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Gotta Go Lean Blog

Risk Management

Risk management is the process of identifying risks, reducing them when possible, and making plans to deal with undesirable outcomes. Risk management can be done for an ongoing concern, such as a product line or company, or for an individual project, such as rolling out a new software package. Risk management becomes increasingly more important as the size of a project increases. Informal risk management is an intuitive process. As children, we did risk management Read more…

By Jeff Hajek, ago

Lean Manufacturing

Lean manufacturing is the business philosophy of relentlessly eliminating waste to improve flow in a production environment. It has evolved into something far more widespread, and now Lean encompasses offices, construction, service, hospitals, and even government. While many people trace the roots of Lean manufacturing back to the Toyota Production System (TPS), Taiichi Ohno (the father of Lean) acknowledges learning a lot from Henry Ford’s early days. But Ford copied the assembly line from earlier Read more…

By Jeff Hajek, ago

Confusion

Confusion is a lack of certainty. This uncertainty translates to waste. This waste is cause by two main things: Delays: Confusion creates delays in processes when operators try to figure out what to do. This leads to variation in cycle time. With enough of these delays, lead times also become harder to predict. Poor Quality: Confusion creates quality When instructions are unclear, people sometimes get the process wrong. Confusion can be avoided with clear visual Read more…

By Jeff Hajek, ago

Absences

Absences are, in a nutshell, times when a person is not present to do their normal work. Absences primarily fall into two categories from a production viewpoint—planned and unplanned. Your company’s HR team may categorize absences in a larger variety of ways, but from the operations standpoint, human resource definitions are irrelevant. It does not matter whether a person is on a vacation, medical leave, sabbatical, or leaves for a family emergency. All that really Read more…

By Jeff Hajek, ago
Absences

Benefits, Lean or Otherwise, Depend on Perspective

When managers explain Lean to their employees, they always list the benefits. Lean improves productivity. It makes quality better. It gets products out the door faster. All true. But despite those benefits, Lean sometimes makes employees dissatisfied. Why? Let’s look at it from the perspective of my daughter when she very young. I’m a gadget guy. I can’t put down those SkyMall magazines when I fly, and can’t walk past those ‘As Seen on TV’ Read more…

By Jeff Hajek, ago

Scope

The scope is the boundary of something in business. It may apply to an agreement, contract, set of responsibilities, or project. The scope defines what is covered and what is not. In Lean, the scope is most commonly used to refer to the boundary of what a project will cover. Scope can define: The time (a three-week study) A process (assembling a wiring harness, or Station 12) A physical location (the Midwest sales region) Scoping Read more…

By Jeff Hajek, ago

Meetings

Meetings are a gathering of more than one person to discuss a specific topic. Well planned meetings have an agenda. They also have a meeting manager who keeps the meeting on track and sets clear objectives. Poorly planned meetings generally miss out on one or more of those components, and as a result, tend to waste the time of the attendees. Because of the rising collaboration required in an increasingly complex business environment, meetings are Read more…

By Jeff Hajek, ago

Bells and Whistles

“Bells and Whistles” are the extras on a product…or on a process. On a product, bells and whistles are the features that enhance the product, but don’t significantly change the function. Years ago, power windows were part of the bells and whistles packages that carmakers used to distinguish cars from their competitors. Recently, backup sensors and blind spot detection were the extras that are now becoming expected, with auto-drive features and heads-up displays becoming the Read more…

By Jeff Hajek, ago

Repetition

Repetition is the act of doing something the same way over and over again. Repetition helps provide stable outputs to a process by making the inputs consistent. Repetition has a side effect of creating muscle memory—the state where your body acts without conscious thought, much like walking. You don’t have to think about moving your legs. Repetition makes the motion natural. This muscle memory, in Lean settings, helps people follow processes consistently. Repetition helps with Read more…

By Jeff Hajek, ago

Process Improvement

Process improvement is the act of reviewing a specific process to make it Process improvement is the act of reviewing a specific process to make it better. The degree of formality can be minimal, such as an immediate decision to change a method on the fly. This might include moving a garbage can closer to a workstation to eliminate a walking step of the process. Or, process improvement can be a highly structured, long-term, team-based Read more…

By Jeff Hajek, ago

Practice

Practice is repeating a task in order to improve your skills. This doesn’t mean that it has to just be an exercise. You can practice doing good Pareto charts by finding opportunities to use them in real situations. Practice is characterized by purpose. That means identifying a gap in a skill and coming up with a plan on how to get better. Practice is also very specific. The closer a practice situation matches a real Read more…

By Jeff Hajek, ago

Mentor

A mentor is an experienced, wise counselor. The mentor must be trusted by the student. This often precludes mentors from being in direct supervisory roles. People often feel cautious about sharing too much personal information with bosses. In Lean, because of its Japanese heritage, a mentor is often referred to as a sensei. The role of the mentor is to share advice and information to help the student make good, informed choices along his or Read more…

By Jeff Hajek, ago