“Average” is the layperson’s way of saying arithmetic mean. It is one of the measures of central tendency and is determined by taking the sum of all the data points in the set divided by the number of data points in the set. Average is a measure of central tendency Read more…
Nominal data is a type of qualitative data. It contains a set of possible values that has no measurable sequence to them. For example, “favorite pet” would be nominal data set. The values might include dog, cat, snake, frog, and horse. While most people would agree that dogs rank much Read more…
Central tendency is a statistics term that is used to describe where the middle of a data set lies. The challenge is that there are a few different ways to describe where that middle lies. There are three common ways to describe the centering of data. Mean (or average): the Read more…
Patient satisfaction metrics are bad for healthcare. There. I said it. I know. It is blasphemy to say something like that in the Lean world. The focus of continuous improvement should be on the customer. The customer tells us if we are doing something right by speaking with their wallets. Read more…
Analysis paralysis is the act of bogging down a problem-solving effort by continuing to crunch data despite diminishing returns. Analysis of data is critical to problem solving. Without it, you are just guessing. But there comes a point where the effort stops paying off, and all it ends up doing Read more…
We want people to stay busy, right? Idle people are wasteful, right? In Lean, these are both false. I would rather see a person sit idle than just try to fill the time with busy work. Busy work masks opportunity. It is understandable that people do this. If they sit Read more…
I grew up in Chicago. When it snowed, we had to get drifts over a foot to get school cancelled. At least that’s how the school-aged kid inside of me remembers it. But I do know that we had some pretty bad storms. During the storms, things shut down, then Read more…
A shadow board is typically pegboard, often painted white, with a colored outline for the tool below each hook. Consider a tools storage setup such as this one. While it looks organized, it would be hard to determine which tool was missing if there was a blank space. So, what Read more…
I teach a lot of problem solving tools. In fact, much of continuous improvement is just various forms of problem solving. Most of the tools are just standardized solutions to problems that most people face in their jobs. Take andon lights, for example. The first person who came up with Read more…
Why are there so many Lean specialties? The main reason for the specialties is that Lean is primarily thought of as an improvement philosophy for manufacturing. In fact, it was originally called “Lean Manufacturing.” But those who got good at it quickly learned two things. The first is that the Read more…
Why are there so many Japanese terms in Lean? Should we use the English or the Japanese version of terms? As you may know, Lean traces its roots to post WWII Japan. Toyota was trying to find a way to compete in a fragmented market that was short on resources. Read more…
How do I determine cost savings in Lean? Cost savings can be a tricky thing. It is especially challenging when we are talking about reporting cost savings after a kaizen event, or when consultants make claims in marketing information. It is easy to get an inflated system of reporting, where people Read more…