Leaf by Melisande

That title is loaded with jargon, but it’s exciting jargon so bear with me a second.

When I was in graduate school studying to be a research scientist, I got very excited by two things – process improvement and bio-inspired design or biomimicry.  I pursued the two separately, attending workshops hosted by the American Society for Quality where we talked about Lean and Six Sigma, and by training as a “Biologist at the Design Table” with the Biomimicry Institute.

While my recent work on biomimicry has been limited to a handful of seminars and guest lectures in classes at UNC, I’ve spent considerable time learning and practicing Lean. Imagine my surprise when I found my two separate worlds were not so separate after all.

See, Lean practitioners are not concerned solely with established processes – they need tools and standards for designing new products and processes.  The Production Preparation Process (3P) is focused on just that: spurring creativity to design something new, and “try-storming” your ideas with models and mock-ups so that you’re sure the process will work before you commit the capital for equipment.

During the idea generation phase, 3P asks participants to look to nature for inspiration in solving design challenges.  The idea is that nature has already solved a few design and engineering challenges in unique, elegant, and sustainable ways.  Is this starting to sound familiar?  Could that, perhaps, be the basis for biomimicry as well?

The natural world is a cauldron of research and development, trial and error, where technologies that fail are called fossils and technologies that succeed survive to fight another day. Why reinvent the wheel, when nature has figured out how to slither, walk, hover and fly in so many different ways?

GE used a 3P team to launch its new GeoSpring Hybrid Water Heater.  Check out the video below for a meaningful peek behind the scenes as a cross-functional team collaborates to create an entirely new process – presumably with a little help from Mother Nature.

Can't get enough? Try these related posts:

1. Parallel Puropose: Lean and Green
2. Lean is Green
3. Lessons from Lean Startups
4. Does Lean work for governments and non-profits?
5. Canadian Lean and Green