Lean DITA:Lean Manufacturing

and DITAJoe Gollner@joegollner

Commentary – DITA Europe 2014 (Munich Germany)

This presentation was delivered atthe DITA Europe Conferencein Munich Germanyin November 2014

The experience of deploying DITA into projects aimed at facilitating Lean Manufacturing processesled to the observation that content managementand publishing solutions rarely exhibit, but desperatelyneed, the benefits of Lean Manufacturing.

This presentation explores what lean contentprocesses might look like….

Philosophy >> Beer >> Lean Manufacturing >> DITA

Agenda: DITA & Lean Manufacturing

Background on Lean Manufacturing

DITA on LeanManufacturing Projects

Challenges withinEnterprise Environments

A Lean ContentProcessing Framework

Lean DITA

Franciscan Friar & Oxford Scholar

“Pluralitas non est ponendasine necessitate”

“Plurality is not to be posited without necessity”

“Entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity”

Ockham’s Razor entails removing all extraneous details

Eliminating waste

Really a Pull model where details are added only if necessary

William of Ockham & Ockham’s Razor

From Scholasticism to the Perfection of Beer Brewing

Medieval German beer brewing demonstrated the merits of lean

manufacturing centuries before it became fashionable

The brewing of beerwas perfected in Germanyin the 13th Century

An innovation thattook root & spread quickly

Adding an Essential Ingredient: Hops

The Lesson of Beer Brewing – Focus on Customer ValueCustomers pay only for what is of use to them and gives them value.

Nothing else constitutes quality. (Peter Drucker)

Toyota Production System

Manufacturing Process Best Practices

The Machine that Changed the WorldWomack, Jones & Roos (1990)

Popularized Lean Manufacturing

Training within Industry (TWI)

WWII US Government Initiative to improve industrial productivity

Built on Approaches created in WWI

Deployed to Japan as part of post-warreconstruction effort

Introducing Lean Manufacturing

Muda – Wasted time & effort

Seven Forms of WasteExcess Inventory

Extra Processing

Over Production

Unnecessary Transportation

Idle Waiting

Superfluous Motion

Expensive Errors

Mura

Waste caused by variability

Muri

Waste caused by over-burdening

The Tao of Lean Manufacturing – Eliminating Waste

Eliminate WastePull resources through the value-stream

Amplify LearningTest, refine, re-test, improve

Decide as Late as PossibleBuild options in upstream

Deliver as Fast as PossibleGet feedback quickly

Empower the TeamLet the team decide

Build Integrity InStrive for internal elegance

See the Whole SystemFocus on the customer value-stream

The Seven Principles of Lean Manufacturing

Adopt a Whole System Perspective

Prioritize system optimization over component optimization

Engage Integrated Product Teams

Enable multi-disciplinary collaboration

Embrace a Pull Model as a Design Principle

Processes pull only what is needed to satisfy downstream needs

Establish Standardized Work Procedures

Document every step & relentlessly test, refine, improve

Core Building Blocks of a Lean Process

DITA deployed on Lean Projects

Aerospace / DefenseTwo Industry Awards for Lean Manufacturing Innovation

Healthcare / Pharmaceuticals

Engineering / Manufacturing

Two Key Objectives addressed with DITA

Information PullEnabling a pull framework where users receive just-in-time information

Standard Work InstructionsSpecialized DITA definitions ofprocessable work instructions

Deploying DITA into Lean Manufacturing Projects

Operating a Content Value-Stream

Flowing just-enough content to support downstream demands

Information Pull

UsersPerforming

Tasks

EstablishContent

Store

DynamicDeliveryServices

IntegratedReferenceContent

Contentin SourceSystems

MasterContentSources

InformationGeneratedOn-Demand

User-defined

InformationNeeds

Enables System Life Cycle Optimization

SupportProcess

DesignProcess

Manufacturing

Process

Standards &

Guidelines

DITA used as a Master Format

Accommodated content assets assembled from many sources

Permitted theelaboration of richmetadata structures

DITA Contentpulled into multiple systems across the supply chain

DITA and the Information Pull Solution

Commentary – Establishing Authority Networks

The “Information Pull” model is actually more than just a design attribute of anefficiently operatingLean Content Solution.

An information pull model establishesan authority network that connects primary sources to myriad accountable uses.An authority network allows data fromactual events to be streamed backto the decisions behind them.This establishes the genuine accountabilitythat is essential to all critical functions.

Highly structured descriptions of work tasks

Designed to help teams to optimally perform work tasks

Provided in a range of formats for use in different environments

Ideally designed for both people & supporting software to read

Standard Work Instructions

DITA Selected

Over numerous options

DITA Machinery TaskJudged the most complete model(a bit of a surprise)

Specialization was stillgoing to be necessary

The only real option

Complex Content Acquisition Problem

SMEs in different units

Complex Delivery

Many different formats

DITA and Standard Work Instructions

DITA in the Turbulent Sea of Enterprise Systems

Adapting to the Mainstream: Not New but still Rough

Volume & complexity of the content was

significant

Differing XML support across

Enterprise Systems

Many tools placed serious constraints on

XML that they used

Most popular authoring tools had serious limitations

Challenges

Performance demands were dauntingSupportability &

adaptability were flagged as critical

Supplier Networkmultiplied these

challenges

Challenges fell into two groups

that pulled in opposite

directions

Zero DITA Awareness

When deployed as part of an enterprise solution, content processes face specific demands:

Many processes will be called for

Many of these will be highly complex

Change requests will arrive continually

Expected immediately

High expectations around quality & speed

DITA in the Big Leagues

Commentary – The Ironic Flight Away from Lean

The demand for greater precision, control &performance typically leads, when left in the hands of Information Technology (IT) groups, directly to the blind embrace of closed & proprietary tools that achieve none of these goals for long and certainly not when extended across a distributed and changing supply chain.

The governance of content solutions, as with the governance of all content assets, must remain with the business stakeholders.This is one reason content is largely invisible to IT Groups or, when seen, despised.

So What Kind of Content Processes Do We Need?

Lean Content Processes

Business Requirements

Budget Realities

Political Factors

User Needs

Demonstration Capability

Model Implementation

Production Deployment

Continuous Improvement

ContentTechnologies

Content Standards Best Practices

Open Source Commercial

ContentStrategy

LeanMethodology

Discover Design Develop Demonstrate Deploy

Lean Content Processes

ProcessStep

ProcessStep

ContentSpecifications

Validation & Analysis

Content Assets

ProcessInformation

Inputs to Lean Processes – Business on Top

Business Requirements

Budget Realities

Political Factors

User Needs

The Working Mechanisms of Lean Content Processes

Lean Content Processes

ProcessStep

ProcessStep

ContentSpecifications

Validation & Analysis

Content Assets

ProcessInformation

Commentary – The Recursive Core of Lean Processes

At the center of Lean Content Processeswill be a small, recursive structurerepresented by a process step, associated with specified & validatinginputs and outputs. Also associated witheach process step will be reports providinginsights into the operation of the process stepand providing analytical views of the inputsand outputs.

This model can scale infinitely…

Sequence of Outcomes: Escalating Capability

Demonstration Capability

Model Implementation

Production Deployment

Continuous Improvement

Commentary – The Role of Model Implementations 1

A Model Implementation is what could becalled a didactic implementation in that it seeks to be: Comprehensive in supporting a

broad range of functionality Illustrative in demonstrating how different

functionality can be implementedIt is less important that it exhibit the scalability & performance of a production system.A model implementation acts as a point ofreference for a production deployment.

Commentary – The Role of Model Implementations 2

A Model Implementation acts as a criticallyimportant troubleshooting tool for a production deployment. The productiondeployment outcomes, in total and at key process junctures, can be compared to corresponding outcomes in the Model Implementation.

A Model Implementation does not come withthe same burden of completeness & precision that is tied to Reference Implementations.

Mechanisms: The Resources being drawn upon

ContentTechnologies

Content Standards Best Practices

Open Source Commercial

Lean Content Processes draw upon Content Standards, Industry Best Practices, and

best-of-breed Content Technologies (starting with open source & introducing

commercial tools as necessary)

Pull Model – Streamlining Inputs

Articulated in Modular Architecture

Self-sufficient, distributable components

Articulated in Documentation

Fully described instructions & rules

Validated Outputs

Process steps are individually testable

Detailed logging & reporting

Model Implementation

Open, low-cost, functionally complete

Production Implementation

Scalable, secure, integrated with enterprise systems

Anatomy of a Lean Content Process (7 Parts)

Enabling the Full Content Life Cycle

ContentAcquisition

ContentManagement

ContentEngagement

ContentDelivery

ContentStrategy

InformationProduct

UserTask

Guidance

Feedback

Efficient and Sustainable Content Processesare a Pre-requisite to a Smoothly Functioning

Content Life Cycle that delivers value to customers

Lean DITA

Nothing Revolutionary

Simply the application of

rigorous configuration management

& lean principles to the use of DITA

to achieve business objectives

SelectBehaviour

DITAOpen

Toolkit

DITAStandard

LeanDITA

Solution

SelectModels

ContentStrategy

CommercialTechnology

CustomerValue

DITA Open Toolkit

In this scenario, the

DITA OT acts as a

Model Implementation

Commentary – Production-grade DITA Deployments

The rigorous application of Lean Manufacturing Principles to DITA-based Content Processeshas a number of immediate consequences.

It necessitates that organizations deliberatelyestablish production deployments of DITAand DITA processing services that include onlythose models and processing components thatare absolutely necessary. Not for everyone, clearly….

The DITA Standard and the DITA Open Toolkit(which cannot be legitimately considered separately) are treated as Model Implementations to be used for reference during Production Deployment.

Testing is critically important in all systems

Perhaps especially for Content Solutions

Unit Tests

ConformanceTests

Business Tests

Compellingbusinessscenariosshowcasing integratedfunctionality

A Digression Concerning Testing

The Gnostyx DITA Demonstration Set

Commentary – Demonstration DITA Set

The Gnostyx DITA Demonstration SetEfforts continue to establish a functionallyrealistic demonstration data set for DITA.

The design objectives for the demonstration setinclude illustrating the range of content that a DITA solution can be expected to manage &publish including marketing materials, learning content,engineering background information, troubleshootingprocedures, as well as end user documentation.

The demonstration data set is also intended to beeasily reconfigurable so that it can be quicklyrebranded to resemble the content of different firms.

Getting Back to What’s Important

The customer decides what success looks like

The optimization of Content Processes must be completely governed by the provision of

customer value

Ars Contenta

Joe GollnerManaging DirectorGnostyx Research Inc.jag@gnostyx.com

Twitter: @joegollner

Blog:The Content Philosopher

www.gollner.caAqua Mechanica

Closing Thoughts

Gnostyx Research Inc.equips organizations with the tools and knowledge they need to make the most of their content assets.

As an independent solution provider that specializes in leveraging open standards and extensible technologies, Gnostyx provides strategic guidance implementation assistance learning resources extensible technology components

The team at Gnostyx supports customers around the world and works in a wide range of industry sectors. Over two decades, Gnostyx has developed a particular specialty in supporting organizations managing complex systems within in highly regulated environments.