lean leaders

My dog, Bailey, has a sensei - a dog obedience trainer. Actually, my wife and I have a sensei... to teach us how to train our dog.

Maximilian Ringelmann was a 19th century French agricultural engineer. I'm guessing there's not too many of those around right now - both from the engineering discipline and  country of origin perspective.

Ritsuo Shingo, son of the great Shigeo Shingo, gave a keynote address during the 22nd annual International Shingo Conference this past week.

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.

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.

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.

Recently, I added a new step to my kaizen event standard work.

Imagine that you were only allowed one chart (or board) at the gemba. What would you pick? What is the Swiss Army knife (I'm more of a Leatherman Multitool fan myself) of charts that gives you insight into process adherence and process performance?

This may be a blinding flash of the obvious, but while leaders typically work hard, it’s a different type of work. Most leaders are engaged in a lot of firefighting.