Posts tagged as:

lean journey

Plan for Sustainability, Don’t Just Hope For It

05.06.2010

Kaizen event, A3 projects, DMAIC projects – you name it, projects get done and results are generated. But…
Are the results sustained?
Too often the gains deteriorate over time. There are many reasons from the culture to changing priorities. But at the very least, we should be doing what we can within the project to ensure we [...]

Read the full article →

Don’t Do 5S

05.04.2010

I know I’ll catch plenty of flak from the lean stalwarts out there. This will certainly go against conventional wisdom and common practice. But sometimes conventional wisdom is wrong.
I don’t believe companies should start their lean journey with 5S.
Many believe is should be done early. Many believe is it step #1, as this consultant argues.
5S [...]

Read the full article →

Projects do not define a lean company

04.01.2010

No organization can become lean just from running lean projects and events. One organization did over 14,000 lean projects and still failed as a company, because they relied entirely on those events. Some of the problems include:

If the methods, tools, and behaviors are not consistent with lean, project results will have a half-life. The old [...]

Read the full article →

Dream Big, Act Small

03.10.2010

Yesterday I was working with a team who was working on a very long-term kind of change. They were really stuck, spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to achieve the end state. That is a mistake. Abraham Lincoln said:

“The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day [...]

Read the full article →

To lean, or not to lean?

02.05.2010

Should you start lean in a difficult period such as this? But shouldn’t I wait things out? Shouldn’t I take it slow? Or keep my head down? No. I think this is a great time for companies to be focused on a lean journey. Here are my reasons.

Companies will only do it because it’s going [...]

Read the full article →