Leadership

In short, leadership is the act of one person uniting and motivating others toward a common goal. Leadership is part natural (as in “natural-born”), but is greatly refined through training, practice, and constant learning. Confidence in oneself is a key component of leadership. While leadership is generally considered a positive Read more…

Knowledge

Knowledge is the body of facts and information surrounding a specific topic. That topic can be about processes, company policies, knowing who to speak with to get things done, or general skills. In fact, it can be about practically anything. Knowledge has the trait of specificity. That just means that Read more…

Kanban

A kanban is a signal that gives an instruction to get, move, produce, order, or take some other activity with production materials. Its literal translation from the original Japanese term, though, is “signboard” or “billboard”. Kanbans tell you when to order, what to order, how much to order, and where Read more…

Just-In-Case

Just-in-case is a play on words of just-in-time manufacturing. Contingencies are one of the main reasons why people do many of the non-Lean activities that hurt an organization. Holding inventory just-in-case a shipment is late Batching some extra just-in-case there is a problem Buying an extra machine just-in-case it breaks Read more…

Job Security

Job security is the feeling of safety that one’s job will be there in the future. Because job security is so closely linked to basic needs, like shelter and food, people react with strong emotions when their job security is threatened. In fact, job security falls into the first level Read more…

Intangibles

Many of the benefits of Lean are specific and tangible. Space savings, productivity gains, and inventory reduction all fall into this category. Some of the benefits of Lean, though, are intangible. They are the things that are not clearly perceptible. How can you define the impact of a focus on Read more…

Facilitation

The dictionary definition of facilitation is to make something easier. In this broad definition, facilitation covers a lot of ground. But in the continuous improvement definition, facilitation has a few specific characteristics. Facilitation is generally done for groups, not for individuals. Facilitation is most common for discrete projects. You might Read more…

Employee Engagement

Employee engagement describes a state of workers’ full commitment to the success of the company. Employee engagement is characterized by the worker making the extra effort and linking her personal success to corporate success. Employee engagement relies on two factors: Job satisfaction The ability to contribute in his role A Read more…

Executives

Executives are the senior leaders in an organization. They make the sweeping decisions that affect a large cross-section of the company at the same time. These senior leaders are usually the ones responsible for bringing Lean into an organization and setting the course that it will follow. Many executives can Read more…