Employee backups are the people who fill in when the regular operator is absent. Having backups implies something. It means that the team has regularly assigned positions and does little or no job rotation. In great Lean companies, standard work is in full force and people rotate in and out Read more…
Flat surfaces are bad for work areas. They collect dirt, dust, debris, etc. They don’t support processes. People use them for storage. Work hard to eliminate flat surfaces in work areas. Flat surfaces collect debris. They collect dust. They collect extra parts, extra tools, extra equipment, extra Work-In-Process (WIP). If Read more…
I frequently like to unwind by playing some basketball at a local gym. Actually, to be a little more accurate, I play something that is vaguely recognizable as basketball. You’d think that with my years of experience at process improvement, I’d learn how to fix my jump shot. The other Read more…
Safety is freedom from injury and harm. The most obvious freedom is from immediate bodily injury. Safety switches, gate, guards, etc. help provide this, as does proper training and well-designed processes. Safety also includes freedom from chronic conditions that accumulate over time. This includes things like repetitive stress injuries, and Read more…
Intelligence is one of the many facets of “smartness”. Intelligence is the capacity to learn, but it doesn’t always translate into actually possessing knowledge. Having the capacity to learn does not mean that one has actually learned. Intelligence is a highly valued trait in Lean, as continuous improvement works best Read more…
I saw a story today about an accidental email that informed nearly 29,000 applicants to a California university that they had been accepted. The problem was that they hadn’t. The news report focused on the impact this error had on the prospective students. While their experience was far from fun, there is Read more…