What can we learn about Lean from Star Trek?
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- This topic has 17 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 13 years, 8 months ago by
Joseph Provino.
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December 12, 2008 at 3:57 pm #51505
It occurred to me recently while watching a rerun of Star Trek: the Next Generation, that the Enterprise contains the ultimate Lean manufacturing system. I watched as Captain Picard walked up to the replicator and ordered, Tea, Earl Gray, hot. And out popped a steaming cup of tea. The system works at the pull of the customer. The product comes built exactly to the customer specifications. There is no inventory. There is no WIP. There is no transportation since the product is produced at the customers location. In fact, there is very little waste apparent in the system. We dont know about defects, but presumably defects would be kept to a minimum since product flows one piece at a time at the pull of the customer, which also means there is no overproduction. There is very little waiting given there are no handoffs since the product is produced in a single step. The only waiting is from the completion of the order to the materialization of the product.
Of course we dont know what stock molecules the replicator uses to create the tea (Earl Gray, hot) and where that raw material is stored, but would this not be the ultimate in lean efficiency if it existed? Can you think of any way to improve on that concept?0December 12, 2008 at 4:03 pm #178658Language-independent, thought-activated ordering.
(Boy, this topic has huge potential to become a time-waster. Watch!)
:O)
DLW – BPEX0December 12, 2008 at 4:06 pm #178659Yeah, but the counter arguement for ST being the Lean posterchild would be from one of the earlier ST movies in which the transporter fails, resulting in a gruesome mutation of one of the expendable red-shirts-half-embedding him into the deck. Per the ST tech manual, the replicator uses the same core tech as the transporter. Also, when activated, the power consumption of either device would approach that used by a small town in one day, hence the need for dilithium crystal fuel.
There is WIP, in the form of “dark matter”, you just don’t see it at the User Interface.
Improvement? I would shy away from ST technology and the overriding collectivist “theology” the brand preaches and rather take on the Star Wars model for Technology. Though less elegant and refined, it is arguable that Star Wars Technology, as it is used is superior. The high tech “stuff” is used for transport, war-making and manufacturing, rather than for fru-fru fluffy and expensive science experiments with little return.
I’d take a good DL-44 blaster over a lame phaser any day. All that and the ability to wield a lightsaber and force-choke your enemies…Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about!0December 12, 2008 at 4:14 pm #178662
Ken FeldmanParticipant@DarthInclude @Darth in your post and this person will
be notified via email.I agree with you HeBe. Those sissies on ST never really fought a good enemy. Kirk had to deal with little fur balls, or gorgeous women out to do harm or lizards in rubber suits. Even some low level Sith Lord could have wiped out Kirk and that whole bunch of pansies.
0December 12, 2008 at 6:16 pm #178676The machine should have anticipated his need. I personally like to have eye candy delivering it to me. Hot is a little subjective.
Se even in the future, I can still complain.
Stevo
Ps. It has been a while since anyone mentioned, Star Wars, Star Trek or Monty python. And we wonder why there are not very many chicks on this site.0December 12, 2008 at 6:26 pm #178677“And we wonder why there are not very many chicks on this site.”
I thought Bill Gates made it chic to be a geek. (Or was it the $40 billion that made it chic?)0December 12, 2008 at 6:26 pm #178678perhaps the customer (Picard) has already consulted a list of categorical variables from which to choose how his tea is made. This list dictates what type of item he orders. Hot is already predefined at a set temperature and he possibly has 2 other options available: warm, and cold. These other options being at predetermined settings.Perhaps this machine also only dispenses hot earl grey tea. If that’s the case, then the waste is the fact Picard even has to ask. He should just walk in proximity to the machine and get the feeling that he already had hot earl grey tea and has already passed it. Waste in that case, would be something entirely different.
0December 12, 2008 at 7:17 pm #178680
ValleeParticipant@HF-Chris-ValleeInclude @HF-Chris-Vallee in your post and this person will
be notified via email.Think about it… even the Next Generation called their ship the Enterprise. They didn’t rename it every time it evolved to something better…mmmm. HF Chris … besides home grown sweet tea can never be replicated. Some things are just worth the wait.
0December 12, 2008 at 7:38 pm #178681What I’ve learned is Captain Kirk is much better as a lawyer with mad cow disease.
And that a lot of money beats the snot out of a little money.
Both learned from Denny Crane.0December 12, 2008 at 8:04 pm #178682
Rev JimParticipant@Rev-JimInclude @Rev-Jim in your post and this person will
be notified via email.Yeah, Denny Crane has a rich, rewarding, full-filling life doesn’t he? He can keep it as far as I’m concerned…along with his blow up doll.
0December 13, 2008 at 12:02 am #178683
Ken FeldmanParticipant@DarthInclude @Darth in your post and this person will
be notified via email.Begging your pardon Rev., that is his “little person” lawyer friend whom he feels is real hot and sexy. And NO midget jokes, that would be insensitive!!!!
0December 13, 2008 at 4:23 am #178686
SeverinoParticipant@Jsev607Include @Jsev607 in your post and this person will
be notified via email.… either that or it’d be the Howard Stern show.
0December 13, 2008 at 5:19 pm #178693And what did you learn from Capt. Kirk?Hey Rev. with all the sex scandals surrounding the righteous right, I
would not be so quick to judge.0December 13, 2008 at 8:18 pm #178698
Rev JimParticipant@Rev-JimInclude @Rev-Jim in your post and this person will
be notified via email.Yes, Stan, those are easy to point to. But you’re a numbers guy right?
So how many bad apples – 5, 6, 20. And how many good – 200, 300, 900 million?0December 14, 2008 at 4:57 pm #178709Wow, you know that much about all their personal lives? Preach by
example, not by condemning others.0December 14, 2008 at 11:13 pm #178714
Rev JimParticipant@Rev-JimInclude @Rev-Jim in your post and this person will
be notified via email.“not by condemning others” – might be something you should consider as well.
0December 15, 2008 at 12:16 am #178715Rev honey,I’m not the one passing out holier than thou type judgements.At least 2 of your first 3 posts did.
0December 15, 2008 at 3:45 pm #178727
Joseph ProvinoParticipant@Joseph-ProvinoInclude @Joseph-Provino in your post and this person will
be notified via email.Damned, as I am rolling out a Lean Six Sigma in my company.. I am reading this string..!
it is hard enough already, not to look like a statistical geeks but if I have to say hello in Vulcan, I am doomed.!!
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