Eliyahu Goldratt put together his “Theory of Constraints” and presented its principles in his book The Goal. He explained that systems generally have a single (sometimes more) bottleneck that limits, or constrains, production. In a more general sense, a constraint is anything that prevents you from accomplishing something that you Read more…
Would you go to a doctor whose credentials included only the following? Completed a six year program at ‘Scalpel University’ Certified in ultrasound technology Developed a medication distribution robot for hospitals What about one who only focused on the theory of healing, but never actually learned how to read an x-ray Read more…
Everyone, of course, knows what a stopwatch is. They may not, though, understand why someone is standing over them with one. In a Lean company, processes are based on facts and data. One of those facts is the time it takes to accomplish a task. Unfortunately, people who are highly Read more…
Overtime is the period when an hourly wage earner works beyond his or her scheduled time, usually for an incremental boost in pay. State and federal employment laws govern how overtime can be used. Overtime is a useful tool for managing capacity during demand spikes. When a few extra orders Read more…
Morale is simply the attitude you have about work. Good morale means people are satisfied with their jobs and are willing to commit to the success of the company. With poor morale, people feel like the company is an adversary, and are reluctant to engage in much more that the Read more…
Fatigue is the physical and mental state of tiredness that results in diminished capacity to perform a task or function. Because it increases the likelihood of errors, quality problems, and rework, employee fatigue is an often unrecognized form of waste that can impact the safety of the workplace. Lean, if Read more…
Enforcement is the act of compelling someone to follow a standard. Think of enforcement as the strong arm of discipline. With good discipline, people are inspired to follow rules and meet standards. But, as in all things, there are long tails on the discipline bell curve—some people naturally do the Read more…
Disputes are disagreements or differences of opinion and can get heated. Disputes at work are frequently about the way a process should be performed. In Lean companies, the challenge is that processes are always changing. This provides multiple opportunities for disputes to arise. The good news is that most companies Read more…
Deadlines are, simply put, the date something is due. Deadlines may be externally dictated, such as the Internal Revenue Service’s April 15th deadline. They may also be internally set. You may establish March 15th as the date you want all of your tax records gathered. External deadlines tend to carry Read more…
Frequently, people will have their teams sign a contract of change that clarifies what their role is in whatever project or initiative they are taking part in. For some reason, when people sign their names to something, they are more likely to follow through on it. These contracts generally include Read more…
A compromise involves mutual concessions by both sides during a disagreement. A compromise is characterized by each party getting less than they originally wanted in order to reach an agreement. Compare compromise to collaboration and cooperation where two parties work together to achieve common (or overlapping) goals. In those types 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…