Complex problem solving often require complex thinking to get to simple, effective, easy to implement solutions. When a team is very homogenous, they tend to think very rigidly and one-dimensionally. Consider a football team. Coaches understand the need for a well-balanced set of skills. A team needs big guys for Read more…
One of the rarest feats in sports is the perfect game. For those non-sports fans among you who don’t know what that is, it simply means that no batters were able to reach first base. In short, 27 people in a row failed to do their job properly. In fact, Read more…
In Lean companies, we talk frequently about how batching is bad and flow is good. And yet, nearly every company batches its performance reviews into an annual evaluation. The irony is thick. Those very evaluations—the ones containing 365 days of observations—may critique a Lean leader on how well he was Read more…
This week, we have only one link to share. It’s a video of a pretty amazing example of outside the box thinking. Pay attention to the process that the operator uses, and the fixtures that he uses during the transitions. If he can do this, think of what you can Read more…
Autonomation is automation with a human touch. It essentially means that an automated machine has the built-in intelligence to identify when there is a problem, shut itself off, and signal the operator. This action prevents the machine from damaging itself or from producing more bad parts. See Also: Jidoka
Automation is the act of adding of a mechanical device to a machine that allows it to operate with reduced, non-continuous input from an operator. This allows the operator to do other tasks while the machine is running. In Lean, automation serves the same role it does in any other Read more…
In order to keep the football season alive just a touch longer, I wanted to talk about the “Madden Curse”. This is the theory that any player that graces the cover of the video game’s box will have a sub-par season the following year.
I just got back from doing some Lean training last week. I frequently return with a few pictures from my travels that are at least a little bit interesting. I apologize for the picture quality. Apparently, when the lens of your camera gets grimy, the pictures get worse. The first Read more…
Inspection and quality go together, right? Wrong! Conventional wisdom holds that inspection and quality go together like those other famous partnerships in the title. After all, there are mountains of books on how to create sampling plans to check quality with inspections, and nobody blinks an eye when there is Read more…
As I was packing to get ready for a training session, I came across a new dilemma. I recently switched back to using an electric razor. As I was contemplating where to pack it, it brought me back to a time, years ago, when I was a young lieutenant in Read more…
As a Lean consultant, I do a lot of reading about Lean and keep my ear to the ground to try to find new tips and tricks to deliver more value to my clients and the readers of the content on my website. Because I’ve been doing this a while, Read more…
To make quality better, you frequently have to go hunting for problems. One indicator of problems, though, is hard to miss. In heavy manufacturing, you can walk through a facility and hear the sounds of hammers ringing off in the distance. Let’s start off for a moment and think why Read more…