With all the advances in personal transportation technology, the concept of “Lean Transportation” is no longer in the realm of science fiction. With enough commitment and demand, an efficient — LEAN — transportation system may be possible within the next 10 years.

Back in 2005, a book called “Lean Solutions” by James WOMACK and Daniel JONES was published. I was just starting my LEAN journey then, and I found the concepts discussed in the book very intriguing, to say the least. One of the things the book talked about was a reenvisioned system for Lean Air Travel — a Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI) blog entry by Jim WOMACK himself, posted back in May 2003, discusses this system in some detail.

That idea has been floating around my head all these years, and with the introduction of electric cars, announcements of upcoming autodriving vehicles, I tried to envision what a Lean Transportation System would look like.

Before my introduction to LEAN concepts, I personally thought that the bus or the train were two of the more efficient ways to more people around. A bus can carry many passengers, way more than a car, while only taking up the space of 2 - 2.5 car lengths on the road; while subways have the ability move millions of people (e.g. 6.1 million people in the NEW YORK CITY SUBWAY on September 23, 2014) with ease.

When you consider that cars on the road only usually only have the driver as the sole passenger — a bus or a train seems to be a way more efficient method of transporting people. But are they really the most efficient way to move people around? Isn't there a better way?

What about Bicycles and Scooters?

Bicycles and Scooters provide very efficient ways of transporting people — Let's list down why:

• Vehicle always available for use (if personally owned) — unlike public modes of transport, wherein you have to go to a specified boarding location (like a station) to embark, and which usually needs to follow a certain schedule
• Fuel Efficient — Bicycles are personal vehicles that rely on their passenger for power, thus they are efficient from a fuel point of view (plus they have no greenhouse gas emissions). Electric Scooters are personal vehicles that rely on battery power to power their motors, whereas Gas Scooters need gasoline as fuel for their engines. Electric scooters have no greenhouse gas emissions, but Gas scooters do
• Space Efficient — Takes up less space on the road and when parked
• Less disruption when vehicle has downtime — Only the owner is affected when the bicycle or scooter is inoperable; whereas a bus or train under repair will result in a larger impact on passengers
• Less passengers needed to reach ideal passenger count — cars, buses and trains need more passengers in order to make a trip worthwhile

However, they do have several glaring disadvantages, such as — vehicle inherently unstable, they do not provide adequate protection in the event of an accident, not suitable for use when weather is bad, and comfort not comparable to other modes of transport; among others.

The End Goal — Minimizing Waste

The basic premise of a LEAN Transportation System would revolve around minimizing waste(s) when moving people (or things) around, as eliminating waste is (arguably) the main goal of the LEAN philosophy. So what are these waste(s)? Jean CUNNINGHAM of the LEAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE made a list of The Eight Wastes of Lean, which we will be using as a reference here — this list was derived from the traditional Seven mass production wastes, as defined by Taiichi OHNO of TOYOTA.

So what are some wastes usually encountered in a Transportation System?

• Waiting — i.e. Waiting for the vehicle to arrive / be ready for use (e.g. waiting for the bus or train to arrive, as scheduled; or waiting for a car that is undergoing maintenance). By eliminating waiting times, people will be able to manage their time better, plus have more time to do something productive
• Conveyance / Transportation — i.e. Going to a point of embarkation and disembarkation that is different from the actual point of origin or desired destination (like when you take a bus or a train), or in the case of airplanes, when you first fly to a hub (to take your connecting flight) then the final airport, where you disembark and then go to your final destination
• Overproduction — Which in this case is translated into UNDERUTILIZATION (e.g. like a bus or train with empty seats). How many times have you ridden an empty bus or train, and said to yourself “Wow ... what a waste”?
• Inventory — i.e. Unused vehicles waiting for deployment to accommodate surges in demand. This is actually a big problem today, as cars and other personal vehicles usually spend much of the day parked (and are therefore unutilized), waiting for the next use. Imagine if cars could be put to continuous use instead?
• Excess Processing — SUVs and Sports Cars have capabilities way above those of a normal vehicle, but these do not provide any effective advantage (for the most part) when moving a person from POINT A to POINT B. From an efficiency standpoint, any capability above the required performance envelope (e.g. top speed / top load-weight-dimension capacity / max passenger carrying capacity / maximum mileage) is waste

Sadly, these wastes are so commonplace that they are no longer perceived as waste, but rather, are considered as a basic expectations / assumptions for transportation systems today. A Lean Transportation must be able to address most, if not all, of the wastes above.

A Utopian Future?

So what would a LEAN TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM look like? The good news is that a lot of technology required for a LEAN system already exists.

GOOGLE MAPS / APPLE MAPS / WAZE already provide routing, traffic monitoring and ETA estimates at this time. Ride sharing applications, like UBER and GRAB, already provide ride booking capabilities today. Plus AMAZON's ZOOX gives us an early glimpse at to what an autocar would look like.

After some brainstorming and visualization, we envision the primary vehicle of a Lean Transport System to look something like this:

The Autocar's predecessor? BMW ISETTA (produced 1955-62) — Photo credit: Mick from Northamptonshire, England Mick from Northamptonshire, England

The Autocar

— A self-driving (automated) one person car-like vehicle

• Autocars are owned by either by the government or by transport organizations regulated by the government — Personal / privately owned vehicles are not lean (by design), as usage is mostly limited to the owner
• Autocars will be able to operate without a driver, in fact, its design will be optimized for driverless operation. The Autocar's route / speed / operation will be managed centrally — through an Automated Booking System and a Traffic Control System — that will ensure efficient routing and optimized performance. This system will allow prioritized services (like ambulances) to reach their destinations in the shortest amount of time.
• Autocars are booked / reserved by specifying PICKUP and DISEMBARKATION POINTS, with a requested PICKUP TIME — this will allow the Booking System (accessed via mobile / computer application) to plan and optimize vehicle usage, plan routes to minimize traffic congestion and travel time to destination, and minimize travel time to the next assigned booking
• The Autocar Booking System (ABS) will indicate the expected ESTIMATED ARRIVAL TIME at the DESTINATION — after checking existing traffic conditions, running through the booking algorithm to select the best vehicle assignment (for optimal routing and efficiency), after considering and evaluating all other active bookings in the system.
• The ABS will provide several booking options — Real Time Bookings (i.e. “I need to go somewhere right now”) vs. Schedule bookings (based on defined pickup time) vs. Discounted Bookings (wherein booking pickup time based on expected congestion / traffic), wherein a proportionally lower rate will be given for lower congestion trips
• The ABS will also be used for manage CARGO / ITEM delivery requests as well — The overall efficiency and effectiveness of the system will depend of the number of vehicles managed by the system. The more vehicles on the road managed by the system, the more effective the booking planning / management algorithms will be. In order to increase overall transport system efficiency, reservations will be either for one passenger or a shipment of 'safe cargo' not weighing more than 250 lbs. — thus allowing autocars to move either passengers or cargo, as required
• Modular Cargo Containers — Industrial deliveries of ≤ 1000kg and of < 3.5 m³ in volume can use a generic transport container cube (similar to the Unit Load Devices used to carry cargo and luggage in airplanes) designed for easily loading and offloading from the autocar. Cross-docking and Virtual Cross-docking (i.e. unmanned transfer from one autocar to another) will help improve autocar and movement efficiencies.
• Automated Deliveries — The ABS can interface with online stores, effectively providing them with an automated delivery service. Automated deliveries will allow people to shop online for basic goods and food, and have them delivered to their doorstep. Delivery location tracking will be possible
• Vehicle Deployment — Adding autocars to the pool as demand increases
• Vehicle Maintenance — Scheduling maintenance automatically. Predictive maintenance. Minimize disruption /// include cleaning and autoswitching of vehicles when breakdown
• Rush Deliveries via Autodrones — With the future introduction of autodrones (automated flying cars) and an automated local air traffic control system, time critical short-distance shipments and deliveries can be done by air.

Definitely a lot of kinks will need to be worked out before a fully usable system can be used by the riding public. Even though (at the surface) this system seems almost identical to the current UBER / GRAB riding sharing systems, the shift from a human driver to an automated driving system may be too much for some users.

Is this the Future?

Ultimately, acceptance and patronage by the riding public will ultimately the overall success of a Lean Transportation System. But with all the expected advantages (quicker transit times, less waiting, cheaper fares, less maintenance headaches, zero cost to own), we feel that a Lean Transportation System will definitely come to be in the near future.