It's nearly Christmas, so you start working on your Christmas letters. How are you going to go about assembling the letters and mailing them? Say you are sending 100. Most people probably print 100 copies, stuff them all, address them all, stamp them all, and mail them all together. Seems efficient, right? I propose that while this way might be the most efficient method for each individual step, it is not efficient for the whole flow. The "batch processing" described above creates a lot of waste. Instead, the most efficient process for flow is to complete all the steps for one letter and mail it. This is the lean way. Let's think it through.
How long would it take for one letter to be assembled and mailed? Print, fold, stuff, address, stamp and mail -- what do you think? 3 - 5 minutes? How long will it be before your first letter is mailed in the above process? Your first letter will go out as soon as all the letters are complete ... in effect, that first letter waits while you work through the entire batch. So you get started on a Sunday night that you are feeling particularly ambitious, you print them, fold all, and stuff half of them. Let say you spent 1.5 hours (print-10 minutes, 30 seconds per task -- 50 minutes for folding and 25 minutes for stuffing = about 1.5 hours). Still, none mailed.
Then you get back to it on Tuesday evening, but you're dead tired, so you only work for 1 hour -- you finish stuffing (25 minutes) and have 17 addressed (assume 2 min per letter to address). None mailed.
Wednesday you're determined to make serious progress -- you're family has been eating in the living room since Sunday because the Christmas letters have taken over the dining room table! So Wednesday you work for 3 1/2 hours -- 2 1/2 are spent finishing the addressing and the last hour is spent stamping. Phew! Finally, you are ready to drop your letters in the mail Thursday.
Now, let's look at how this might play out the lean way.
Sunday, you start--you know you only have 1 1/2 hours, and estimate 3.5 minutes per letter (30 seconds to fold, 30 seconds to stuff, 2 minutes to address, and 30 seconds to stamp and put in "to mail" pile). In 90 minutes you estimate you can complete 25, so you print 25 copies. Of course, it takes 7 minutes to print, so you effectively have 83 minutes left. In that time you can complete 23 letters. Those are done and mailed on Monday! You feel great, because some are out the door. Tuesday you get comments on Facebook from friends who can't believe how together you are to have your Christmas letters in the mail! :) Plus, all you had to put away was your address list to pull back out later in the week.
Family eats at the table Monday and Tuesday.
Tuesday, you work for an hour -- assume 5 minutes for printing, you have 55 minutes, during which you should be able to complete 15 letters, so you print 15 more. Finish them, and mail them. 38 letters sent so far.
Wednesday final pull -- you have 62 letters left, 3.5 minutes per letter + 10 minutes for printing = 3 hours 47 minutes. You finish the letters and mail the final batch Thursday -- spending 17 minutes more time, but what have you gained?
1. 37 letters went out earlier than they would have in the "batch" system.
2. You did not have excess "inventory" or your letters in process that you had to either keep moving or work around, i.e. eat in the living room. Neither did you have to look at the mess with dread over the general task for 4 days.
3. If there had been an error in the letter you would have wasted less paper by only printing what you planned to do that evening.
4. You impressed your friends by getting the first set of letters out 4 days earlier! For those of us who care about that sort of thing :o
So that is flow. Here are some quick examples of flow or lack of it in the house. One caveat -- many household tasks are always batched a bit due to modern conveniences -- washing machine, dishwasher, big supermarket...but we can still encourage flow by not further "batching" our batches.
1. Dishes, how much better does the kitchen run when things flow -- dishes are washed or loaded into the dishwasher after every meal, or at least every evening and the dishwasher is promptly emptied? V. collecting all the dirty dishes over the course of multiple days, then doing all of them at once?
2. Laundry -- the one load a day method in which a load is washed, dried, folded, and put away every day, or every couple of days. V. doing 5-6 loads on Saturday or Sunday and then piling them on the bed to be folded all at once?
3. General house cleaning -- cleaning a little every day V. waiting and spending 6-8 hours cleaning once a week or once a month (depending on how much of a neat freak you are!).
The idea here is that time efficiency is not the only value, you want to start re-examining value to the whole family. In working towards achieve flow in your household, you may spend a little more time to accomplish the same tasks, but you will gain value in other ways -- the peace of living in a tidy house, better health from having a functional kitchen with an empty sink and clear counters, and clothes when and where you need them.
How can you encourage flow in your household? Pick one area where you currently batch and try doing smaller batches more regularly for a week...see how it goes. Do you notice any unexpected benefits?
Good luck! Heather
