Morning Drive in Gurgaon
無理しないで
“Muri shinai de”
It’s a foggy winter morning in Gurgaon. I am driving to office early to beat the traffic. “I should reach the office in another 30 minutes”. I usually do it to beat the traffic.
“Oh no not another jam. Is it because of the fog”
“No. An overloaded truck has overturned” says a passerby.
It takes me one hour and to cross the jam. As I pass the truck I look to see if the riders are safe.
With a sorry look. “They are under tremendous pressure to deliver. Risking their lives”. And distressing the lives of fellow drivers on the roads.
This “tremendous pressure” is not only on the trucks, we carry it in our heads and systems also.
This over burdening is what Japanese call as “Muri”.
Muri over a period of time can result in employee absenteeism, illness, and breakdowns of machines.
For the truck, Is it the greed of the transport companies which leads to this? For ourselves is it the relentless pursuit of money?
So what’s the solution.
The fear of too much waste processes in the system (in our “personal lives” too) leads to a maniacal pursuit of waste removal, being “busy”. And as Kunal Kamra says “In our society running behind money is safest addiction”. Till the time “the overloaded truck falls on the Gurgaon highway”.
“Recognize where the problem is”
Lean thinking recognizes that the optimal solution is to strike the sweet spot between reducing Overload, removing waste and unevenness. The sweet spot of “Muda”, “Muri” and “Mura”.
That’s a truck lesson for me too “Muri shinai de” “Don’t overdo it”
無理しないで