Vision # 9 - "Lean-Living" or "Self-Abundance"

In Vision # 7 I calculated that there are 0.67 acres of farmed land in the UK per person.  That means, in order to live 'Self-Abundantly' our family should be able to not only survive, but prosper on 2.68 acres.  My ideal is for that to mean the land provides almost everything - food, drinks, fuel, shelter, clothing, furniture, 'things', entertainment, leisure and health!

Reflecting on ways of achieving such a lot with such a little I started to think about 'Lean' (a synonym for the 'Toyota Production System' (TPS)).  This may be an unusual source of inspiration for an aspiring 'Self-Abundantist' (??I know, it doesn't quite work does it?), and it would be tempting to think that the automotive industry, arch-polluter that it is, has nothing to offer to those who seek to make life sustainable, but ironically, the more I think about it the more I'm convinced that TPS may hold the solution.

The best introduction to the subject is 'Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production' by Ohno Taiichi, the genius-hero behind Toyota's modern day success.  Written in a beautifully simple, matter-of-fact and humble way, Ohno describes the origin of the system in post-war Japan.  I'll summarise it another time, but it's a book I love.

Ohno's system is, at it's core, a rigorous system of applied common-sense.  It uses simple, human-friendly, dogged techniques like 'asking why 5 times' to get to the root cause of problems so that they can be permanently corrected, and enumerates a system of 'waste-spotting' as an aide-memoir to workers and engineers to help to improve their processes.  It is this last 'waste-categorisation' technique which I think would be a great starting point - it already has great synergy with a lot 'sustainable' / 'environmental' literature.  Ohno describes 7 wastes:

1. Overproduction: Producing more than is required, or ahead of the time that it is required.
2. Transport: Unnecessary movement of people, materials and so on between places.
3. Inventory: Building unnecessarily large amounts of stock.
4. Motion:  Organising a work-place to mean that people's physical movements (reaching, walking etc.) are wasteful.
5: Overprocessing: Unnecessarily complicated processes, or processes that are wasteful of resources, or time.
6: Rework: Doing things again instead of doing them right the first time.
7: Waiting: Wasting time.

A few of the above immediately leap forward as being incredibly helpful in thinking about ways to resolve humanity's general predicament and our particular one. 

Transport, particularly when oil begins to become more and more expensive as 'conventionally extractable' supplies run out, and will ultimately be exhausted.  Toyota's strategy to minimise this waste was to 'localise' - they produce their products in the region in which they are used, they locate their suppliers adjacent to their own factories.  Huge synergy of ideas with the 'local-food' and 'food-miles' movements.
Overproduction & Inventory, essentially these are observations about the unsustainability of the old method of building / producing products to meet a general or speculative customer demand.  This leads to too much being produced, too soon, tieing up valuable cash and generally also leading to resources & people being idle when the 'product-mountain' is gradually consumed over a period of time.  Toyota's aim to counteract these wastes is to produce to order, to fulfil real customer requirements, as nearly as possible without stock.  Some observations from me on Overproduction and Inventory in the context of food > how much food is thrown away in the UK and how many chemicals / additives are introduced to food to artificially extend it's shelf life?  The additive 'solution' is a great example of failing to address the root cause of the problem - the issue is not that food doesn't last long enough but rather that instead of being produced in our homes or within our communities it is produced on the other side of country or even the world, and then spends days, weeks or months being transported or stored in warehouses.
Overprocessing & Rework: These wastes speak eloquently to the necessity to carefully use resources.

I've got to finish tonight, but I'm really excited about this idea!  More soon hopefully!