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 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 →

NFL Replacement Officials and Quality Defects TAGS: aaron rodgers | blitz | consulting | errors | football | golden tate | green bay packers | hail mary | judgment | lean | lockout | monday night football | national football league | nfl | principle | replacement | roger goodell | russell wilson | seattle seahawks | stop to fix problems | strike | the toyota way Principle #5 from The Toyota Way states “Build a culture of stopping to fix problems, to get quality right the first time.” Through three weeks of the NFL football season …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 Memes Contest Update + ASQ’s Lean Handbook TAGS: adam savage | ame | american society for quality | asq | black belt | body of knowledge | bronze | busted | certification | consulting | continuous improvement | cost reductions | efficiency | error-proof | fact-check | green belt | guide | implementation | jamie hyneman | lean blitz | lean handbook | lean meme | leanblog | mark graban | mythbusters | operations | process | shingo prize | six sigma | sme | sports Last week was the conclusion of the Lean Memes contest organized by Mark Graban at LeanBlog.org. Many great contributions were submitted by many Lean practitioners/amateur comedians (finger pointing squarely at …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 →

Dirk Hayhurst on Positive Banned Substance Results TAGS: author | ball four | banned substance | blog | blogger | bullpen gospels | business | coach | dirk hayhurst | disrespect | garfoose | ignorance | jim bouton | lean blitz consulting | major league baseball | manager | marcus stroman | meetings | mlb | operations | organization | out of my league | ped | performance enhancing drugs | process | six sigma | sports | standardized | tampa bay rays | toronto blue jays | twitter | work | writer Full disclosure: I am a big Dirk Hayhurst fan. Dirk is a former Major League pitcher (who is presumably trying to get back to the bigs), but is probably better …Continue reading →

What Endurance Running Can Teach Us About Lean TAGS: 5k | 5S | act | audit | bright | check | continuous improvement | control | couch | cycle time | dayton ohio | discipline | distance | do | endurance | excess | flashlight | goals | high school | inventory | lean | lean blitz consulting | lofty | maintaine | motion | motivate | motivation | operations | osha | pdca | plan | process | progress | race | run | running | s.m.a.r.t. goal | safe | safety | soreness | sports | sprint | success | susie stein | system | template | training | troy ohio | up and running | visual indicator | waste reduction | weight loss | win | wins Many moons ago, I was a distance runner. I ran cross country in high school my junior and senior years, each race being a 5K. After starting out as a …Continue reading →

Toyota Way Principle #9 and Notre Dame Football TAGS: 2012 | alford | bcs | bearcats | blitz | bob | brian | central | championship | charlie | chippewas | chuck | churn | cincinnati | coach | consulting | cooks | coordinator | dame | davie | defensive | denbrock | diaco | expectations | exposure | fan | football | george | grand | jack | kelly | kerry | lean | management | martin | michigan | mike | nation | notre | o'leary | offensive | operations | optimization | personnel | philosophy | process | program | retain | six sigma | sports | state | success | swarbrick | tony | toyota | tradition | turnover | tyrone | university | valley | way | weis | willingham | winning The 2012 college football season will be the third for Brian Kelly as the head coach of the University of Notre Dame football team. Prior to his hire at Notre …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 →

Toyota Way Principle #9: Growing and Developing Leaders TAGS: align | blitz | breathe | consulting | director | front | future | goals | hire | leader | lean | line | live | manager | objectives | operations | outside | philosophy | principle | process | promote | six sigma | sports | teach | toyota | train | understand | way | work (This is part of a series of posts about the 14 Principles of The Toyota Way.) Yesterday I discussed how a person that can visualize a scenario or concept is …Continue reading →