• Don’t Shoot the Photographer by Mark Riffey examines how to turn a perceived threat to your business income into an opportunity by focusing on customer service.
• NPR Does a Great Job of Covering Toyota by Mark Graban – “How tough the assembly line is depends in part on its creator. Shigenobu Matsubara has helped design assembly lines from Japan to Georgetown, Ky., which has the biggest in the United States. He says he has always designed the lines with the workers’ welfare in mind.”
• Entrepreneurship Doesn’t Have To Be About The Next Big Thing – “Whatever you decide to do, there’s nothing to be ashamed of as long as you are actively going after your goals. Who cares if you are pursuing a not so glamorous business idea? Who cares if your friends are all trying to create hundred million dollar companies?”
• Lean Team Software Process by Corey Ladas – “The customer’s terms likely do not include any notion of defects-per-KLOC. The producer’s end is profit and reputation, which comes from managing cost and consistency. If TSP, or something related to it, helps us realize our ends, then (and only then) it is meaningful.”
• People Quit Managers, Not Companies by Phil Gerbyshak – “Quite simply, it means if a manager hasn’t done a good job of managing me, of getting to know about me, about caring about me as a person AND as an employee, I’ve quit on them.”
• The Best Part of Lean by Bill Waddell – “The best aspect of learning, embracing and pursuing lean principles was that I no longer had to check my personal, moral code at the door when I got to work.”
• Inside the Lean & Kanban Conference by Alisson Vale – “An important message that I’ve got from David was to avoid the temptation to establish any type of “Lean Framework”. Let’s try to not copy the way that how other industries are applying Lean and focus on principles.”
• Turning the PDCA goggles on yourself by Dan Markovitz – “Here’s my challenge to you: turn those PDCA goggles onto your own work habits and workspace. See if you can root out the waste in how you operate. And imagine having more time to create value for your customers, your staff, your family, and yourself.”
• How to Run a Kaizen Event by Bryan Lund – “Here are some other reasons your Lean program isn’t delivering the results you expected… it could be because you rely on a Lean department to solve your management problems… it could be because you judge and blame others for the current situation… it could be because you blindly apply Lean tools, instead of adapting to your environment…”
• 9 Ways to Struggle at Hoshin Kanri by Jon Miller – “The ideal place to start a company deployment of lean would be hoshin kanri. Unfortunately most leadership teams are not ready for this degree of candor, management by fact, deselection of cherished projects, and disciplined and frequent review.”
• Pixar Movie Management Magic by John Hunter – “Many of those strategies are useful concepts for everyone. Create a climate that promotes pride in work. Create a climate where everyone sees how they contribute to the end product. Hire people you trust and let them do their jobs. Seek continual improvement. Respect people…”

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