Continuous improvement is a systematic and ongoing process to enhance the efficiency, effectiveness, and overall performance of an organization, product, or process. Rooted in the philosophy of incremental progress, continuous improvement involves identifying and implementing small, ongoing changes to achieve greater productivity, quality, and customer satisfaction over time. By fostering a culture of learning and […]

To both economists and top business leaders, a management system is not a determinant of business (financial) success. As much as we would like them to be wrong, they are right. It does not matter if the system is classical management, Lean management, a mash-up of the two, with or without six sigma, or anything […]

I’m frustrated that the official Boeing response to their high-profile quality problems (and safety risks) is more… INSPECTIONS! Boeing will inspect Boeing’s work more. Boeing will inspect Sprit AeroSystems’ work more. Airlines will be invited to come inspect the work. The F.A.A. will come to audit the work. I’m picturing a variation of the famous […]

The term “Gemba” comes from Japanese and is widely used in various industries, particularly in lean manufacturing practices (or lean in other settings). “Gemba” (現場)—sometimes spelled “Genba”—translates to “the real place” or “the actual place” in English. In the manufacturing context, it refers to the place where value is created, where the actual work happens, […]

Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #496 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Randy Carr, the CEO of South Florida-based World Emblem – one of the largest embroidery companies in the world with plants in the U.S. and Mexico.  Since 1993, the family-owned business has been the “go to” for emblems and […]

Setting effective and achievable business goals is at the heart of any good business goal setting strategy. While many people say they want to achieve success in business, not everyone has the wherewithal to follow through and do so. Determining the right direction for a business requires setting ambitious and inclusive—yet attainable—goals. If a business’ […]

In the competitive landscape of today’s business world, organizations face constant pressure to deliver superior products and services while optimizing operational efficiency. Continuous process improvement (CPI) contributes to success by providing a framework for organizations to regularly evaluate and refine their processes. This leads to cost savings and improved productivity, allowing businesses to meet or […]

This Snickers commercial always makes me chuckle, and I saw it again last night during an NFL playoff game: The punchline is that this stadium worker has meticulously painted, in the end zone, the word CHEFS instead of CHIEFS, as in the Kansas City Chiefs. The theme of this, and a series of Snickers commercials, […]

An assembly line is a manufacturing process in which a product is built in a step-by-step sequence. One of many decisions when installing an assembly line has to do with its pacing. When should you use a pulsed line? When a continuously moving line? And when is an unstructured timing best? This post will look […]

It will have been 95 years ago this month that Martin Luther King, Jr., was born in Atlanta. One of the greatest Americans to have ever lived, King devoted his life to the struggle for civil rights, a struggle that continues to this very day. In both word and action, he had a profound and […]

Yesterday I returned from almost two weeks in Iceland, which was tacked on to two weeks exploring Maine. Nearly a month away from the home and office, and our first international trip in well over a year. We had a fantastic time with great weather, experiences, and food. Too much food.  Travel takes me out […]

Our professional lives are generally consumed by trying to make our processes more efficient to reduce waste and help increase the value we deliver to our customers.  Our personal lives are similarly consumed by trying to find time on our busy schedules to take care of chores, have meaningful time with the family, or to […]

As I push through my later 50s I’m finding that I value flexibility and balance far more than strength and endurance.  This is augmented in my case as I’ve always had very high calcium levels, and even after removing dairy and other sources I still deal with calcification of various tendons leading to one shoulder […]

Have you ever wondered how venture capital firms turn modest investments into massive windfalls? Let’s pull back the curtain on the alchemy of VC firms and discover the secret recipe that makes startups and investors’ dreams come true. Creating the Potion: The Fund Imagine a cauldron that brews for ten years; that’s your typical VC […]

Earlier this week our good friend Mark Graban at Lean Blog reminded me of an article on how former Alcoa CEO Paul O’Neill focused on improving workplace safety, which contributed to driving growth from $3 billion in 1987 to $27 billion in 1999. “Focusing on worker safety can transform an entire organization and dramatically improve […]

My wife and I watched the documentary Stutz for the third or fourth time last weekend. It’s a unique story that always provides something new each time we watch it. The movie features actor Jonah Hill interviewing his therapist Phil Stutz, aiming to expand the knowledge and use of his unique tools. As a mental […]

Psychological Safety is not some nice-to-have touchy-feely concept. Psychological Safety means that you feel safe speaking up in the workplace. That could mean: It’s been pretty well proven that organizations with a higher level of Psychological Safety perform better. A lack of Psychological Safety in a factory can turn deadly. A lack of it has […]

The Gaussian – also known as “Normal” – distribution is used and abused in many domains. In Manufacturing, this includes quality assurance, supply-chain management,  and human resources. This is the first in a series of posts aimed at understanding the range of applicability of this tool.  Googling uses of the normal distribution produces nearly 1 […]

Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this… there’s always so much good reading, listening, and viewing shared here by him! 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 Practical Problem Solving – the Toyota Way […]

The manufacturing industry is one of the most important industries in the world. It is responsible for producing everything from cars to computers to household appliances. However, it is also one of the most dangerous industries, with a high risk of accidents and injuries. Near-miss incidents, where an incident almost occurs but is narrowly avoided, […]

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 […]

Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for this bonus episode of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Gregory H. Jacobson, M.D., a co-founder and the CEO of KaiNexus. Greg, also a practicing emergency medicine physician to this day, was previously a guest in Episode 149 and was a part of […]

There’s a lot of articles about the importance of goal-setting, however, most of us don’t take the time to lay out clear and measurable goals to work toward. Goal setting will help you stay motivated, determine what’s important to you, eliminate distractions, and build your self-confidence. When we get busy with work and everyday life, […]

Leadership Strategies for Effective Problem-Solving and Innovation Have you ever wondered why some organizations consistently outperform their competitors?  Why is it that despite operating in the same market space, using similar resources, and facing the same regulations, some companies achieve extraordinary success while others struggle to keep up? And how come some organizations are able […]

In manufacturing, a common sentiment is that the line (or generally the process) must run. There is some truth to that, but—counterintuitively—for a system to run well you need to know when to stop it too. This is my second post in a series giving you an overview on when it may be better to […]

I’m excited to host and moderate this upcoming webinar on January 17th at 1 pm ET. Register here, it’s free: A Poka-Yoke Primer: Mistake-Proofing and Error Reduction It’s being presented by John Grout, an expert on mistake-proofing and author of the free PDF eBook, “Mistake-Proofing the Design of Health Care Processes.” Here is a preview […]

By Pascal Dennis (bio) The past several blogs we’ve looked at how to improve the Jury Selection process: 1. Jury Panel Selection –> 2. Jury Selection –> 3. Court Case Our purpose is to increase flow and reduce overall cycle time. In other words, jurors get picked quicker, and court cases get processed quicker. What […]

What is the profile of a Lean leader; that rare leader who has successfully made the transition from Classical management to Lean management? What do they believe in? What do they say? What do they do? The four slides below are from my 2010 Lean leadership training workshop (Module 4 of 4). They sketch some […]

This post is built around excerpts from the book The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation. Read more about Toyota, including stories and key lessons learned in the book. Download a free preview of the book Welcome to an exploration of Toyota’s revolutionary approach to mistake-proofing, a concept that has redefined […]

The five slides below are from my 2010 Lean leadership training workshop (Module 4 of 4). They were homework assignments. They are questions that Lean professionals rarely ask, and have even less interest to understand root causes and countermeasures. That is why I gave this homework assignment to workshop participants. Needless to say, most people […]

The seven slides below are from my 2010 Lean leadership training workshop (Module 3 of 4). I always emphasized to top leaders the importance and necessity of daily kaizen in transitioning from classical management to versions of Lean management that mirror Toyota’s management thinking and practice. Even though the word kaizen suggests “incremental improvement,” that […]

The slide below are from my 2010 Lean leadership training workshop (Module 2 of 4). By now, we know this. Or, if we’re truthful, we think we know this. But there is always more to learn. It turns out there are two different types of blame: overt and covert. Most Lean professionals are highly attuned […]

For my Facebook fans you already know about this great feature. But for those of you that are not connected to A Lean Journey on Facebook or Twitter I post daily a feature I call Lean Tips.  It is meant to be advice, things I learned from experience, and some knowledge tidbits about Lean to […]

Poor Fred Taylor. Almost everyone blames him for today’s bad leadership and management practices — not valuing workers, viewing workers as interchangeable, not respecting workers, driving workers to work harder, etc. — when in fact Taylor’s ideas about the new Scientific Management system were cherry picked by top leaders and used within their status-quo oriented […]