Benchmarking is simply the practice of finding someone who does something well and using it as a reference to set the bar for improvement. This can be done within the same industry (i.e. comparisons to competitors), or in other industries to spur revolutionary thinking. One frequently overlooked opportunity for benchmarking is within the same company. This may be under the same roof (accounting has found a great way to tag files on their hard disks), Read more…
This week’s Featured Lean Thinker is Evan Durant. Though he doesn’t mention it in his bio, he blogs about Lean on occasion. I like reading his articles, as we share some common background. Evan works at a Danaher company. I gained a good deal of my experience working under the Danaher Business System. It is interesting to see how similar our perspectives are on a lot of things. So, without further ado, here are Evan’s Read more…
I was recently reading a rather old book on customer satisfaction by Bob Tasca. He had an interesting quote about failure. “Failure isn’t failure at all—it’s information.” Now, I am not saying to go out trying to fail just to gather information. But, when you try a lot of new things, you are going to make your share of mistakes. The key is to not let yourself get discouraged, and if you are a leader, Read more…
Change is hard for some people. And since Lean requires a significant shift from typical thinking, it can generate some strong resistance. One of the most common forms of pushback when changing to a Lean mindset is the use of excuses. People are extremely creative at coming up with reasons that Lean will not work. So, to help you out on your Lean journey, I’ve compiled a list of some of the most common excuses Read more…
In an effort to build the Lean community, I am introducing a new weekly posting in the Gotta Go Lean Blog. Every Thursday, I will profile a “Featured Lean Thinker”. These are the people who have a voice in the Lean community, and are shaping the way people think about and practice Lean. I ask each person the same series of questions so you can get to know them a little better. This week’s Lean Read more…
In any process improvement effort, observing a process is an important step. I recently came across an interesting article about how the Office of the Inspector General was observing the door-to door counting process of the Census Bureau. Just a few items of interest in the article. The observation was done late in the game. While it is hard to determine the exact timing of the study, the article states that 93% of the follow Read more…
I have an old stack of articles that I peruse from time to time to give me blog idea. One of my best sources is Men’s Health. It is surprising how often the little tidbits of information the magazine offers strike a chord with me. In this instance, an April 2008 article–more of a paragraph, really—mentioned a University of Texas study that found that people who have control over workplace decisions are healthier than those Read more…
I had dinner last night with a friend I hadn’t seen in a number of years. We did a lot of catching up, but because we first met working for a company that was just ramping up its commitment to Lean, we talked a lot about continuous improvement. I made a joke that with the Lean tools, I could make myself into a pro baseball player. In truth, though, that’s not really the point of Read more…
The skills managers value is reflected in the way they recruit new employees. One noticeable shift last year was the widening of the gap between job postings for Lean versus Six Sigma. The data comes from The Avery Point Group. In their first year of reporting, 2005, they showed job postings requesting Six Sigma skills outpacing Lean by nearly 50%. Last year, Lean skills were 11% more common, and this year, the gap widened to Read more…
Standardizing processes is an important component of Lean success. But just because instructions are written down does not mean that they are correct, or even safe. I saw an article recently that reinforced this. Apparently, according to a story on MSNBC, a woman downloaded walking directions on her phone. The route led her to a busy street with no sidewalks. She chose to walk along an unsafe route because of the directions, and was injured. Read more…