If you are in a production operation, be it a factory or even administration, take a look in your scrap bins (or trash cans). What you find there can be very informative. Is all scrap treated the same? In a lot of metal working operations, I see routine drop scrap mixed in with scrapped parts [...]
PC once again left a provocative post in the Lean Thinker’s Community, and gave us a link to this Tim Harford TED talk that drives home the point that learning and improvement is more about rapidly discovering things that don’t work than about designing things that do. Trial and Error Tom Wujec makes the same [...]
The key points addressed today (Day 3) at the Toyota Kata seminar were: The PDCA cycle – small experiments that the “learner” develops to advance toward the target condition. The coaching cycle (or kata) – an introduction to the role of the coach, and how coaching is structured in practice. A fairly brief discussion on [...]
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 [...]
As I work with clients to get a “problem solving culture” embedded, one common challenge is the distinction between the short term work-around to remove the obstacle, and the long-term countermeasure that actually improves the process. I addressed this at a conceptual level in the “Morning Market” post a while ago. Last week I was [...]
Carlos Villela’s blog lixo.org has a great story about simple solutions. I really have no idea if it is true or not – indeed, a couple of the details don’t hang together. On the other hand, I have seen for myself the kind of thinking that is described in this story. Link to full story: [...]
Chapter 3 of The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership is titled “Coach and Develop Others.” Where in Chapter 2 the authors were outlining the individual leader’s responsibility for self-development, now they are describing the environment and the process of supporting and focusing that drive. Rather than just outline the chapter, I want to dig into some [...]
Mike Rother and Bill Costantino have shared a presentation titled “Toyota Kata Unified Field Theory.” I think it nicely packages a number of concepts in an easy-to-understand flow. I want to expand on a couple of points but first listen to the presentation. (Yes, it has a sound track, to be sure to hit the “Play” [...]
A common topic of discussion in many companies is how to document and share what has been learned as they improve their processes. The most common approach is some kind of database (either online or on paper) that documents the various “best practices” solutions to various problems. They might, for example, show the before and [...]
One of the paradoxes of TPS is the inherent distaste for ambiguity. A TPS practitioner doesn’t like to leave things to hope and chance that someone will work it out. What makes this a paradox is that we simply can not see accurately more than a few steps ahead. The world just has too many [...]