Time management is the act of consciously planning out how one spends the hours and minutes of a day. For structured, repetitive production work, most people tend to be fairly good at managing their time. When the demand is not so consistent, though, people tend to squander a lot more Read more…
Somehow, summer always gets away from me. At the beginning of the season, it seems like there is so much time. But then I blink, and suddenly over half of it is gone. This one has been particularly busy on both the personal and professional side.
One of the hallmarks of an organization that is devoted to continuous improvement is the visible posting of metrics in work areas.
Vilfredo Pareto (July 15, 1848 – August 19, 1923) was an Italian thinker who practiced many disciplines. He was an engineer and philosopher, but he is most well-known for his work in economics. It was his work in that field that led to the development of one of the most Read more…
Where should we start our Lean effort? There are two basic ways to approach this question. The first is functional, as in which department is the best location to start with. The other is hierarchical, meaning the level within the organization. The short answer is that the best approach I Read more…
Vacations and holidays are an important part of job satisfaction and employee retention. They provide employees an opportunity to recharge their batteries and to live their lives outside of work. Managing vacations can be difficult in any company, but the challenge can be amplified in a Lean organization where there Read more…
Staffing in a Lean organization is a bit different than it would be in most other companies. First of all, in general, a Lean organization will need fewer people to do the same amount of work that is done in a non-Lean company. But there is more to it than Read more…
“Workgroup” is a generic term used to describe an organization within a company that reports to a single individual. A workgroup may be a small team reporting to a lead, or a much larger group reporting to a department manager. In many traditional companies, workers are organized by function. In Read more…
Solutions in a Lean environment tend to be temporary. The rationale behind the statement lies within the term “continuous improvement”. Any new process you develop, by definition, will eventually change. “Solution” implies that a problem is solved once and for all. The two terms don’t play nice together. I don’t Read more…
There is a common misconception that Lean is free. The truth is that making improvements requires a variety of resources. That’s not to say you have to spend a lot of money to make changes, but every project does require an investment. In fact, that is one of the big Read more…
Responsibility is the state of being accountable for something. It may be a team, a process, or an entire company. In general, responsibility is the cost of leadership. Being in charge means that a person has to make sure that things go as planned. Responsibility means having to answer for Read more…
Welcome to episode 2 of “Talking Lean” with Jeff Hajek and Tim McMahon. We had a lot of fun doing the first one, and this second go around is no different. I always come away from discussions with Tim reinvigorated about continuous improvement. Hopefully, you end up feeling the same way when listening to us.