Being able to recognize objective vs. subjective information is an important skill for individuals in Lean companies. Objective vs. Subjective Definitions Objective: Information or data that is based in fact. Often numerical. Can be verified by an independent third party. Example: Math tests. Subjective: Information or opinions that are open Read more…
Creating an organization that embraces continuous improvement is not easy. It takes strong, committed leaders who are willing to pay the up-front costs, and who resist the urge to harvest gains at the expense of future improvements. It takes a team that believes that when they make changes, they share Read more…
At the heart of standardization is predictability. Standardization provides a predictable pace, predictable quality, and a predictable lead time. This predictability allows managers to make better plans. It allows marketers to make more accurate promises. And it allows employees to have a steady, reasonable pace throughout the day. Core Lean Read more…
I’m going to start out by saying that I fully expect to be blasted for this article. Challenging anything that Deming or Ohno or Shingo or Juran says is walking on thin ice in the Lean community. Despite that, I am going to do it anyway. Lately, I have been Read more…
Luck is the combination of events and circumstances that randomly impact an outcome. The more one can control those inputs, the more likely the result is to be a desired one. In a trip to Las Vegas, an individual has little impact on the outcome of games of chance. Roulette Read more…
Stopgaps are simply temporary measures put in place to prevent the defects from a known problem within a system, process, or product from escaping to a customer. This is in stark contrast to a countermeasure, in which a permanent solution is implemented. Stopgaps are intended to be temporary, but they Read more…
Somehow shadowboards have become the badge of Lean. A shadowboard symbolizes 5S to many. It is hard to find a class on Lean that does not show a shadowboard on a slide describing workplace organization. But I hate them. OK, hate is a little strong, and I don’t even dislike Read more…
The average or arithmetic mean (commonly just called the mean) is one of the most common measures of central tendency of a set of data. In layman’s terms, a measure of central tendency is simply a way of trying to describe the middle value of a set of data. The Read more…
In statistical terms, the law of large numbers is a theorem that postulates that as the size of the sample of a random variable increases, its average will approach the theoretical average. In layman’s terms, the law of large numbers simply says that over time, the more times you roll Read more…
The Hawthorne Effect originated from experiments at the Hawthorne Works, owned by Western Electric, in Cicero, Illinois in the first half of the 1900’s. While there were a variety of experiments, the most commonly referenced study was about illumination. Researchers conducted a series of experiments to identify the optimal lighting Read more…
I answered a question on a forum earlier this week, and it has had me thinking. It asked how we thought efforts to improve quality would be different in the future. My answer was that I saw a more predictive approach to quality. That just means that more companies will Read more…
I saw this sign at a coffee shop a while ago, and spent the whole day moderately amused. First of all, I am a big coffee fan. I joke that I can’t give blood because the caffeine in my veins would wake up patients during surgery. Second, I am not Read more…