The latest member of our Featured Lean Thinker group is Chris Paulsen. Chris and I have commented back and forth several times on various blog posts, and you’ll see his ideas frequently on blogs and forums throughout the Lean community. He’s got a sharp eye for picking up the nuances Read more…
A gerontologist (one who studies aging and the problems of aging people) named Aubrey de Grey has a theory about longevity that basically says in the future, medical and other technological advances will increase average life spans faster than people are aging. He calls the point when that happens ‘longevity Read more…
I saw a blurb in Forbes magazine that I just had to check out. It referred to an instruction located on the US tax form 2106-EZ. The instruction says, “An expense does not have to be required to be considered necessary.” I have to confess, I don’t have the brainpower Read more…
I recently responded to a question about 5S on a forum. The gist was that the person wanted to know how long to expect 5S to take. Both myself and another responder quickly mentioned that 5S takes a long, long time. He said months; I said it is never done. Read more…
A lot of people register on my site to get access to the wide range of free Lean information I offer. Some of the organizations they work for are easily recognizable as Fortune 500 companies. But many of the visitors to my site come from companies that are not as Read more…
As you may recall from previous articles, I am a rather big football fan. So I happened upon this video, and found myself repeatedly rewinding saying, “Did he really just do that?” The short of it is that we often limit ourselves by our expectations. Obviously, this guy spends a Read more…
A few months back I posted an article questioning Toyota’s supremacy in quality and in Lean in general. Don’t misunderstand me—I still think Toyota is great at what they do. They have a lot to teach, but I think other companies have taken what Toyota does to heart and applied Read more…
I have to say, I was amused by a recent article. Authorities seize catapult used to hurl pot into Arizona The headline pretty much sums up the story. Drug smugglers, looking for a new way to get their product to market, were thinking outside the box. I think the Plan Read more…
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…
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…