It is surprising to me that in the nine years since the book Kaizen Forever was published, nobody has asked me what the beautiful Japanese calligraphy on the cover says. A literal reading by Chihiro Nakao would be: “Continue Moonshine [to make] change [towards the] ideal. [signed] Nakao Chihiro.” Continue = 続Moonshine = 月つるつるKaizen = […]

5S ACTIVITY 1.Sort 2.Straighten 3.Shine 4.Standardise 5.Sustain Grab your 5s Checksheet Example and Free Download here In this blog we cover: What is 5 Examples of 5s before and after Why does 5s matter in manufacturing? A quick start to implementing 5s The process for a 3s blitz How long does a 3s blitz take? 5s […]

A selection of highlighted blog posts from Lean bloggers from the month of March 2024.  You can also view the previous monthly Lean Roundups here.     The Power of One Page – Pascal Dennis discusses the power one page has to enable quick effective communication when used to tell stories.   Revolving Door Leadership – Bob […]

I am surprised that in the nine years since the book Shingijutsu-Kaizen was published, nobody has asked me what “∞,” means. “∞,” was carried over from the book Kaizen Forever. It was part of the header for blank note pages 82 to 85 and was accompanied by the words “Your Infinite Possibilities.” Chihiro Nakao asked […]

Cars or Charities: Same Horse, Different Jockey I had to strain to hear this great question, and only grasped it at the third attempt. At this point, the student sunk back into her chair expectantly as my lean heart leapt. ‘The student’ being one of 120 Masters students who’d turned up to hear me speak for 45 minutes […]

Why do you need a Practical Problem Solving method? Practical Problem Solving models are often shared online BUT the pitfalls are rarely well explained. In this blog we’ll be drawing on our own painful experience gained over 25 years, working across the world with hundreds of companies to illuminate those pitfalls. Here are the top […]

Kaizen and benchmarking As the Rugby World Cup in France comes into view, we thought we’d take a look at how the elite sports of Rugby, Cycling, Cricket and, ahem, Competitive Eating use lean principles to excel. Let’s start with Eddie Jones, an international rugby coach who has taken different teams to 3 Rugby World […]

Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #501 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Marcia Daszko, a speaker, workshop facilitator, and consultant. For more than 25 years, she has passionately been speaking, consulting, and guiding executive teams in Fortune 500/private corporations, education, the U.S. Navy, and non-profits to […]

Problem Solving & Movies are two things we like at Sempai. The former we’ve been coaching for 20 years. Sometimes very well and in the early days, not so well. We’ve loved movies since schooldays and have learned many lean lessons from them. “Moneyball”for example, is packed full of lean wisdom. This blog is about […]

What is Hoshin Kanri? Hoshin Kanri, often translated as Policy Deployment or Strategy Deployment, essentially means “North Star”. These are the things you’re leading the team to achieve to improve your business. Essentially, it’s the vital few things you’ve got to do over the next year to turnaround a difficult situation or stay ahead of […]

Everyone is so busy trying to keep up, but how do you get out ahead? How do you ‘future-proof’ your career? Some skills, capabilities, and perspectives are timeless. You don’t have to be a futurist or a fortune teller to be prepared for the future. Here are 16 perspectives, including one from me, about how […]

You’re probably not as safe as you think you are! Here’s a fact that I’ve observed: Almost all lean-minded people preach SQDCP Safety first, Quality second. This fact is also true: The same group of people routinely demonstrate dubious personal safety behaviour on the gemba. I have no doubt they carry the unshakeable belief that […]

In my previous post I started to show you how Fendt uses the distance between tractors on their assembly line to manage their quite high variability. By changing the distance between parts on the line, you can adjust the takt time for each part on the assembly line, hence the name Variable Takt. But this […]

Standardised Work documents have a lot in common with children; many of us in manufacturing have got them, they can be tricky to manage, and all seem to have different names. Names like: Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) Standard Operating Instruction (SOI) Standardised Work Instruction (SWI) Standard Work Instruction (SWI) Work Instruction (WI) Operation Manual Sheet […]

Staying ahead of the curve is paramount to success in the ever-evolving retail landscape. With consumer preferences, market trends, and technology constantly shifting, retailers must adapt and innovate continuously to remain competitive. This is where the concept of continuous improvement becomes invaluable. By fostering a culture of constant improvement, retail organizations can not only meet […]

Reduce Material Costs or Reduce Labour Costs? Manufacturing cost reduction is at the centre of lean thinking. It’s by no means the whole thing but if your lean efforts aren’t guiding you to better financials, what’s the point in pursuing a lean path. Strong lean thinking positively shifts Turnover (over the longer term), Profit and […]

1988 was a significant year in the history of modern progressive management. It was the start of “The Great Divergence,” wherein Toyota’s Production System (TPS) and Kaizen were reformulated into a Western interpretation called “Lean.” This divergence led to “The Great Confusion” — Is Lean the Same as TPS? — that remains with us today, […]

Chihiro Nakao not liking what he sees on the genba. The first generation of Shingijutsu consultants, led by Yoshiki Iwata (d. 2001) and Chihiro Nakao are widely known for their expertise in kaizen consulting and helping organizations create TPS-like management systems since 1987. They are also known as “insultants” for their direct form of communication […]

Most of the books about Lean management, Toyota Production System, and the Toyota Way are reportage: “writing intended to give an account of observed or documented events.” They tell the story of story of a company or persons who did something notable. Reportage is useful in three ways: Deliver information clearly, though not always concisely […]

Respect for People is one of the most overlooked principles of Lean.  Respect for people means developing employees’ latent skills in both on the job and off the job training. It is easy to invest money in new technology, software, or equipment. It takes time, effort, and planning to invest in employee skills development. Without […]

Aubrey Clayton’s book, Bernoulli’s Fallacy, covers the same ground as Jaynes’s Probability Theory: The Logic of Science, for a broader audience. It is also an easier read, at 347 pages versus 727. In addition, the author also discusses the socio-political context of mathematical statistics in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. According to his […]

One of the things that makes life at work more difficult than it should be is the lack of connection between departments, people, and processes. Legendary are the disputes between operations and sales, quality and purchasing, and design and marketing, to name a few prominent examples. Severed connections such as these are rampant, especially in […]

Thanks, as always, to Ryan McCormack for this. He always shares so much good reading, listening, and viewing here! Subscribe to get these directly from Ryan via email. News, articles, books, podcasts, and videos about how to make the workplace better. Operational Excellence, Improvement, and Innovation Seeking Perfection is Back Setting “zero defect” targets for […]

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on […]

In the world of business and project management, the concepts of continuous improvement and process improvement are often used interchangeably. However, there are subtle, yet significant, differences between the two concepts that can greatly impact the success of an organization. Understanding these distinctions is crucial for implementing effective strategies to achieve dramatic improvements that drive […]

I recently watched a video on our KaiNexus YouTube channel with our co-founder and CEO, Greg Jacobson, and our Chief Revenue Officer, Jeff Roussel. I loved it so much that I wanted to share it here with some highlights and thoughts. You can also watch “Shorts” video clips via this playlist and share them with […]

Transform Your Leadership: Break the Telling Habit® Have you ever had a team member look at you with frustration when you share your great ideas and suggestions with them? Or, have you ever felt like—with all the things you need to solve and do—you don’t have time to ask questions? Like you’re stuck putting out […]

I often write and speak about how warning signs (or cautions) are not effective at preventing mistakes, errors, and problems. See this recent post about this: Signs Are Not Mistake-Proofing: Hospital Hallways Edition. And to prove that I’ve been writing about this for a long time, here’s a post from 2007: Signs are Not Error […]

We’ve all heard the phrase “what gets measured gets done” but I also believe “what gets rewarded gets done even quicker.” Understanding how employee rewards and recognition impacts productivity, performance, and employee engagement has been the subject of many studies and experiments, ergo, the salient connection between human behavior and appreciation needs no introduction. We […]

In this post I will look at how the tractor maker Fendt handles variability in its plant in Marktoberdorf, Germany. In my view, Fendt is one of the benchmark plants in the world in handling variability. In my previous post I looked at reasons why you may (or may not) leave one part empty on […]

Ah, it’s another year of the Academy Awards. And that means, not surprisingly, another year with news articles that don’t show much understanding of performance measures over time. You might have read a very similar post in the past… because I’ve written very similar posts (like this one updated in 2021), and I wrote about […]

Here is something that I imagine could happen in the not-too-distant future… Artificial intelligence systems installed by large companies have eliminated huge numbers of jobs. This, in turn, has reduced the purchasing power of consumers resulting in year-over-year reductions in sales and profitability for the foreseeable future. Geist Products is one such company. It is […]

If you have been working for the last 30 or more years, or if you are familiar with management history, you are no doubt aware of the many management fads that have come and gone since the 1930s. These include: Human Relations Management by Objectives Matrix Management Business Process Reengineering Theory Z Empowerment Best Practices […]

By Pascal Dennis (bio) Enterprise, in all its glorious variety, cacophony & unpredictability begins and ends with value. We seek to create products, services, experiences…that elevates our fellow human beings, that make their lives easier or more enjoyable, that reduce hassle and free up their time & energy. Otherwise, why bother? We are human to […]