So many of us were wringing our hands a year ago. Our idealized vision of Toyota as the source of all perfection and example was tarnished and crumbling before our eyes. Prominent “names” in our field were talking about the need to go beyond Toyota. The vaunted TPS was clearly failing. Or was it? Like [...]
Mike Rother shared an overview presentation on the “Improvement Kata.” Introduction to the Improvement Kata View more presentations from Mike Rother. The words on one graphic really jumped out at me: Aside from his intended point that you never get good at anything but “business as usual” if “business as usual” is what you [...]
pc pointed out a great little article in a post on the discussion forum. The article touches lightly on why ERP implementations are so hazard prone, and then lists the “Biggest Failures” of 2010. Of note is that the majority of the listed failures are governments. I can see why. Governments, by their nature, have [...]
In many processes, we ask people to notice things. Often we do this implicitly by blaming people when something is missed. This is easy to do in hindsight, and easy to do when we are investigating and knowing what to look for. But in the real world, a lot of important information gets lost in [...]
Here is an “ah-ha” or even one of those “oh s#!&” moments I had as Mike Rother was talking about his Toyota Kata research last week. Solution How Solution is Developed Toyota / “Lean” Left Open Very specific – guided and directed. Traditional Management Given / Directed Not specified, left to “empowered” employee. When [...]
Michael Ballé’s recent Gemba Coach column drives home the importance of understanding that all of the so-called “tools of lean” are really there to drive problem solving. A well designed kanban system is (or at least should be) built to not simply provide a pull signal, but more importantly, to continuously ask, and answer: “What [...]
Anyone who is following this blog knows my view of “engaged leadership.” As I read this book, I had two experiences. I found it validating. There were a lot of times I said “oh yeah!” I found it clarifying. Rother turns up the contrast on a couple of crucial points and I liked that. This [...]
In a recent blog post, Why C level executives don’t engage in ‘lean’…, Steven Spear makes a really interesting observation. He cites two main reasons. 1) “Lean” is regarded as a tool kit. There has already been a lot written here, and elsewhere, on this fallacy and how it continues to be propagated. Spear’s most [...]
Robert Cenek offers up a succinct “check” for the level of a leader’s commitment to a change initiative on his blog. The element that resonates with my own experience is the first on on his list: Intellectual curiosity. I cannot say enough how much core difference there is between a leadership team who says they [...]
The idea of a continuous improvement culture, a problem solving culture, a kaizen culture, has been with us for decades. Ultimately it is what everyone says they want to create. Yet creating that culture remains elusive for all but a few. I have noticed that, generally, when people describe the culture they are trying to [...]