There’s a general feeling that compromise is a good thing. In most cases, in the real world where relationships is the ‘product’, it is. Compromising on how you pick movies, or who does what chores, or selecting meals is pretty important in relationships. But at work, compromise is generally a Read more…
Asynchronous learning is the concept of teaching the same material to students at different times or places. It is also referred to as location independent learning. The format of this material can vary. It is commonly recorded video or audio programs but can be virtually any medium. Asynchronous learning does Read more…
What industries or types of companies benefit most from Lean? Lean is often thought of as being specifically for manufacturing. There is some truth to this if you think of Lean as a set of tools. Many of the tools are geared towards manufacturing. Kanban cards, SMED (Single Minute Exchange Read more…
Success at continuous improvement requires having a Lean infrastructure in place. This comes in two basic forms. There is the traditional view of infrastructure—the physical systems that support an operation. There is also the intellectual Lean infrastructure. This is the collection of knowledge, tools, documents, training materials, and the like Read more…
There is a pretty high failure rate with Lean. I’ve seen studies that said 76% of continuous improvement efforts under deliver, and I’ve heard anecdotal stories from Lean bloggers that claim upwards of 90% of implementations fail. The truth is that it is hard to pin down precise numbers, as Read more…
Most seasoned consultants look for warning signs when they try to help a company that is early on its continuous improvement journey. Creating a continuous improvement culture is extremely challenging. In its infancy, it is hard to build momentum, and easy to get derailed. Some of the ‘tells’ of a Read more…
Lean Certifications (or Six Sigma Certifications) comes in several forms. Company Internal Lean Certification. This type of certification has the drawback of being internally run, so there is little information outside of the company as to the quality of the training, the rigorousness of the training, or the resulting abilities Read more…
AP is an abbreviation for “accounts payable”. It is the money that companies owe in the short term and is recorded under current liabilities. In general, companies want to pay debts off as far in the future as they can (provided there is no financing charges) and get paid right Read more…
Many people have fairly solid leadership skills. But those skills are put to the test in a continuous improvement culture. Typical leadership is not enough. The people in charge must exhibit improvement-oriented leadership. This simply means that they not only guide people to accomplish today’s task, but also have to Read more…
I recently got a comment from an ex-subscriber that was not very flattering. While some of the criticisms were valid—I do have some issues with my download delivery processes—there was also an accusation that I was conducting false advertising. That bothered me, and I had a pretty quick reaction. But Read more…
The ease of making a change is correlated to the willingness to make a change. This is a critical concept to understand when trying to create a continuous improvement culture. A big part of a CI culture is the expectation that everyone contributes. Great Lean companies have participation from people Read more…
W. Edwards Deming is credited with popularizing the term “instant pudding” in continuous improvement. More accurately, he states that there is no instant pudding in CI, and that you should not expect immediate results. He lists this desire for quick and easy fixes as an obstacle to improvement in his Read more…