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Backsliding it the act of reverting to a pre-improvement process. If you were to plot improvement over time on a run chart, backsliding would give the curve a saw-tooth look to it. A gain followed by a drop, followed by a gain and another drop. Backsliding is reduced by standardization Read more…
Henry Ford is generally considered to be the inventor of the assembly line. In reality, he should be credited with the transition of the assembly line into the modern version of it. Primitive versions had been around in England for about a century. Henry Ford’s primary improvement was focusing the Read more…
Simplicity is, simply put, the lack of complexity. In the modern world, complexity is looked upon as a sign of advancement and prowess. Simplicity is viewed as the earmark of an amateur. Fortunately for Lean companies, this is not true. It is much harder to accomplish something with simplicity than Read more…
Observation is an important skill for Lean and other methods of continuous improvement. It is necessary to document the “before” process, identify waste, to conduct audits, and to confirm the effectiveness of changes. Observation is simply the practice of watching a process, preferably several times, to learn about it. Observation Read more…
Guidelines are general instructions on how to make decisions. Unlike specific policies and processes, guidelines are not rigid. Guidelines are loose blueprints for success, such as “Don’t swim for 30 minutes after eating”. Contrasting with policies and rules, there are generally no sanctions for disregarding guidelines. While there is a Read more…
Frustration is the feeling of anxiety or dissatisfaction that results from the gap between expectations and reality. Frustration happens when problems are unsolved and when things don’t go according to plan. Lean depends heavily on employee engagement and job satisfaction to work at its best. Frustration reduces job satisfaction, thereby Read more…
Does experience matter anymore? Despite the fact that people talk about experience with a degree of reverence, it has a changing role in continuous improvement. Experience is defined as having knowledge or practical wisdom from having done something. The more it was done, the more experience a person gained. Be Read more…
Effectiveness is like the transmission of a car. It turns potential into results. Of course, there are two implications here. The first is that an individual has skills or characteristics that can lead to the desired outcome, or that a machine or process has the right capability and enough capacity. Read more…
Analysis is the deep dive into the details of a problem in order to better understand it. Analysis is a central part of most problem solving methods. In fact, the ‘A’ in DMAIC (from Six Sigma) is Analyze. In the analysis step, one doesn’t necessarily look for solutions, just a Read more…
An inspection is a review to confirm the quality of a product. Inspections vary widely in their formality, and in the location where they are done. The closer an inspection is to the point where an error is made, the quicker the problem can be corrected. Inspections may cover 100% Read more…
Guidance is the way that a leader or mentor provides assistance to another person to help her reach her goals. Guidance is more general in nature than specific directions. The goal is to help a person make a good decision on her own, not to tell her what to do. Read more…
A simple definition of goal setting is that it is the act of declaring something that you want to achieve and putting some specific parameters around the end result. It includes the who, what, when, where, and why. This goal setting definition, though, is overly simplistic. Goal setting has a Read more…