Fear can paralyze us. It can keep us from trying new things, and mire us in bad situations when we are too frightened to take a risk to try to change things. Rather than talk in more detail about this, I am going to point you to another blogger who dives Read more…
Creating an organization that embraces continuous improvement is not easy. It takes strong, committed leaders who are willing to pay the up-front costs, and who resist the urge to harvest gains at the expense of future improvements. It takes a team that believes that when they make changes, they share Read more…
Acronyms and other mnemonic devices help embed concepts into people’s brains. As it turns out, many of the key concepts of Lean leadership start with “C”, creating a unique way to look at this core tenet of continuous improvement. Interestingly, this term started as the 4 “C’s” of Lean leadership, Read more…
I’m going to start out by saying that I fully expect to be blasted for this article. Challenging anything that Deming or Ohno or Shingo or Juran says is walking on thin ice in the Lean community. Despite that, I am going to do it anyway. Lately, I have been Read more…
Somehow shadowboards have become the badge of Lean. A shadowboard symbolizes 5S to many. It is hard to find a class on Lean that does not show a shadowboard on a slide describing workplace organization. But I hate them. OK, hate is a little strong, and I don’t even dislike Read more…
Over the last few days, I’ve got to experience both the good and the bad of the healthcare system in the US. You see, my daughter was a bit over-adventurous with her parkour in the playground and broke her ankle trying to leap from a ladder to a set of Read more…
With the New Year coming soon, I’ve been thinking a lot about what the future has in store. I am anticipating some major changes for Lean. Some of these predictions are US focused, but most are internationally applicable. Lean will continue to grow. Hiring for Lean vs. Six Sigma is Read more…
A push system is one in which an upstream process sends work to a downstream process prior to the downstream process requesting it. Batch and queue systems in which large lots are sent to the next workstation to wait in line are push systems. Generally Lean systems attempt to move Read more…
A few weeks back, Tim McMahon and I hosted an online show in which we talked about how a pair of coffee makers can be a great backdrop for Lean lessons. They provide simple examples and are familiar to most people. They also have the advantage of not tuning people Read more…
I saw an interesting report yesterday about a passenger in San Diego who videotaped an interaction with some TSA employees. Reportedly, the passenger opted out of the backscatter screening, but then threatened to have the screener arrested if he “touched his junk.” Now, I’m not going to get into the Read more…
I heard an interesting comment about Standard Work the other day. A reader asked why someone just didn’t create a Standard Work document on writing a symphony so anyone could be a composer. It’s always hard to tell someone’s meaning on a short comment like that. It could be taken Read more…
Leadership is a critical component of Lean. Whether you are at the top of a company leading the Lean charge, or an engineer working to guide a group of operators on their Lean journey, you need a variety of leadership skills. But while the specific tools you use to lead Read more…