Cooperation is the act of tailoring your activities to work with someone else’s in order to achieve a specific result. Cooperative relationships are generally informal. They tend to be successful because there is overlap in what both parties want to achieve-the intersection of both of their goals. While all parties Read more…
The 80/20 rule states that 80 percent of the effects of something come from 20 percent of the causes. The 80/20 rule is also known as the Pareto Principle after the Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto, who first mathematically analyzed the distribution of wealth in Italy. The 80/20 rule helps prioritize Read more…
Leaders have a tough job. They are in charge, so the success and failure of an organization rests on their shoulders. It makes sense that they want to have a lot of say in how things are done. It is also true that most managers got to where they were Read more…
Most people are nervous about public speaking. One of the ways this nervousness comes out is in the form of ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’. A few aren’t a problem, but when every second word is ‘um’ and you pepper in the ‘ahs’ for good measure, the message gets lost in the Read more…
Over the years, I’ve seen my share of conflict between people. Some has been overt—two people arguing during a project, or a couple waiting in line in front of me that clearly had some unresolved issues. Other times, the conflict was more subtle. For example, a boss and an employee Read more…
Today’s podcast addresses a topic that many ‘Lean Rookies’ face: the fear of failure. Making mistakes is a part of kaizen–when you are trying a lot of things quickly, not all of them are going to work out. Listen in to a story about how I overcame a failure on my very Read more…
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…
You might be surprised to hear me say this: Does that mean that I am not driven to make big gains in Lean? No. Does that mean that I don’t think Lean goals are important? Absolutely not. You shouldn’t be hitting all of your Lean improvement objectives. All it means 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…
A cause and effect diagram is a structured, graphical representation of the possible causes to a given effect. The purpose of the CE diagram is to provide clarity about the nature of problems. Complicated problems tend to have many contributing factors. The relationships of these potential causes jump out when Read more…
DMAIC is an acronym for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control. It provides a systematic way to approach a problem. Using the DMAIC methodology to structure a problem-solving effort helps prevent skipping steps, which can lead to poor solutions. While is seems foreign at first, when you look more closely at Read more…
Literally translated, “gemba” means “the real place”. To experienced practitioners of Lean, this means the place where work is actually being done or value is being created. NOTE: You may also hear the term as genba, with an “N”. Those who focus more on the traditional manufacturing roots of Lean Read more…