Gemba Tales Blog

During my recent travels, I came upon a somewhat bizarre sight.

Ok, so the title is a little overreaching, but so was, “All I really need to know about life I learned in kindergarten,” and that didn’t stop that email from being forwarded a few million times.

My learning experience began at about 4 a.m., while sitting at a Waffle House counter with my buddy. He was dozing in his seat.

For some time, I have searched for a metaphor to convey the meaning and delivery of a tiered meeting (a.k.a.

Leonardo da Vinci’s quote, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication,” could easily serve as a lean tagline.

Surely, lean tools, like standard work, visual controls, and mistake proofing devices, are only truly effective if they are easily explained, understood, deployed, maintained, and adjusted. Heck, lean principles are simple too, just hard to implement.

A friend and colleague provided me with this tattoo parlor photo. He was passing by and just couldn't resist the irony of it all.

The lack of permanence around the sign construction makes the whole thing even more entertaining.

Problem-solving tools are powerful things.

image from Wikipedia

Lean transformations might be easier if we possessed some measure of the sixth sense – extrasensory perception (ESP).

Recently, fellow-blogger David Ka

Several weeks ago, I reviewed Dan Markovitz's excellent new book, A Factory of One: Applying Lean Principles to Banish Waste and Improve Your Personal Performance. I also took Dan's work as a call to personal action.

Within virtually any serious lean transformation effort, there are moments of truth.