Overheard in Amsterdam: I Just Want the #$%@ to Clean Things Up

It was midnight body time and 8AM in Amsterdam. Sitting in the KLM lounge waiting for a connection, the two men in the chairs next to me speak with American accents: "So I want to go over what they are doing. Hour by hour charts? Standard work? Process capability? 5S?" more>>

True Work, Apparent Work and Busywork

Thanks everybody who posted comments, questions and answers to the takt time competition. We are happy to say that you are all winners. Originally the idea was that only couple of people would win a copy of The Illustrated Toyota Production System, but I have changed my mind and we'll more>>

Calisthenics, Kaizen and Your Daily Stretch

I was lucky enough to witness a shift start at a local distribution center today. Like most Japanese companies and too few American companies the shift leader instructed all 40 or so workers in about 5 minutes of calisthenics: simple stretching and warm-up exercises before starting work. This small, daily more>>

Where does the time go?

That's what I wondered when seeing that it's been nearly a week since the last post. It's an idle question, until you start to think about it. Then you get dizzy, stop and look to those who came before us for insight. People have pondered time for ages: how to more>>

Endless Meetings Speed Up the Pace of Change on the Gemba

An article in the May 1, 2008 issue of Nikkei Business titled Endless Meetings Speed Up the Pace of Change on the Gemba (ダラダラ会議が現場のスピードアップを生む) interviewed the chairman and profiled a Japanese company called Ulvac that makes semiconductor equipment, display manufacturing equipment and other high tech equipment. This article is part more>>

Lean Strategies for Workforce Development in Manufacturing

Last week I attended a meeting of of CAMPS, the Center for Advanced Manufacturing in the Puget Sound. Like many consortia around the U.S. and in other countries, a group of manufacturers, local government, academia and service providers (such as Gemba Research) have banded together to foster innovation, develop business, more>>

Boeing Volunteers Helping Non-profits with Lean

An article in the April 18-12, 2008 issue of the Puget Sound Business Journal caught our eye. Titled Penguins will benefit from jet maker's efficiency lessons it describes the efforts of Boeing employees as lean trainers who have helped Seattle's Woodland Zoo with what sounds like a production preparation process more>>

You Can't Steal What is Shared Freely

Whoever got people started using the phrase "steal shamelessly" in regards to lean ideas and practices should be ashamed. I am quietly offended when people say this to me because it shows a certain lack of respect for the act of teaching. I am sure that most people do not more>>

Built in Quality Means Having Your Cake But Not Eating It

There was an interesting bit of news from the BBC about a Honda factory in Swindon, England. Apparently the management there have placed restrictions on the sorts of cakes, fruit and chocolates the workers can eat in their break rooms. There is a tone of muted outrage, or at least more>>

Guest Post: Takt Time Competition

By: Ron Pereira, LSS Academy Jon has blogged about takt time many times before. Most recently he offered a free Excel based takt time calculator. The tricky part about calculating takt time is normally associated with what to use for the daily demand number. Do you look at the past more>>

Henry Ford Learned from Sears & Roebuck?

I am reading a fascinating book called The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge. It traces the origin and development of the joint-stock company through the modern corporation and its impact on the world. At less than 200 pages it is highly more>>

A Lean Enterprise Transformation is Like a Marathon

A lean enterprise transformation is like a marathon. Success depends on daily conditioning. It's unlike a marathon in that it's not a race with a goal at the end of 26 miles. Perhaps it's more accurate to say being a lean organization is like being a marathon runner. Organizational fitness more>>

How Many Times Do You Pull the Andon Cord Each Day?

A reader commented recently on the article about the ten reasons one piece flow will not work saying "The answer to one and two is "watch production stop!?" If this is your plan to make/save money and work as a team, I want no part of it." This is a more>>

Another Way of Learning to See

What do you do when you just can't take people to the gemba as part of your lean training? For example if you are conducting training in a hotel, a university class room or a faraway executive suite, how do you build direct observation into the training? Surprisingly, showing a more>>

The Secret of TPS

The secret of TPS is that the secret is in plain view. We're not talking about secrets in the sense of the unknown, since much about the Toyota Production System has been made public by Toyota and others who study and write about it. We are often asked, "What is more>>

Kaizen and the Way of the Ninja

Taiichi Ohno was fond of saying "use the way of the ninja, not of mathematical calculations". He had fun with language even as he left the people he scolded puzzled by his words. Perhaps in today's language he might say "when doing kaizen be a ninja, not an accountant" or more>>

Kaizen Photos! Now Help Me Write this Blog Entry

Too shamefully busy to write very much lately, so we'll use pictures instead of words to educate and amuse. Better yet and for a change, YOU provide the words. Fill up the comment section below to respond to whichever picture you please. Picture #1: Brad Schmidt Fearless leader of the more>>

A Few More Kaizen Ideas Involving Tennis Balls

The article 50 Great Things you Never Knew you Could do with Tennis Balls on the The Life Hackery website complies a list of dozens of creative things you can do with tennis balls. I carry a tennis ball in my computer bag as a stress relieving tool. If you more>>

101 Kaizen Templates: Workplace 5S Audit Sheet

Why would the world need another 5S audit sheet? Well, kaizen never ends, that's why. Although it does rest sometimes. There are 10 questions, 2 in each of the five categories of 5S. You need to know what to look for to give a "tough" score, but even a beginner more>>

101 Kaizen Templates: PWINT Kaizen Worksheet

The idea of PWINT kaizen is to look for kaizen ideas that are within a narrowly defined process band, with a particular perspective of observation. The letters PWINT stand for Processing, Waiting, Inspection and Transportation. It's tempting to pronounce PWINT as "point" but it's more fun to imitate Elmer Fudd more>>