Apples to oranges comparisons occur when people examine two objects and draw incorrect conclusions. The problem comes from the fact that the two objects are dissimilar and should not be compared. It happens often in Lean. Employees resisting Lean may compare the number of machines they run in a Lean Read more…
A process flow chart is a staple of Lean and other continuous improvement methods. It takes a process and transforms it into a visual representation of the flow of work. This makes it easy to highlight waste, and subsequently eliminate the things that don’t add value. A process flow chart Read more…
Flat surfaces are bad for work areas. They collect dirt, dust, debris, etc. They don’t support processes. People use them for storage. Work hard to eliminate flat surfaces in work areas. Flat surfaces collect debris. They collect dust. They collect extra parts, extra tools, extra equipment, extra Work-In-Process (WIP). If Read more…
There are two ways to look at the term “bias”. The first is the technical, statistical meaning. It is the systematic error component, or the difference between what the observed value is and what the actual value is. You might have selection bias in which a non-representative sample is chosen. Read more…
The concept of amortization is that the initial payment for an intangible asset does not always correspond to the useful life of that asset. For example, let’s assume that your company bought the rights to a brand, such as “Twinkies”. That would be a sizeable expense that has to be Read more…
Metrics are the measurements that companies use to help a team meet its goals. Metrics are formal. They should be clearly defined and tracked regularly. More importantly, metrics should be acted upon. Tracking information without doing anything with it is demoralizing to teams and consumes resources that would be better Read more…
Skew, in layman’s terms, means that data is distorted. The data points don’t fall evenly around the center of a distribution. Consider this example. Assume ten people are in a room, and you want to know what their average household income is. If this was a typical cross section of Read more…
Decision making is the process used to select from two or more competing options. You make decisions on who you will marry (one open spot, multiple candidates), where to go on vacation (vacation locales competing for your time and money), and how you want to invest the ten grand you Read more…
Criticism is negative feedback about something. At work, criticism can be about personal performance or a process. In a Lean culture, discussing problems is an essential part of making improvements. The key to success at addressing these issues is to make every attempt to separate the failure of a person Read more…
Random means occurring by chance. There are formal mathematical definitions regarding probability distributions, but the basic definition is how the typical non-mathematician looks at randomness. But even with that simple definition, we often think of things as being random when they really are not. In truth, even something as simple Read more…
Monitoring indicators give companies a sense of what is going on, or what is going to happen. An indicator is a signal that can be used to understand or predict a behavior of a person or system. A poker player has “tells”. By identifying and monitoring those indicators, his opponents Read more…
Who is a customer in the modern world? He is demanding. He wants his product immediately. He wants value, but that doesn’t mean cheap. It just means that he wants to feel like he gets a little more for his money. And he wants products that work, and services that Read more…