More Kaizen

Posted on June 14, 2006  Comments (1)

More Kaizen – Why Not Eleven?:

We also talk about lean production and Toyota methods and how far you have to go. He tells me about a course he did where the company took him out of work for a couple of days and sent him to another plant where they showed him how to work an assembly line station, then set him to come up with 5 improvements for the process before lunchtime.When he delivered they said, what about another 5. Then it was come back in the morning with 10 more. When he delivered 10 they said, “why not 11?” Then he got it. Kaizen is not just taking millions of little steps, it is not just doing it because the boss says so, it is not even because you take pride in your work and you want to do the best job you can, its because you do everything with your customers and their needs in mind.

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Dell Falls Short

Posted on June 13, 2006  Comments (1)

Good post by Mark Graban: Once Again, Dell is Not TPS:

Their factories are great examples of flow, raw material comes in one side, finished product comes out the other, with minimal WIP in between.But, lean isn’t just about reducing waste. The Toyota Production System is also about “respect for people,” meaning your employees, suppliers, and customers. Dell definitely scores higher on “reducing waste” than they do on “respecting people.”

Good points.
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Manufacturing is Cool

Posted on June 12, 2006  Comments (2)

The Society of Manufacturing Engineers brings us the web site: manufacturingiscool.com. Maybe this is the answer to Bill Waddell post: We Don’t Get No Respect :-)

From the manufacturing is cool site:

Video tapes and books full of additional information regarding the many interesting careers available in manufacturing engineering and technically oriented material.Professionally prepared classroom programs and curriculum resources available to enhance your instructional capabilities.

Ways to help young people find career opportunities in manufacturing and engineering. Also refer our searchable database that shows college and universities that offer manufacturing programs, options, courses or labs. There is also a list of accredited programs and options in manufacturing engineering, engineering technology or industrial technology.

The site really does have some useful and interesting material (especially for teachers). Demonstrating the coolness of manufacturing might need a little work, but this is a start. Read more

Lean Library

Posted on June 12, 2006  Comments (0)

Library becomes a lean machine by Morgan Jarema:

“I spent parts of three days looking for that book,” Hoyles recalled. “On the fourth day, I found it. I called the patron and he told me he’d gone out and bought it.”
…
In November, library employees, who are responsible for checking in from 4,000 to 10,000 returned materials at a time, were asked to help reduce the reshelving time, which could be as long as two weeks.The average time now is 36 hours, though most materials can be found on rolling carts in the section where they belong the same day they are returned.

Related lean thinking idea: 5s. More lean manufacturing/thinking articles.

The Cat and a Black Bear

Posted on June 10, 2006  Comments (12)

photo of Jack the cat and a bear

Tabby cat terror for black bear

A black bear picked the wrong yard for a jaunt, running into a territorial tabby who ran the furry beast up a tree – twice.Jack, a 15-pound orange and white cat, keeps a close vigil on his property, often chasing small animals, but his owners and neighbors say his latest escapade was surprising.


“We used to joke, ‘Jack’s on duty,’ never knowing he’d go after a bear,”

See larger photo – AP Photo by Suzanne Giovanetti

Clawless kitty chases bear up tree – read more on the story and see more photos.

In, How to get traffic for your blog, Seth Godin writes: “Don’t write about your cat, your boyfriend or your kids.” Good advice, in general. Of course he follows that up with: Write about your kids – a sentence later. You have to learn the rules and then learn when (and how) to break them.

Curious Cat Travels: Bear Warning sign (I will have to see about bring Jack on my hiking trips) – Bear at Yellowstone – Big Cats in Kenya

Management Advice Failures

Posted on June 10, 2006  Comments (17)

Topic: Management Improvement

Management Advice: Which 90% is Crap? by Bob Sutton, Stanford University:

At first, I couldn’t believe that someone as well-read as Hamel claimed an old idea was new and that he had invented it. But I eventually realized the problem wasn’t Gary Hamel, or any other individual making claims of originality. Rather, his column reflected a prevailing practice in the business knowledge business. I asked two former Fortune columnists why “Hamel’s Law” and similar claims that old ideas are brand new appear so often in the business press.Both emphasized that you couldn’t blame Hamel – that was just how things were done. Both writers even speculated that some Fortune editor probably had inserted the phrase, “Hamel’s Law,” to create the impression that the magazine publishes exciting new ideas. After all old news doesn’t sell magazines!

I share this frustration with declaring old ideas new: Management Improvement, Better and Different, Quality, SPC and Your Career, Deming and Six Sigma, Management Lessons from Terry Ryan, Everybody Wants It, Toyota’s Got It, Fashion-Incubator on Deming’s Ideas and on and on.
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If Tech Companies Made Sudoku

Posted on June 9, 2006  Comments (5)

Topic: Management Improvement

A fun post as we head into the weekend: If Tech Companies Made Sudoku by Kathy Sierra

Frankly, we’re a little baffled that your original design was so… simple. I’m sure we all recognize that our target market demands a much more media-rich, interactive, high-action experience. Love the whole grid thing, though.

The graphic on the original post is great. You can also read about an attempt to focus IT differently: The Declaration of Interdependance by Alistair Cockburn:

Lean manufacturing teaches us that having large inventories is inefficient. It also teaches us that the overall efficiency of a process improves as the batch size passed from stage to stage is reduced. Today this has become accepted in most (but not all) manufacturing circles, yet many people may be surprised that it also applies to software development.

Tesco: Lean Provision

Posted on June 8, 2006  Comments (4)

Lean Provision Is Tesco’s Secret Weapon in Battle with Wal-Mart (annoyingly Yahoo has deleted that web page so I removed the link) (update again here is the LEI press release):

Tesco’s lean provision system combines point-of-sale data, cross-dock distribution centers, and frequent deliveries to many stores along “milk-runs” to stock the right items in a range of retail formats. These include Tesco Express convenience stores at gas stations and busy intersections; Tesco Metro (small supermarkets in cities); traditional Tesco supermarkets in cities and suburbs; Tesco Extra (“big box” superstores in suburbs); and Tesco.com for web shoppers.

Great stuff. In fact I would add Tesco to our marketocracy portfolio created as a result of our 10 stock for 10 years post. Why would, (not did)? Martketocracy won’t process purchase request for Tesco. You can view Tesco on Google Finance but you can’t add it to your portfolio.
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Microsoft CMMI

Posted on June 7, 2006  Comments (0)

Microsoft webcast on Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI is the process developed by the Software Engineering Institute that was heavily influenced by Quality Management) and the approach taken for continuous improvement – mapping to concepts like Six Sigma and Kaizen. Each webcast with David Anderson, is an hour long.Program information: presentation to CMMI appraisers on the Microsoft Solutions Framework for CMMI Process Improvement.

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Companies in Need of Customer Focus

Posted on June 7, 2006  Comments (1)

You should pay ME – 9 Companies That Don’t Get It:

I have been having a hell of a time canceling my old web hosting with Burstband. It’s been a few months now and I’ve called, emailed, filled out online forms, and I have never reached a live person or received confirmation that my account was shut down, and I still get charged. I finally had to file a dispute through my credit card company. It’s $8.99/month, so they owe me at least $26.97. I got to thinking about it, and I realized they really should pay me for the two hours of my life I have wasted trying to cancel the damn thing. I usually charge $80/hr for consulting so the total comes to $186.97.”

My brother has suggested several times I should arrange for companies to pay me to point out their weaknesses (and suggest improvements). I wish I could get them to do so. Read more

Lean Beyond the Factory Floor

Posted on June 7, 2006  Comments (0)

Spreading the lean tonic:

One problem, says Michele Bonfiglioli, chief executive of Italian manufacturing consultancy firm Bonfiglioli Consulting, is that many manufacturers have a ‘blind spot’ when it comes to understanding just how non-lean and inefficient their administrative functions are. “Manufacturing is full of metrics: takt times, OEE and a host of others – but no one measures what goes on in the offices,” he observes.

The focus on the whole organization is increasing moving to the forefront of discussions. While there are still huge gains to be made using lean manufacturing, the success of many efforts is leading to expanding the scope beyond the more limited early efforts. To me this is a consistent pattern.

Experts (in TQM, Deming’s idea’s, Six Sigma, BPR, Lean…) always stress the importance of involving not just others (when talking to management) but your (managers) work too. But pretty consistently management adopts new management ideas much more for others than they do themselves. And over time the talk of going beyond “factory floor” improvements becomes more common.

Fast Cycle Change in Knowledge-Based Organizations by Ian Hau and Ford Calhoun, Jun 1997 is a good example of lean thinking, eliminating waste… outside the factory floor. This is also an example of the reports I mentioned in the comments on the Kaizen research post from the Center for Quality and Productivity Improvement at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

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Kaizen Event Research Project

Posted on June 5, 2006  Comments (2)

NSF Funded Kaizen Event Research Project

First, this research seeks to identify the most important factors influencing successful outcomes (both technical and social)…The second objective investigates the sustainability of Kaizen events over time.
The research team has visited numerous organizations utilizing Kaizen events across
multiple areas. Leaders in some organizations acknowledge that some areas will quickly (within 6 months to one year) revert back to the pre-Kaizen performance levels. Yet other organizations appear successful in sustaining results, even improving them further over time. Thus, this research will seek to identify the most important factors influencing sustainability of outcomes.

There is an opportunity to have your organization studied – see the article for contact details. Companies involved in textile manufacturing, food processing, or other continuous manufacturing process industries are of special interest.


Description on NSF web site.

The NSF Innovation and Organizational Change (IOC) program supports scientific research directed at advancing understanding of how individuals, groups and/or institutional arrangements contribute to functioning, effectiveness and innovation in organizations.

Planning 5s? First Know Why!

Posted on June 4, 2006  Comments (1)

Planning 5s? First Know Why! by Jamie Flinchbaugh

The basic principle is that you must know why you want to implement 5S before being concerned about learning how to do it. Most people, when they are asked the purpose of 5S, cite safety, discipline, employee morale, reduced waste of motion and-perhaps the worst reason of all-being tour ready.All of this is wrong. The true purpose of 5S is to spot problems quickly.

Very clear point. The purpose is to help spot problems and correct them. Making it easy to spot problems, and to correct them, will lead to improved safety and efficiency.

5s definition

Lean, Mean, Six Sigma Machines

Posted on June 3, 2006  Comments (0)

Topic: Management Improvement

Lean, mean, Six Sigma machines by Tam Harbert:

Without exception, each company is healthier now than it was five years ago. Three of them have turned profitable, and the fourth – Celestica – is close to turning the corner… The question is how much credit for their progress goes to Lean Six [Sigma].

Yes that is indeed a good question. What management claims as the reason for results is not necessarily actually the reason (and this is true not just if they say forced ranking is good [which I disagree with] or lean thinking is good [which I agree with]).

A great difficulty in evaluating management concepts is that the complexity (including interaction) makes it very difficult to determine the results of specific management decisions (separating out the effects of one or several decisions from the hundreds that were made and outside influences, etc.). How much of the success of Google is due to the 20% “engineer time.” Can you calculate the return? I don’t think so. But you can make a judgment that it is a benefit. Read more

Signs You Have a Great Job … or Not

Posted on June 1, 2006  Comments (4)

Signs you have a great job … or not by Jeanne Sahadi

This article, while presenting an overly simplistic view in my opinion, actually provides some good reminders. The article focuses on 12 questions that seem to be the focus of a recent business book. And some of those questions provide good reminders to managers of things they should pay attention to, such as:

  • Do I know what’s expected of me at work?
  • At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
  • In the last 7 days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?
  • Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
  • Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel my job is important?

For me, this list is more valuable than most of these types of things you see in “pop management” articles. Maybe my mood (I played some good basketball today, which always puts me a good mood) is causing me to be overly positive, but I actually think this article is worth a few minutes to read and then some reflection. Read more

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