The Lean Pull System: What Dairy Farms Can Teach Us

The Cows Milk Themselves

It sounds like a setup for a joke but technology has created a system where cows determine when they are milked, turning the traditional farm image into a Lean pull system.

The New York Times reports that a number of New York dairy farmers are using automatic milking stations, stalls that scan the cow as they walk into them, attach pumps to their udders and milk them at their own customized speed. The key difference here is rather than milking times being determined by a farmer’s watch, it is set by each individual cow. Tom Borden, one such dairy farmer, notes that output has actually increased since the cows like being milked more often.

This is a rather unique implementation of the Lean pull system. A pull system is traditionally defined as downstream processes pulling needed items from the producer, however in this case the producer (the cow) is setting the pace for the process rather than the downstream process (the milking). While not precisely traditional, the system has less downtime, as the cows are not stringently scheduled to the farmers availability and can set their own pace.

The device also monitors the cow’s health, giving farmers an early warning for disease or dips in quality. This gives the farmer an opportunity to address problems before the problems stop production, similar to an Andon (warning) light on a traditional production line.

The impact has been a positive for the Bordens’ farm. “The machines have mellowed both the cows and much of the routine on the Bordens’ farm,” states the article in the Times. Without the pressures of strict milking times, the Bordens are free to tackle other tasks such as managing the feed, testing and shipping the milk and other value-added activities.