Duke has posed an interesting question on the forum: http://forums.theleanthinker.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=35 Actually a couple of questions. They get to the heart of “When can you say something is actually a process?” I have my views, but I want to hold back until I hear from some of you. This could get as good as the 5S [...]
In the last post I commented on Ron Popeil’s product development approach – to make the product easy to demonstrate drives making it easy to use, which creates more value for the customer. Let’s take the same thinking back to your internal customers. What if, rather than just writing a procedure, you had to go [...]
I remembered reading this years ago, and thought I had lost my copy. In the midst of my current file purge, I came across my photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy that was passed around Boeing with the hand written notation “Hey team, this is a good read – enjoy!” Even better, though, is [...]
I was cleaning out some old stuff and came across a folded piece of paper with notes on it. They were from my parting comments to a kaizen event team that had put in a great week with spectacular results. They had started out wanting to improve the delivery of WIP to and from the [...]
5S audits, standard work audits, and for that matter ISO-900x audits, are a frequent source of questions in various online discussion forums. At the same time, the topic of “leader standard work” comes up frequently, as it did in a recent question / comment on “ Walking the Gemba.” I think the topic is worth [...]
Last week I posted a story of a failed freezer, ruined food, and a customer support experience that could be summed up as “That’s how we do it.” I invited comments and asked: “Is this a problem?” And when I say “problem” I mean, is this a “problem” from the standpoint of the company’s internal [...]
If I were to look at the experience of the organization profiled in the last three posts “A Systematic Approach to Part Shortages” I believe their biggest breakthrough was cultural. By applying the “morning market” as a process of managing problems, they began a shift from a reactive organization to a problem solving culture. I [...]
I re-read my “What Nukes?” post and realized I was really rambling. I want to reiterate a key point more clearly because I think it is important. In the “Bad Apple” theory there is an implied assumption that the cause of an accident or other problem was one person who, at that moment in time, [...]
One of my kaizen-specialists-in-training just came to me asking for help. The Team Members he is working with are not seeing the need to understand sources of work variation. I hear that a lot, both in companies I have worked in and in the online forums. Everyone seems to think it is a problem in [...]
