Forbes magazine recently released its 2009 ‘best colleges’ list. My alma mater, the US Military Academy (West Point) came out on top. I am pleased with the results, since I can now ‘legally’ claim to have graduated from the best school in the country. Plus, our arch-rivals from Navy came Read more…
I’ve gotten another Lean video rolled out. This one is on the 5 Whys. If you are not familiar with it, the tool is useful for diving down to the root cause of a problem. Please take a look at it and let me know what you think. Rating it Read more…
Guess Who’s Thinking Outside the Box? I saw an interesting advertisement that highlights ‘out of box thinking’. Surprisingly, this innovation came from an insurance company. The insurer has a trucking company for a client. This client had a problem with gravel falling off trucks, creating an unsafe and expensive situation. Read more…
Back in May, I was a guest author on Ron Pereira’s LSSAcademy blog. (Click this link for the article on Leadership and Standard Work) Well, I went back today to see the comments, and saw one that got me thinking. The commenter questioned the application of the standardization process to Read more…
I’m on a roll this week. Getting a lot of new content out. Today, I posted a Lean video training presentation on the Fishbone/Ishikawa/Cause and Efect Diagram (the link takes you to the term in our Lean Dictionary.) It’s a six minute video that shows the basics of how to Read more…
So, I was thinking about my post from yesterday on customer service and retention and wanted to add another point. I really didn’t talk about the attitude of the employee at the front desk-the voice of the company. Now, she was civil to me. There was no evil cackle as Read more…
I had an interesting experience with my health club this week. It had to do with what I am presuming is a customer retention policy. I was cancelling one of the services they offer, but keeping the membership. First off, they told me I could not do this over the Read more…
Lean vs. Batch Manufacturing I’m branching out a little, and have been working on some video content for my site. This one is an animated comparison of how products flow through batch and Lean manufacturers. The side-by-side view of both production methods highlights the advantages that Lean offers.
Overcoming Resistance to Change in a Lean Company The term “resistance to change” is commonly used in discussions about Lean. It simply means that people are set in their ways, and often don’t want to modify their routines. Surprisingly, this change resistance doesn’t just occur when people who like their Read more…
What does Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) have to do with the sports industry? Well, I was reading Men’s Health and saw an article that turned out to be a pro athlete TPM “how to” guide. (May, 2009. Major League Muscle.) The piece was about Scott Boras, a sports agent who Read more…
To some, Toyota might seem surprisingly open with its Lean TPS information. After all, Lean TPS is the primary reason for Toyota’s success and recent dominance in the auto industry. Why wouldn’t they guard their secrets? Even more, why would the give access to their facilities to both Lean practitioners Read more…
Let’s talk a little about the waste of overprocessing. Anyone who has been around Lean for more than a day or so has dived into the seven wastes (eight with unused creativity thrown in). One of the wastes is the waste of overprocessing. The most common explanation given about overprocessing Read more…