A journey into a different world.

After three years working in a company that adopts the Agile methodology, I decided to try to understand better how lean works and if I could use some of the concepts to improve the work me and the team were doing.
I have seen the teams using Agile inside Thoughtworks and the positive results of the use of this methodology. Just like most people I got impressed by the company's culture and the outstanding results this culture was producing, not only in the projects but also in everything else.
My first step towards understanding more about Agile was seek advice from experienced people from inside the company. People who live the Agile philosophy, and that could put me in the right direction to understand better. My first task was to read a small list of books. The Toyota Way from Jeffrey Liker, The Goal and Critical Chain, both from Eliyahu M. Goldratt.
Those books, plus everything that I've seen inside Thoughtworks in the last years inspired me to try to learn all that I could from lean and try to use this knowledge to improve the infrastructure/support area.
I decided to organize this exercise in 14 blog posts, one for each of the lean principles according to Toyota, plus some introductory and conclusion posts. The 14 principles are:

• Base your management decisions on a long term philosophy, even at the expense of short-term financial goals
• Create continuous process flow to bring problems to the surface.
• Use "pull" systems to avoid overproduction
• Level out the workload (Heijunka)
• Build a culture of stopping to fix problems, to get quality right the first time.
• Standardized tasks are the foundation for continuous improvement and employee empowerment
• Use visual control so no problems are hidden
• Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technology that serves your people and processes
• Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work, live the philosophy, and teach it to others.
• Develop exceptional people and teams that who follow your company's philosophy.
• Respect your extended network of partners and suppliers by challenging them and helping them improve.
• Go and see for yourself to thoroughly understand the situation (Genchi Genbutsu)
• Make decision slowly by consensus, thoroughly considering all options; implement decisions rapidly
• Become a learning organization through relentless reflection (Hansei) and Continuous Improvement (kaizen)

What I will try to do is get the very essence of each principle, discuss it and then suggest how this principles could be used or adapted to work in the infrastructure/support area.

Wish me luck!