Customer Value is the Primary Goal of #Lean – Never Forget It TAGS: cleanliness | consulting | continuous | cost savings | customer | improvement | lean | lean blitz | mia | national league of families | pow | pow-mia | processes | six sigma | start | value The National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia was initiated by an uprising of servicemen’s families during the Vietnam War who demanded that action be taken …Continue reading →

Lean and the Law of Cosmic Laziness TAGS: flexible | indiana | kaizen | knox high school | law of cosmic laziness | lean | lean blitz consulting | matt aukerman | money | operations | process | save | sports | strain | time | waste activities My seventh grade math teacher at my little school in Indiana was a fellow named Matt Aukerman. In addition to being a great teacher and funny guy, he introduced us …Continue reading →

Visual Indicators and Habemus Papam!! TAGS: benedict | catholic | control | habemus | habemus papum | indicator | italy | lean blitz consulting | papam | pope | signal | sistine chapel | vatican | visual | white smoke | xvi Catholics all across the world have been anxiously awaiting the election of a new Pope after the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI last month. To indicate that the papal conclave …Continue reading →

San Francisco Giants Bobbleheads and Benefits of Supply Meeting Demand TAGS: andrew baggarly | bobblehead | concessions | continuous improvement | csn bay area | demand | goodwill | lean | lean blitz consulting | lines | operations | optimization | process | rob neyer | san francisco giants | sbnation | six sigma | sponsor | sports | supply | tim lincecum | waiting | wastes CSN Bay Area columnist Andrew Baggarly reports some pretty good news for fans of bobbleheads, the San Francisco Giants, and both bobbleheads and the San Francisco Giants: the team is …Continue reading →

Some Lean Thoughts From the Road TAGS: 5S | airblade | airlines | aisle | american | atlanta | augusta | baggage | bathroom | blitz | board | business | carry on | chicken wrap | class | consulting | continuous improvement | delta | dyson | el paso | fees | food | georgia | hotel | iron | ironing board | kaizen | lean | luggage | military | mountain | new jersey | newark | operations | pilot precise | process | santa fe | set in order | sink | soap | sports | straighten | texas | ticketing | transparency | window | zone Having spent significant time on the road the last month or so, I’ve come across many more opportunities for Kaizen or places where Lean thinking is applied well. ~~~~~~~ Airport …Continue reading →

Panera Bread Coffee, Visual Management, and Reduced Motion TAGS: annoyance | bagel | blitz | bottle | bottles | coffee | consulting | consumers | continuous | creamer | customers | fridge | half and half | improvement | lean | metal | milk | operations | optimization | panera bread | process | skim | sports | storage | sugar | sweetener | time | workers Here’s an opportunity for Panera Bread to implement a slight change to their “equipment” in order to better serve the customers and the operators. The typical Panera Bread coffee customization …Continue reading →

A Case for Kanban and Materials Management TAGS: associate | business | car | consulting | consumable | defects | dollar foolish | excess | fuel | gasoline | glut | inventory | kanban | leak | lean | lean blitz | maintenance | material | motion | operations | penny wise | process | product | pull | ruin | sam's club | save money | six sigma | sports | stockout | storage | supplier | tool | transportation | vehicle | visual | wal-mart | walking | wastes A prominent sports organization in the area (that shall remain nameless) normally uses an outside materials supplier to stock about 200 individual consumable items (paper products, food and drink items, …Continue reading →

Lean is a Revenue Driver TAGS: american | asq | black belt | blower | briggs | certification | constrained | continuous improvement | customer | cycle time | defect | driver | eliminate | engineer | flywheel | lean | lean blitz consulting | lean is | machines | margin | operator | processes | project | quality | revenue | schedule | six sigma | society | standardization | stratton | thomson plastics | time studies | tonnage Lean is obviously a lot more than just elimination of waste activities in processes. It has the power to impact other areas of operations. One of the projects I managed …Continue reading →

The Hassle of Rolling Loose Change TAGS: accuracy | augusta | bank of america | banking | branch | break | change | coins | coinstar | columbia | count | dime | efficiency | error-proofing | fee | georgia | lean blitz | lean blitz consulting | loose | machines | maintenance | nickel | operations | penny | poka-yoke | process | quarter | sleeves | south carolina | sports | teller | time savings Rolling loose change is a pretty annoying practice. It’s extremely time consuming, to the point that I simply collect coins in a large tin (or large plastic Coke bottle bank) …Continue reading →

Imagery of Poka-Yoke TAGS: cable | computer | consulting | continuous improvement | defects | error | feedback | hdmi | imgur | lean | lean blitz | mistake | operations | orientation | plug | poka | poka-yoke | pokayoke | process | proofing | rca | rework | scrap | sports | stereo | technology | time | tools | toy | usb | wastes | yoke A quick little background on “poka-yoke.” Also written by others as “pokayoke” or “poka yoke,” it all refers to error-proofing or mistake-proofing. And what do those terms mean? Why, making …Continue reading →

Major League Baseball’s Pace of Play: A Snail-Mail Warning Letter! TAGS: blitz | bud | colorado | commissioner | consulting | ekstrom | innings | joe garagiola jr | july | lean | major league baseball | mike | official | operations | pace of play | process | regulations | rockies | rules | selig | snail mail | sports | up | warming So when we last left off discussing the Major League Baseball pace-of-game regulations, we saw that the league has put an auditing process in place (albeit a questionable one) and …Continue reading →

2012 Summer Olympics: Men’s 100M Final on Broadcast Tape Delay & #NBCFail TAGS: 100m | 2008 | 2012 | advertising | america | bbc | beijing | blake | blitz | bolt | broadcast | buffering | cable | canada | consulting | data | espn | facebook | goodwill | lean | london | nbc | nbcolympics.com | olympics | online | operations | permission | process | provider | satellite | social media | sports | subscriptions | summer | tape delay | telegraph | transfer | twitter | uk | united states | usain | viewership | yohan Much has already been made about NBC’s decision to tape-delay the domestic broadcast of popular events at the 2012 London Olympics and how a gulf exists between those American fans …Continue reading →

Toyota Way Principle #13: Decide Slowly Through Consensus, Implement Rapidly TAGS: achieve | analysis | benefits | blitz | cause | change | consensus | consider | consulting | decisions | defects | delay | errors | evaluate | failure | five whys | fix | haste makes waste | implement | lean | management | operations | options | principle | problem | process | quick | rapidly | reap | root | sigma | six | slow | solve | sports | toyota | way One of the risks of implementing changes or new ideas in processes is the failure to consider all options and the potential for an outcome not otherwise projected. A lot …Continue reading →

Enforcing Standardized Process & Major League Baseball Pace-of-Game TAGS: activity | agreement | andre | association | audit | bargaining | baseball | baseball tonight | basketball | batter | beckett | blitz | boston | bud | business | cba | chicago cubs | cincinnati | classic | cobb | collective | collective bargaining agreement | consulting | dawson | eric | espn | fantasy | fines | football | game | graban | hits | hours | insider | jonathan | josh | league | lean | lukas | major | mark | measure | mlb | mlbpa | official | operations | pace | padres | papelbon | paul | pete | pitcher | play | players | procedures | process | record | red sox | reds | rose | rotisserie | rules | ryne | san diego | sandberg | selig | show | six sigma | slow | sports | sportscenter | stephen | strasburg | suspensions | ty | umpire | uni-watch | violation | waiting | waste | wgn I first started watching Major League Baseball on television back in 1988 with the Chicago Cubs on WGN. At the time I was just a cursory fan – loved watching …Continue reading →

A Lamborghini & Process vs. System TAGS: activities | adding | blitz | bolster | capabilities | consulting | continuous | difference | driving | fancy | flow | gold | hammer | improvement | information | lamborghini | lean | management | metaphor | operations | optimization | optimize | procedures | process | productivity | scenarios | significant | six sigma | sports | subaru | success | system | tools | value | waste | wheel I have encountered multiple scenarios in my career where upper management was under the impression that putting in fancy new systems and technology would dramatically boost productivity and the quickness …Continue reading →