The Traveling Ohno Circle

Wherever you go, draw a circle

A few spare moments can be turned into an opportunity to observe processes to find waste.
Credit: Luis Triguez

Many of us are familiar with the concept of the Ohno Circle, innovated by Taiichi Ohno at Toyota during the 1940s. While familiarity with the technique and the goals it sets to accomplish is one thing, how many of us have actually participated? The surprising answer is… probably all of us, in a way.

During the 1940s, Ohno established the famous Toyota Production System, and with it one of his most famous exercises, the Ohno Circle. Employees are tasked with standing inside a circle (either drawn with chalk or simply imagined) for hours and simply observing the processes until they find waste. From there, they seek to eliminate it. For a more in-depth overview and examination, check out this recent QD article by Bonnie Stone, A New Spin on the Ohno Circle.

While his exercise remains extremely well known, how many can say they confined themselves to one location for an extended amount of time and just watched? Some of us might say no, but I’m positive most of us have stood (or sat) in place for upwards of at least an hour (but less is OK!) at someone else’s business.

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Comments

Great concept!

Nearing the end of our Lean training we would send participants to lunch in a food court environment to observe 2 pre-selected outlets (with and without attention to Waste), obtain some performance data at distance and study what in their operations accounted for the difference. A great live learning experience!!

Involve the customer in identifying waste

Great article! There are so few companies that really USE the customer's perspective other than through surveys, but your article highlights an enormous opportunity. Here you've got dozens, hundreds, or tens of thousands of customers that could be acting as lean consultants to identify waste. Bigger companies (and the government!) could provide an app to record waste (complete with the video that you took and included in your analysis), how you perceived it, and possible recommendations. Smaller companies could solicit active feedback in a low tech manner: Group Health posts a sign in their waiting rooms, "If you have been waiting more than 15 minutes, please notify the receptionist." They have a written procedure for handling this so it's treated with consistent importance. Taking it a step further, you could include in the sign, "If you see waste, we want to know about it! See the form below." I know this sort of customer feedback is anathema to companies of all types, but, if people are already disgusted with your obvious and visible inefficiencies, why not put them to work for you—while they're waiting?