In some jobs, experience is critical. I want to be treated by a doctor who has seen every symptom for every disease. I want my pilot to have logged a massive number of flight hours. The few times I’ve needed a lawyer to prepare legal documents for me, I’ve chosen ones with plenty of experience. In static companies, when a process sticks around for years, experience with a process plays a big role. Those people Read more…
Efficiency, in the strictest sense of the definition is being able to produce something with the minimum amount of time and resources. Efficiency in Lean comes with a few cautions. The first warning regarding efficiency in Lean is to make sure you are using the term the same way that the people around you are. The definitions of efficiency, productivity, and utilization are all used in different ways by different people. The second warning is Read more…
Lean focuses on the customer. That’s one of its bedrock principles, and is reinforced with every value stream map. Value for an external customer is fairly easy to pinpoint. If a customer is willing to pay for something, they value it. But if they aren’t willing to pay for it, you have to ask if they really see worth where they say they do. There’s a big difference in the number of ‘yes’ responses if Read more…
Reducing the costs of doing business is one of the main goals of Lean. But, as I worked on the term ‘costs’ for The Continuous Improvement Companion, it struck me that there are a significant number of ways to look at costs. I’ve compiled many of the different ways I’ve heard the term ‘cost’ used in projects over the years. Fixed Costs & Variable Costs: Fixed costs are the expenses that are the same no Read more…
I was walking through a parking lot today, and for some reason, I noticed the puddles of oil in the center of every parking space. Not an uncommon occurrence, but it got me thinking about abnormal conditions. If your car was leaking oil, could you tell when you backed out of one of those spaces? With the oil on the ground there is no way to distinguish old oil from your oil. So what goes Read more…
Today’s podcast addresses a topic that many ‘Lean Rookies’ face: the fear of failure. Making mistakes is a part of kaizen–when you are trying a lot of things quickly, not all of them are going to work out. Listen in to a story about how I overcame a failure on my very first kaizen and learned some important lessons about Lean. This presentation runs for 7:47. I also want to announce my latest product, a 96 page Lean Read more…
I’m finding myself quickly growing more comfortable in front of a microphone talking about Lean. It helps that I love the topic, and could talk about it for days. This podcast contains my thoughts about where Lean can be useful. The idea came to me while I was at a coffee shop getting my caffeine fix. The barista who served me had left a few critical items off the order she had placed and the owner Read more…
I’m trying out this Lean podcast to give you another way to ‘sharpen your Lean axe.’ I know you are busy, and can’t spare a whole lot of time keeping up to speed. My goal is to give you a way to hear about Lean ideas on the go. This audio presentation runs 12:09. In this podcast, I give my basic thoughts on Lean, Six Sigma, and continuous improvement in general. I discuss building a Lean culture, and some of Read more…
Automatic machine cycle time, sometimes referred to as automatic machine time, is the time a machine spends processing a single part without an operator’s interaction. Automatic machine cycle time is critical to the concept of jidoka, or separating people from machines. The productivity benefits of automation are obvious. An operator can be far more efficient and effective is he is not tied to a machine—pulling handles, pushing buttons, spinning dials, or worst of all, watching Read more…
Generally, on the spot reprimands and ‘attaboys’ reinforce the wrong behavior…by leaders. Consider this. A leader is in charge of an average performer who has a bad day and really botches something up. The leader pulls the laggard off to the side, and gives him a stern ‘taking to’. The next day, performance is improved. On the flipside, the same average person may pull a rabbit out of a hat. The leader is impressed, and Read more…
The Time Observation Sheet is one of the four primary forms for developing Standard Work. The others are: The Standard Work Sheet The Standard Work Combination Sheet Work Instructions The Time Observation Sheet is used to, not surprisingly, observe the cycle times of the steps of Standard Work. Unfortunately, many people dislike filling out this sheet for the simple reason that is it monotonous and fatiguing. To accurately determine cycle times, many observations are required. Read more…
Forbes magazine recently released its 2009 ‘best colleges’ list. My alma mater, the US Military Academy (West Point) came out on top. I am pleased with the results, since I can now ‘legally’ claim to have graduated from the best school in the country. Plus, our arch-rivals from Navy came in far below at number 30, so reading the list was doubly nice. Forbes took an interesting approach in its measurement. It focused on the Read more…