Articles

Standard work is not a once and done proposition. That would be lean anathema.

Joe Dager, an expert in lean marketing and founder of the Business901 blog

The word humility is derived from the Latin word for ground, humus. The notion of ground, earth or dirt makes sense in that humility is a virtue that keeps a person from reaching beyond himself or herself.

Model lines (a.k.a. pilot) are a proven method to initiate a lean launch.

Taiichi Ohno preferred facts over data, meaning, among other things, that direct observation trumps second hand stuff. How else can you truly grasp the current situation and identify the waste?

Strange name, "bowling chart," but it's a simple and powerful tool. It forces critical thinking around breakthrough objectives and facilitates typically monthly checkpoints that help drive accountability, PDCA and ultimately execution.

Gemba Tales is now three months old (my first "real" post was made on December 28, 2009). So, I thought it appropriate to engage in a little reflection or hansei. But not too much, mind you.

The kaizen pre-event planning phase is critical to event effectiveness. It includes the obvious - event definition from the perspective of scope and targets, team selection, communication and certain acceptable pre-work, but sometimes the simple stuff gets missed.

I just had an experience that prompted me  to think about the effectiveness, or sometimes lack thereof, of visual controls. Yesterday I was at a client site. No kaizen, just training.

The Toyota Production System (TPS) "house" is the model home within the lean business system neighborhood. Its roof of highest quality, lowest cost and shortest lead time is supported by the two pillars of JIT and jidoka.