Lean AvoidanceLeveraging and hedging instead of improving
Tue, 04/02/2013 - 09:31
I went to the gym this morning, April 1, and the gym’s owner, sole employee, and pretty much everyone’s personal trainer, Howie, asked me the same question he asks me every time I see him: “What’s your weight?”
“Stayed the same,” I said, but… Valu N-gineeringTaking value away from the customer in the name of adding it
Wed, 03/06/2013 - 15:39
My son, Ben, asked me last week, “How come the bacon cooks better on Grandma’s pan?” I’d just fried up some bacon using a pan handed down from my mother, and the bacon was, as Ben noted, much more consistently cooked.
I answered my son’s question: “… Early BloomersAdherents for lean transformation develop at different rates, but all should be nurtured
Thu, 02/28/2013 - 09:53
This winter has presented folks in my clime with a perpetual blanket of snow that hides most of the welcome signs of an approaching spring. There is one early bloomer, however, that blossoms each February, even as temperatures fall to the single … Death by EfficiencyOverproduction, like overeating, kills you one piece at a time
Wed, 02/13/2013 - 11:32
I was reminded this week how problematic the conceptual blind spots in our management systems can be. An otherwise insightful and passionate-to-improve organization that I was visiting was caught in a vicious production cycle that I’ll refer to… Repetitive MadnessSometimes seemingly simple problems take years to remedy
Wed, 01/16/2013 - 13:45
My last column about superficial improvement may have implied that the condition is limited to organizations with deep enough pockets to buy pricey automation. There are also plenty of opportunities for superficial improvement in small shops. Here’s… Superficial Resolutions Many organizations <em>think</em> they are making improvements when they are actually just automating waste
Tue, 01/08/2013 - 09:31
As we begin another new year, here’s a post about resolutions. In most organizations there are plans for something new in 2013—maybe a new product or market, or a new machine or facility. For those of us in the lean world, new also means re-new, i.e… Too Happy, Too SoonDon't be mesmerized by early results
Fri, 12/21/2012 - 10:47
Our machine shop was assisted by Toyota Supplier Support Center (now called Toyota Production System Support Center) in 1996 to reduce setups on our CNC lathes. TSSC had already helped us in a downstream final assembly department, and now we were… Accidental RevolutionThe payback can be huge when you invest in people, not just machines
Tue, 11/27/2012 - 09:35
Last week I visited with JVS, a terrific Boston-area organization whose mission is “to empower individuals from diverse communities to find employment and build careers, and to partner with employers to hire, develop, and retain productive… A Salesman’s GembaAre your salespeople a part of your continuous improvement effort?
Thu, 11/15/2012 - 11:07
Bob was an outside salesman in from the field for a sales meeting at the plant. We asked him to stop by to participate with a problem-solving team assigned to one of his customers, ABC Co. We’d tried everything, so we thought, to correct a defect in… A Better Class of PrisonerAlso known as early challengers of the status quo
Fri, 10/26/2012 - 10:46
I attended a very nice presentation recently by a person who has been leading the lean charge for several years at a major medical center. As he reflected on key elements of his organization’s success, however, he made a statement that set off my…
