What is the difference between Lean and Agile, and how do they complement each other?
Lean is about value for the customer and about improving, by aligning process steps ever better. This increases the flow (the value stream).
In the Lean Six Sigma Green Belt training you learn to combine Lean and Agile to guide teams and organisations.
Agile is about agility: listening closely to the customer every time and adapting products and services to the current market.
In both, increasing customer value and continuous improvement are the core principles. The principles of Lean and Agile are close, with a nuance here and there:
| Principle | Lean | Agile |
|---|---|---|
| Prioritise on customer need | Start from the value added for the customer | Only develop what adds value |
| Short cycles | Kaizen, PDCA, A3 | Sprints |
| Process control | Daily and weekly starts | Daily Scrum and sprints |
| Employee involvement | Employees are the experts and help improve and steer the process | Teamwork: self-organising teams deliver the results |
| Process first | Value is delivered by running the primary process | Multidisciplinary teams build a product or service together, as much as possible within the team |
Because the two methods share so much, they work well together. Both start from what the customer wants. So you don’t have to choose between Lean and Agile: you can use a combination of the two.
How does the Lean Agile model work?
Every organisation runs processes. How they are steered and improved differs from one organisation to the next. The circles in the model and their routines are closely connected. We call this Lean Agile working.
Agile often starts with the ‘Run process’ circle, Lean and Six Sigma often with the ‘Improve process’ circle.
Run process
Everything starts with running the process: the shop floor. From here, services or products are delivered to the customer. These can be repetitive processes (Lean), but the daily work can also be a development process (Agile).
These processes deliver the value the customer ultimately pays for. Each process has its own objectives or requirements. For example: when someone orders a product, the parcel must ship within 24 hours.
Step 1: set the short-term goal
Short-term goals follow from the goals of the organisation, which are often derived from customer demand. Examples of process goals:
- the number of products that must be ready to meet customer demand;
- the sprint goal of a sprint planning;
- the number of incoming calls that must be handled.
Goals work best in tangible, measurable units. They are usually based on the organisation’s result KPIs, its strategic goals.
Steps 2 and 3: realise the goal and evaluate
Step 2: running the process realises the goals, individually or together, based on the goals from step 1.
Step 3: the result is then evaluated, and the team starts again with setting and realising goals, for example in a daily or weekly start (or daily standup).
Improve process
When a process misses its objectives too often, it enters the improvement process. There, the part of the process with the biggest cause is tackled, for example with DMAIC, PDCA, A3 or Scrum. The central questions are:
- What does the customer want?
- What does the process look like?
- Where do you add value for the customer?
- What are the root causes of the problem, and how do you remove them?
- What is the solution, how do you implement it and how do you sustain it?
The improved part of the process returns to the daily process, where it is carried out and sustained. Together the two lower circles form a loop. If the process again misses its objectives often, it goes back into the improvement process.
Set direction
Both circles are influenced by setting direction. Management steers the organisation on what must happen every day (run process) and what must be improved (improve process). This is also where the strategy for the coming years is made. That strategy is translated, from general to specific, into:
- long-term objectives;
- short-term objectives;
- objectives per process (process goals);
- what the strategy means for the improvement process (improvement goals).
When a strategic change means processes must improve, for example because quality must go up, the process enters the improvement process. If the improvement demands so large a change that the process cannot stay as it is, a development process starts within run process. You can shape that with Scrum, for example.
Connected processes
All circles influence each other. When something changes in one, it affects at least one of the others. Set up effectively, they let the organisation work in an agile way. Together they form Lean Agile working (Leagile).