I like to be challenged in my beliefs. For this reason, I am running an article that was submitted to me by Stephen Jannise of SoftwareAdvice.com. Stephen’s premise is that Lean is no longer enough to thrive in today’s competitive, flexible market. He believes that agile management is the next Read more…
Many office work areas don’t control the flow of work onto people’s desks. As a result, individuals may face a small pile of work on one day, and a large pile of work the next. Further complicating the problem, there is frequently no formal standardization of their processes. This makes Read more…
This week’s featured Lean thinker has been a guest in a few podcasts now. He is Jay Watson. Jay is one of those seasoned veterans of Lean from before it was mainstream. Yet with all those years of experience, he still has passion in his voice when we speak about Read more…
Very few managers have their desks right out in gemba—the workplace they manage. It is unfortunate, as being right where the action is provides a tremendous value.
Contrary to what many people think, the hardest step in problem solving is not coming up with a solution, or even sustaining the gains that are made. It is identifying the problem in the first place. Now, there are several different types of problems. The glaring, painful one. It is Read more…
Most people are accustomed to signing the back side of their paycheck. The question I’d ask you to consider, though, is whether you’d behave differently if you were signing the other side of the check. Consider if you had to put your John Hancock on a check for one of Read more…
This week’s Featured Lean Thinker is Evan Durant. Though he doesn’t mention it in his bio, he blogs about Lean on occasion. I like reading his articles, as we share some common background. Evan works at a Danaher company. I gained a good deal of my experience working under the Read more…
I was recently reading a rather old book on customer satisfaction by Bob Tasca. He had an interesting quote about failure. “Failure isn’t failure at all—it’s information.” Now, I am not saying to go out trying to fail just to gather information. But, when you try a lot of new Read more…
Change is hard for some people. And since Lean requires a significant shift from typical thinking, it can generate some strong resistance. One of the most common forms of pushback when changing to a Lean mindset is the use of excuses. People are extremely creative at coming up with reasons Read more…
In an effort to build the Lean community, I am introducing a new weekly posting in the Gotta Go Lean Blog. Every Thursday, I will profile a “Featured Lean Thinker”. These are the people who have a voice in the Lean community, and are shaping the way people think about Read more…
In any process improvement effort, observing a process is an important step. I recently came across an interesting article about how the Office of the Inspector General was observing the door-to door counting process of the Census Bureau. Just a few items of interest in the article. The observation was Read more…
I have an old stack of articles that I peruse from time to time to give me blog idea. One of my best sources is Men’s Health. It is surprising how often the little tidbits of information the magazine offers strike a chord with me. In this instance, an April Read more…