The 2013 #Masters: Use of Temporary Labor TAGS: augusta | birth of a new workforce | club | concessions | core | critical | golf | golf shop | labor | lean | lean blitz consulting | masters | mau | national | noncore | randy hatcher | securitas | security | staffing | temporary Masters Week has finally come and gone! All of the golf world descended upon Augusta, Georgia for April 8-14 for the 2013 Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club. Now …Continue reading →

The 2013 #Masters: Low Scores and Standardized Work TAGS: albatross | augusta national | clubs | continuous improvement | golf | golf club | history | kaizen | lean | lean blitz consulting | louis oosthuizen | masters | operations | par | process | sports | standardized work | streamline | takt time | tiger woods Masters Week is finally here! All of the golf world has descended upon Augusta, Georgia for April 8-14 for the 2013 Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club. Last year …Continue reading →

Where I Got My Start In Lean (And Sports) – Part 2 TAGS: album | atlanta braves | colorado springs sky sox | concert | concession stand | consulting | continuous | derek schiller | detroit | eaton corporation | elmore sports group | engineer | improvement | indiana university | kelley mba | lean blitz | mascot | mike plant | operations | process | san antonio missions | silver hawks | south bend | sports | sports & entertainment academy | swoop | time study | web (To see Part 1 of Where I Got My Start In Lean click here. This is Part 2.) As I indicated in the prior post, I ended up in both …Continue reading →

Punxsutawney Phil and Measuring the Wrong Things TAGS: 5S | causation | combine | consulting | continuous improvement | correlation | day | draft | groundhog | indicators | lean blitz | manti te'o | measure | nfl | operations | overprocessing | pennsylvania | process | punxsutawney phil | react | scouting | six sigma | sports | standardized work | tom brady | visual   Every February 2nd Americans gear up for the grand indicator of how much longer winter will be with us – by checking in with a groundhog in Pennsylvania about …Continue reading →

Want Your Colleagues To Do A Good Job? Show Them What A Good Job Looks Like. TAGS: american society for quality | assembly | blitz | borat | communication | consulting | continuous improvement | control | customer | customer requirements | design for six sigma | do it right the first time | good job | if you don't have time to do it right | instruction | lean | manager | operations | picture | process | quality | quality function deployment | reports | six sigma | visual | work instruction It’s a situation I’ve encountered many, many times in my career – a manager or colleague requesting a project be completed or task finished without me knowing enough about how …Continue reading →

The Toyota Way Principles and Small Business TAGS: blitz | coffee | consulting | continuous flow | continuous improvement | defects | do it right the first time | kanban | lean | level load | operations | optimization | principles | process | pull | scheduling | six sigma | small business | sports | standardized | total productive maintenance | toyota way | tpm | visual control | waiting | work | workload We’ve finally gotten through all 14 principles from The Toyota Way and what each of them can mean for business operations. But putting them all together can be a challenge, …Continue reading →

USC Trojan’s Student Manager Fired for Deflating Footballs TAGS: blitz | bowl | buy-in | change | college | colorado | constituents | consulting | continuous improvement | control | deflate | employee | field | fine | football | institution | jersey | kiffin | lane | lean | manager | ncaa | operations | oregon | pac-12 | player | probation | process | program | referee | reprimand | scholarship | six sigma | southern california | sports | terminate | trojans | unethical | usc The Trojans of the University of Southern California have recently gotten off of NCAA probation. They are bowl eligible this year but have had scholarship reductions for the next few …Continue reading →

The Filth and Disgusting Health Behaviors at Wrigley Field TAGS: 5S | baseball | big league stew | blitz | blog | chicago cubs | cleaning | concessions | consulting | disdain | disgusting | documentation | espn | everywhere | facilities | fan | feces | field | filth | filthy | five whys | gross | hands | health | indiana | inspector | issues | lean | maintenance | major league baseball | management | opening day | operating | operations | playbook | procedures | process | root cause analysis | set in order | shine | sort | sports | stadium | standardize | standards | strategy | sun-times | sustain | tpm | training | ufe | ufe.com | upkeep | urine | visual | wash | with leather | wrigley | yahoo sports I came across this little op-ed piece on ESPN.com’s Playbook about Wrigley Field being the grossest sports stadium in the four major North American sports leagues, sharing a little bit …Continue reading →

Domino’s Pizza Boxes, Standardized Work, and Overproduction TAGS: attention | best practice | box | commercial | continuous improvement | dale | defects | domino's | early | excess | exertion | fold | inventory | lean blitz consulting | lean wastes | motion | operations | overproduction | pizza | process | production | quality | six sigma | sports | stacks | standardized work | store | training Just about every time I walk into a Domino’s Pizza shop I encounter a wall of pre-built pizza boxes. These stacks of boxes are generally on a shelf low to …Continue reading →

What Is Standardized Work (And What Is It Not)? TAGS: a lean journey | beyond lean | blitz | christian paulsen | consulting | kaizen | lean | lean enterprise institute | leanblog | management | mark graban | matt wrye | operations | process | six sigma | small business | sports | standardized process | standardized work | stopwatch | teamwork | tim mcmahon | training | training within industry | velaction | work instruction As this House of Lean diagram shows, the foundation is built on 5S, visual controls, and plant or facility layout. (I tend to lump 5S and layout together because setting …Continue reading →

NFL Replacement Referees and Lack of Standardized Work TAGS: accuracy | agreement | bargaining | blitz | book | collective | consulting | continuous improvement | denver broncos | error | experience | four timeouts | john fox | knowledge | lean | lean wastes | national football league | new orleans saints | nfl | operations | players | process | referees | replacement | rules | seattle seahawks | six sigma | sports | standardized work | training | union | work instruction So, NFL, how are these replacement referees working out for you? Between snagging one off the street who turned out to have significant New Orleans Saints allegiances to the lack …Continue reading →

Lean Tools: Standardized Work and Best Practices TAGS: 14 principles | activities | best practices | consulting | continuous improvement | cycle | excess | house of lean | lean | lean blitz | maximize | motion | operations | process | production | quality | repeatability | safety | six sigma | sports | standardized work | takt time | toyota way | waiting | walking | waste It’s been a long time since I’ve jumped into describing the Lean tools – I broke away to focus on the 14 principles of The Toyota Way, because they were …Continue reading →

Lean is Safety TAGS: 5S | accident | acknowledge | address | anomaly | behavior | businessdictionary.com | continuous improvement | danger | environment | ergonomics | excess | harm | identify | inventory | leak | lean | lean blitz consulting | loss | motion | muda | mura | muri | overproduction | personnel | property | risk | safety | set in order | shine | slippery when wet | sort | standardization | standardize | straighten | strain | sustain | threat | transportation | unsafe | wastes | water | work First, let’s understand the concept of safety. Safety is defined as “relative freedom from danger, risk, or threat of harm, injury, or loss to personnel and/or property, whether caused deliberately or by accident” as per BusinessDictionary.com. So being in a safe situation …Continue reading →

Spike TV’s Bar Rescue and Optimizing Restaurants and Nightclub Operations TAGS: 5S | act | bar rescue | business | check | cleaning | consulting | do | effort | food | genchi genbutsu | implementation | improvement | jon taffer | kaizen | kanban | lean blitz | lean tools | operations | pdca | plan | process | set in order | shine | six sigma | sort | spike tv | sports | staff | stress test | transformation Happy Labor Day! Between baseball games, grilling out, running, and kicking off the college football season I was introduced to a show on Spike TV called Bar Rescue, and I’m …Continue reading →

Kent State Runs Muffed Punt the Wrong Direction! TAGS: andre parker | college football | consulting | dead ball | football | golden flashes | kent state | lean blitz | linebacker | muff | oops | operations | process | punt | return | rules | six sigma | sports | tackle | towson | university | wrong way Last night during the Towson-Kent State college football game, Towson muffed a punt received from Kent State to close the first half and Kent State’s Andre Parker picked up the …Continue reading →