Putting your processes closer together in manufacturing obviously saves space. However, there are many more benefits of putting processes closer together. Let me give you a run down of the benefits: Space The obvious benefit is to require less space for your machines. Shop floor space does cost money (regardless if rented or owned). Albeit, […]

Next week, on March 14th, I’m happy to be hosting a webinar, as part of the KaiNexus Continuous Improvement Webinar series that will be presented by Dr. Lisa Yerian, the chief improvement officer at the Cleveland Clinic. You can learn more and register here: Building a Culture of Empowerment: Reflections on Lessons Learned I saw […]

By Pascal Dennis (bio) Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.Henry 1V, Part 2 The past decade, I’ve been privileged to coach many senior executives. In my experience, most are caring, thoughtful and capable. They understand and accept the burdens the come with the ‘crown’. They know they have the ability to foster opportunity, […]

Toyota Kata is a methodology developed by Toyota to help organizations achieve continuous improvement. At its core, Toyota Kata is a set of practices that help individuals and teams to develop and improve their problem-solving and decision-making skills. The word “kata” refers to movements or techniques practiced repeatedly until they become ingrained in the performer’s […]

After starting the “My Favorite Mistake” podcast in September 2020 (an episode with Kevin Harrington from “Shark Tank“), I’ve now reached 200 episodes! Celebrating 200 Episodes — Mark Graban on Podcasting Mistakes and His Upcoming Book I don’t share every episode here on the Lean Blog, but I’m sharing today’s episode for a few reasons. […]

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 […]

The manufacturing sector is highly competitive, and companies must continually improve their processes. In this article, we will discuss a step-by-step approach to continuous improvement in manufacturing. We will focus on collecting data for the process, prioritizing problems, monitoring defects, identifying the root cause of defects, standardizing the fix, and confirming the solution’s effectiveness. Introduction […]

The literature on Quality does not dwell on its interactions with other components of a manufacturing system, like Production, Engineering, Production Control/Logistics, or Supply Chains. As a consequence, it is missing out on key relationships that affect the value of quality improvement. Contents Quantity versus Quality: A Conflict? In particular, the literature presents quality and […]

Do not let what you can not do, prevent you from doing what you can do… John Wooden, former basketball coach at UCLA Introduction: Creating a culture of continuous improvement is essential for any organization that wants to stay competitive and improve performance. Continuous improvement is a way of thinking and working that involves everyone […]

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 […]

Manufacturing downtime is one of the biggest problems in manufacturing. In today’s blog, we’ll be discussing what manufacturing downtime is and how you can reduce manufacturing downtime to ensure you optimize your operations.  What is Manufacturing Downtime? Manufacturing downtime refers to any period of time when a machine is not in production. In essence, the […]

The Kepner-Tregoe methodology is a problem-solving and decision-making framework that helps individuals and organizations systematically analyze problems, make decisions, and manage risks. Developed by Charles Kepner and Benjamin Tregoe in the 1950s, the methodology has been widely adopted by businesses, governments, and other organizations worldwide. One of the core components of the Kepner-Tregoe methodology is […]

A root cause analysis is a structured method for finding the underlying causes of process problems and undesirable outcomes. Root cause analysis is a core problem-solving technique used by organizations dedicated to continuous improvement. As the name implies, it is all about addressing the causal factor rather than treating symptoms that address only surface problems. […]

Root cause analysis (RCA) is a technique that is used to identify the reason for the underlying issues. Instead of only addressing the symptoms of a problem, it is a systematic procedure for locating and addressing its underlying causes. By addressing the core causes of the issue, RCA seeks to prevent the issue from recurring. […]

Long story short: Things were broken on my blog where readers couldn’t comment. That’s now fixed. But I’ll share the story of my problem solving adventures. In the first decade or more of this blog (2005 to 2015 we’ll call it), most posts would spark a lot of great comment activity by readers. But, with […]

Brian Marick was on of the 17 signers of the Agile Manifesto. His quote is: “An example would be handy right about now.” Here is a blog post about him (Brian), by another very interesting person: https://medium.com/@JoshuaKerievsky/example-guided-a-brief-history-f004ca19a96f Enjoy! The post Brian Marick appeared first on Lean Agile Training.

Auditing is a systematic and objective examination of an organization’s processes, procedures, systems, and products to determine whether they comply with regulatory, statutory, and internal standards. Audits are essential for organizations to ensure that their operations are efficient, effective, and compliant. This article will discuss different types of audits that organizations use to evaluate their […]

Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more Joining us for Episode #470 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Gary Michel. He was Chairman and CEO of Jeld-Wen, Inc. until August 2022 and, just after that, I saw him give an outstanding keynote talk at the AME annual conference in Dallas. Gary was […]

The Six Sigma quality improvement methodology uses a problem-solving technique called DMAIC. It stands for Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. Here is a quick summary of each stage of the DMAIC process: Define: This stage defines the project’s scope and problem precisely. Ensuring that everyone participating in the project has a clear grasp of the […]

Supplier quality management refers to ensuring that the goods and services suppliers supply satisfy the necessary quality standards. Reduced product failure risk, increased overall product and service quality, and lower quality-related costs are the three main goals of supplier quality management. Some of the main factors of a supplier quality management program are described below: […]

Toyota Chairman Fujio Cho gave a brilliantly simple description of what to do on a Gemba walk. “Go see, ask why, show respect,” he said. That’s it in a nutshell. During a Gemba walk, supervisors and leaders go to the place where work is done (the Gemba). They observe (not fix) processes and ask questions […]

One-piece flow—while often defined differently—is one of the True Norths in lean manufacturing. Get your material flowing! In theory that is easy. In practice, however, there are many obstacles standing between where you are and where you want to be, also for one-piece flow. Introduction As I wrote in a different post, one-piece flow moves […]

I have had covid for most of the past week, and though I don’t feel seriously ill, coupled with the facts 1) that with my wife I’m part of a 24*7 care team for a vulnerable family member, and 2) that I’ve been called to jury service next month, I’ve had to make some changes. […]

I’ve written before about Bob. He was the Plant Superintendent (the #2 in command, if you will) at the GM Livonia Engine Plant, where I started my career from 1995 to 1997. See some previous posts about my time there. Bob was a character and a half. He was old school. He talked with a […]

PDCA stands for Plan, Do, Check, and Act, and it is a widely used problem-solving methodology in various industries. On the other hand, RACI stands for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed, and it is a useful tool for defining roles and responsibilities in a project or process. Here’s how you can combine the two methodologies: […]

Real-time condition monitoring is a powerful tool that can help maintenance and reliability professionals predict failures and mitigate production downtime seamlessly. Here are some steps that maintenance and reliability professionals can take to use real-time condition monitoring effectively: Identify critical equipment: Start by identifying the equipment that is most critical to your operation. This could […]

INTERVIEW – Earlier this month, we attended a Lean Day at Dreamplace Hotels and Resorts in the Canary Islands. We sat down with two lean leaders to discuss the transformations of their businesses. Interviewees: Marco López and Juan Antonio Tena Dreamplace and 365 are two organizations that Planet Lean readers will probably be familiar with, […]

“Value is only valuable if someone values your value.” As business agility expert Nigel Thurlow has simply put it, identifying value through your customers’ perspective is critical to success. Thus, Lean is developed to deliver unquestionable value to the customer at the right time. To help you with that, the methodology focuses on identifying value-adding […]

For a long time, it’s bothered me that organizations typically react to a mistake with punishment. This is even more annoying when the phrase “hold people accountable” is used as a polite or passive-aggressive way to say “blame and punish people.” This happens a lot in healthcare, unfortunately. As I’ve been editing the manuscript for […]

What ChatGPT says about me is generally flattering but inaccurate and inconsistent. Ask multiple times and you get different wrong answers. I find it disturbing that it credits me for things I didn’t do. It also omits some I have done, which makes me wonder to whom ChatGPT attributes them. Here are a few mistakes […]

A selection of highlighted blog posts from Lean bloggers from the month of February 2022.  You can also view the previous monthly Lean Roundups here.     When You’re Convinced You’re Right, You’ve Lost Your Ability to Learn – Pascal Dennis says we need to cultivate debate, dissent, and a healthy skepticism but first we have to […]

The Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) is used in the automotive industry to establish confidence in component suppliers and their production processes. Developed by the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG), the PPAP process has become the de facto standard for automotive suppliers. The PPAP process involves five key steps: Design and Development Approval: The supplier […]

We have known for decades that people who participate in decision-making that affects their work feel a higher degree of ownership and commitment to that work. We also know that where more people are involved in a joint process of common interest, the quality of output is higher.  The same is true of strategic planning.  […]

Quick Intro As some of you know, Henrik Kniberg in (I think) about 2014 “wrote down” the then-existing “Spotify Model”.  How they worked then. It dealt with Scaling, but also with how a Team was organized.  And a bunch of other things. First, the way (the model) that Spotify was working then was in continuous […]