Lean life 精益思维与生活 (1)

As we know, lean applies in every corners of manufacturing. It helps a lot for manufacturing industry to eliminate wastes and use the saved resource to create more value. It is the most important concept from lean. However, did you consider that we can also apply lean concept in our daily life? We are using this to save our time and burden, in the same word, we use our saved resource to value-add ourselves.

Please check the photo above. These are the power cord which are using to connect the transformer for our notebook computer. The top one was mine and the bottom one was taken from my friend. Formerly, they were the same cable because we are using the same model of botebook. I spent USD0.5 to buy a plug and cut down more than the 50% of cable to connect the plug again in 5 mins as the top one shown in photo. In both working environment in home and office, I had no need to use such a long cable. The requirement of the cable length is only let the transformer touch the ground when it plug in the outlet. The exceed length of the cable is only the burden of my carrying.

You would ask, what is the benefit to do that? I have a simple calculation for you as below,
The weight of orginal cable is 110g,
The weight of short cable is 50g,
I need to take my notebook for working about 300 days per year, and two time per day,
The saving of weight I carried is (110-50)g X 300 days/yr X 2= 36kg/year,
I did that for 5 years already for 3 different notebook computer I used, therefore, 36 X 5 = 180kg.

60g different in weight may be meant nothing! But I can use the spare loading to bring a book for read. Even, 180kg for saving burden make my backbone more healthy, I believed. But one thing we need to remember is, the 60g / day is not necessary for me, I can use the saving to carry anything more important than a cable which I do not need. That's the lean concept!!!
My friends, think about it! you can find more examples for the lean in life and we will enjoy them. Thanks!

我们都知道，精益思维应用于制造业中的每一个角落。它帮助制造业去消除各种各样的浪费，从而利用这些省下来的资源去创造价值。这是最重要的精益概念。不过，各位有否想过，我们可以利用这个概念应用于日常生活中？我们是可以利用这个概念去节省我们的时间及负担，同样地，我们可以利用这些节省下来的资源去增值自己。

大家可以看看附图，这是一条电源线用于连接手提电脑与变压器，照片中，上边的一条是我的电脑用，下边的那条是我的朋友所使用的，原来它们都是一模一样的，因为我们是使用同一品牌的手提电脑。我用了三块钱，五分钟，剪掉超过一半的线缆长度，就如图上所示再重新接驳起来。在办公室或家中，我的使用环境都不需要一条这么长的线缆。唯一的要求，就是当接上插座后，变压器能碰到地上或桌上，不用直接受拉力就可以了。这些多余的长度就是我携带上的负担。
你们会问，这样做有什么好处呢？我简单计算一下给你看看，

原来的电源线重量是110克，
改短后的电源线重量为50克
每年我大概有300天要携带手提电脑上下班，即每天两次。
在携带上的负担，每年节省了（110-50）克 X 300日/年 X 2次 = 36公斤/年
我已使用种做法大概五年了，其间我已换了三台手提电脑，
即36公斤/年 X 5年 = 180公斤。

60克的差距可能是毫无意义！不过我们可以利用这多余的重量去带一本书看看，甚至减少了这180kg负担，我相信会令我的脊骨健康一点。不过，有一点我们需要记住的是，那每天的60克是我不需要的，我可以用这些负重节省来带任何更重要的东西，这总比带那多余的线缆有意义。这就是精益概念。

朋友们，想一想！你就能从日常生活中找到更多的例子，亦可以享受它们的好处，谢谢！