I’ve always been interested in technology—its uses, advantages, and disadvantages. Regular readers know that I often advocate for manual solutions first, like whiteboards to run factories and a handwritten notebook for notes.

Some believe that I’m against technology, but nothing could be further from the truth. I’m more like the guy that stands in line at the Apple Store to spend money on the latest iPhone that is supposedly (though in reality indistinguishably) better than the previous version. A few weeks ago there was a long discussion about this topic in the Lean CEO LinkedIn group, and after more than 100 comments, we all had to basically agree to disagree.

My belief is that you need to first understand and improve the underlying process, and only then apply technology to further refine and automate it. Otherwise you may simply automate waste, which is not true improvement. Manual methods also create more learning and understanding, which builds the foundation for improvement.

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