orders.
At first, I thought I had arrived at the tail end of a big rush and that the crew was trying to catch up. I decided to sit in the lounge where I had a clear view of their process.
In this new system, that constraint is removed.
I discovered steaming bins, like small closets with trays, where the cooked meat was stored next to the sandwich assembly area. Every order was assembled immediately after the customer placed it. I was impressed with the improvement and thought to myself that this was a perfect example of establishing the Lean Pull Improvement Process.
The old process depended on creating an inventory of burgers and storing them under a heating lamp. The main constraint in that process, the step that prevented the system from operating just in time, was cooking the meat.
In the new system, the restaurant greatly reduces that constraint.
I also remember that when you received a hamburger from the bin in the old process, the ketchup and mustard soaked into the bun. As a result, the bun lost some of its fullness and freshness.
In the new pull process, the bins for the cooked meat are referred to as the “supermarket.” When customers place orders, the meat is pulled from the supermarket into the assembly area. The crew assembles the hamburger just in time to fulfill each order.
This simple change turned a push system into a practical Lean Pull Process.
Do you have any examples of a Lean Pull Process that you can share, similar to the McDonald’s case study?
I work in McDonald’s. Also green belt lean six sigma. The drinks, desserts, are pulled. A little batching on basic ingredients like grilled meat and fried chicken. A lot of kanbans and visual management to pull dry stock and fresh or frozen food stock. A fascinating world!!
Carmen, thanks for your reply. It is a fascinating world!