Kaizen Event Research Project

Posted on June 5, 2006 by John Hunter

NSF Funded Kaizen Event Research Project [the broken link was removed]

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.

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Manufacturing, Public Sector, Quality tools | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Planning 5s? First Know Why!

Posted on June 4, 2006 by John Hunter

Planning 5s? First Know Why! [the broken link was removed] 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

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Lean, Mean, Six Sigma Machines

Posted on June 3, 2006 by John Hunter

Lean, mean, Six Sigma machines [the broken link was removed] 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.

Continue reading →

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Signs You Have a Great Job … or Not

Posted on June 1, 2006 by John Hunter

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. Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Management, Management Articles, Performance Appraisal | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Gemba Keiei by Taiichi Ohno

Posted on May 31, 2006 by John Hunter

Jon Miller has been posting thoughts on chapters of Gemba Keiei by Taiichi Ohno for quite some time. His latest post in on chapter 23 (of 37): Producing at the Lowest Possible Cost. The series of posts provide great doses of management wisdom. As he said in the first post: “As I re-read this book in the original Japanese, I will summarize the nuggets of wisdom from each chapter in Mr. Ohno’s book.”Some great examples, If You Are Wrong, Admit It:

If you fancy yourself a Lean thinker go ahead and test your beliefs the next time you think you are right. If you are wrong, admit it. Make Mr. Ohno proud.

Great idea. The PDSA is a great tool to help test your beliefs (when related to an idea for improvement). Make sure you predict and then test your prediction. Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Manufacturing, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

TRIZ – Managing Creativity

Posted on May 31, 2006 by John Hunter

The World According to TRIZ by Reena Jana:

TRIZ is the brainchild of late Russian inventor Genrich Altshuller (1926-98), who worked as a patent inspector. In the process of observing invention after invention, Altshuller sought to identify a consistent formula for innovation. In 1946, he published an article laying out his theory of structured innovation, which he titled “Teoriya Resheniya Izobretatelskikh Zadatch.” That translates roughly into “Theory of Inventive Problem Solving,” or TRIZ, for short.

Creativity related:

Tags: –

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Lean Software Development

Posted on May 30, 2006 by John Hunter

I have posted on the topic of Lean Software Development previously.

Lean Software Development: A Field Guide – the first 3 chapters of this new book are available online [the broken link was removed]. Excellent book that I recommended for anyone interested in lean thinking ideas. Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit for Software Development Managers by Mary Poppendieck and Tom Poppendieck, 2003. Articles on lean programming by the Mary Poppendieck

David Carlton has an interesting post on this topic: lean software development.

I’m not sure what concrete effects it will have on my work in the short-term; for now, I’m going to continue reading about lean, waiting for concepts to sink in and crystallize. I imagine that I’ll return to this book in a couple of years and find specific inspirations in it, and indeed that it will have subconsciously inspired me in the interim.

Software development can be extremely complicated and can benefit greatly from making problems visible – jidoka. Inventory is not the key to hiding problems in software development. It might be in the “production of software” but so much software is “produced” and distributed over the internet without producing inventory etc. that the production step is not the main source of problems and longer (in the past boxed software had the same inventory problems other industries experience today). Yet all of us using software have many experiences with the problems users have with software (often on a daily basis). Lean thinking has a great deal to offer for those involved in software development.

By the way, if you are interested in lean application development and are looking for a job in the Washington DC area see, job announcement for a programmer (dead link removed), and maybe we can work together – John Hunter.

Related:

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Software Development | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Six Sigma Spells Success in India

Posted on May 28, 2006 by John Hunter

Six Sigma spells success for BPOs by Pradeep Kapur:

However, while Six Sigma’s pedigree can indeed be traced to TQM, it is differentiated from these earlier approaches by the bottom-line focus and intensity of its application. Experience has shown that Six Sigma works and if applied appropriately, it can be the key to enhance customer experience by adding to the bottom line. This can provide you a winning edge.

Related:

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Lessons From Visit to Toyota’s Kentucky Plant

Posted on May 27, 2006 by John Hunter

Construction Executive Lessons from the Toyota Visit [the broken link was removed] by Hal Macomber including:

Stopping to fix the problem – jidoka – could lead to far fewer quality problems.
…
Establish standard work – the currently understood best way – for key project operations.
…
As leaders, involve yourself to ease the work of the project team members rather than operating in the illusion that you can control.

via: Construction Executives Visit Toyota, Learn Kaizen [the broken link was removed]

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New York City Photos

Posted on May 27, 2006 by John Hunter

Egyptian Art, the Met, NYC

Irises by Vincent van Gogh, the Met, NYC

These photos are from my New York City trip in 2005, see more photos of: Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met). The Met is an incredible museum with a huge amount of amazing art. Continue reading →

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