One of the core tenets of continuous improvement is to work relentlessly to eliminate waste. But waste is a relative concept. Think about the accounting department in your company? Do you consider the credit checks they do to be value added? What about the IT department troubleshooting a systems problem? Read more…
Just a quick follow up about our webinar yesterday entitled “8 Ways to Create an Infrastructure that Supports Lean”. The webinar seemed to strike a chord with a lot of people, and we have gotten a lot of positive feedback about it. For your convenience, we have posted a recording Read more…
There are two basic types of people. Those who are worried about trying an idea that won’t work, and those that are worried about not trying an idea that might work. The first type can go a whole career with some degree of success. Every time I play golf, I Read more…
I just read an interesting article that said the State of Indiana will no longer require their schools to teach cursive in class. My first response was more emotional than logical. I couldn’t believe that cursive writing is dying. It would be hard to imagine that my kids would not Read more…
As a Lean consultant, I have identified several words over the years that immediately make me see red flags with a process. When I hear them, I immediately start snooping around a little deeper, and often uncover some great opportunities for improvements. This list is by no means all inclusive, Read more…
I heard an interesting story the other day about baggage fees. Although the decision to charge for extra bags has alienated travelers, it hasn’t seemed to reduce the number of fliers significantly. But the fees did, however, alter passenger behavior. Travelers take fewer bags with them now when they catch Read more…
I recently received a review copy of Toyota Under Fire: Lessons For Turning Crisis Into Opportunity, (Jeffrey Liker and Timothy Ogden) which I am finally getting around to reviewing. Starting with the bottom line up front, I give the book 4.5 stars and a high recommendation. I’ve read quite a Read more…
At beginning of this year I decided to apply for the Shingo prize for my book Whaddaya Mean I Gotta Be Lean? Technically, the award is called “The Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award”, but most people just refer to the award as The Shingo Prize. Unfortunately, the steering committee Read more…
I’ll admit, I sometimes have readers and customers coming to me questioning my policies and practices. In some cases I recognize immediately that I’m not providing the best service and I change my process on the spot. But as a small company, I am often at the mercy of the Read more…
I am working with a new group in the near future, and they requested that I start out by introducing myself in the ‘Featured Lean Thinker’ format. I realized I hadn’t actually answered the questions myself, so instead of just talking to the group about what I thought, I went Read more…
To the person who is recently introduced to it, Lean often appears to merely be a set of tools that helps improve quality and lower costs while making deliveries faster and more consistent. But in truth, the tools behind Lean are just solutions to a particular set of problems, and Read more…
Well, with the right tools, and a better process, things get much easier. I am actually got a webinar recording posted on the same day that Tim McMahon and I presented it. Tim will be posting the slides up on SlideShare as well at some point in the near future. Read more…