You can observe a lot just by watching. — Yogi Berra
The May 2013 edition of the U.S. Airways inflight magazine has a really interesting article in a monthly “Making it Happen” feature called “One Job At A Time.” (Click the link to follow along at home. The article is on page 12 of the magazine, page 14 of the pdf.) The piece follows a machinist [...]
Monday and Tuesday I had lunch in the client’s facility. I had the same sandwich, prepared by the same worker each day. Monday he put the mayo directly on the chicken salad, on his left. Tuesday he put the mayo in the other piece of bread on his right. Then I smiled at myself wondering [...]
I’m sorting through some old files, and just tossed a 20 or so page “lean audit” from some consultancy into the recycle bin. Like most of them, it tries to gauge the maturity of the organization by the depth and breadth of their implementation of a packet of “lean best practices” – the tools. What I [...]
This is a 5 minute edit of the presentation Mike Rother made at the UK Lean summit. It is a succinct summary of interaction between a coach (leader) and learner (someone working on improving a process). My thoughts are below the video… OK – here are some things I have learned with these methods “in [...]
The team was driving toward a consistently executed changeover process as a target condition. In the last iteration, the process was disrupted by a scrapped first-run part. The initial level cause was an oversize bit in the NC router resulting in an out-of-spec trim and oversize holes. This occurred in spite of the fact that [...]
One of the more famous tools taught by Chihiro Nakao of Shingijutsu fame is to direct the learner to observe an operation and “sketch the flows.” Another Time Ideas article by Anne Murphy Paul, How to Increase Your Powers of Observation, validates Nakao’s instinct. She makes the distinction between casual observation that we all do, [...]
I was driving home today and saw a construction sign on the sidewalk. It read: “Sidewalk Closed, Use Other Side.” Ahead was a section of the sidewalk which was, indeed, closed off and impassible. By the time a pedestrian encounters this sign, he is well into the middle of a long block. The sign is [...]
I am finding good resonance with my management training sessions. Rather than doing an overview of the “tools of lean” I go in depth into the fundamental things that the leaders need to Learn to do, and do. Ensure are done. in order to build this on a solid foundation. But “resonance” seems to mean [...]
I am taking the Toyota Kata seminar this week in Ann Arbor. There are two programs offered: A one-day classroom overview of the concepts in Toyota Kata. The one-day classroom overview followed by two days of practice on a shop floor, for a total of three days. I am taking the three day version. Impressions [...]
When you are at the gemba, you are watching the work. We like to say you are “looking for waste” and list seven, or eight, or ten different categories of waste that you are supposed to look for. I think it is simpler than that. An ideal workflow is smooth. The product moves smoothly, without [...]
