What Your #Mother Can Teach You About #Lean TAGS: 5S | behavior | chad | clean | consulting | family | lean | lean blitz | management | may | mother's day | organize | quality | reward | safety | time studies | tools | visual | walters Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out in the world – if it wasn’t for your mother, you wouldn’t be here to read this. It’s an understatement that my …Continue reading →

Lean or Sushi?? TAGS: 5S | ankimo | error-proofing | gemba | genchi cenbutsu | hanedashi | heijunka | hoisin | hokkigai | hoshin kanri | japan | kaikaku | kaizen | kanban | kani kamaboko | kazunoko | kim chee | koi | lean | lean blitz consulting | lean or sushi | mekajiki | mizusumashi | muda | muri | nagara | nama tako | nigiri | octopus | poka-yoke | quiz | saltwater carp | seiketsu | sumitomo | sushi | suzuki | tempura | unagi | yokoten Lean terms regularly applied in Japan don’t always get translated into English when the concepts are used in the United States. Reasons for this include lacking a concise literal translation …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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

Entries from the Lean Memes Contest TAGS: 5 whys | 5S | aliya mustafina | allie brosh | approach | asian father | bad | batman | but we've always done it this way | catch careers | cheezburger | christina kach | consulting | contest | continuous improvement | cousin | creepy little girl | dating site | detect | eel | employee | execution | first world problems | five whys | fonzie | graban | gymnast | half | happy cat | high expectations | hyperbole | improvement | jidoka | kaizen event | key | koala | lame joke | lame pun raccoon | lean | lean blitz | leanblog | leanmemes | manufacturing lines | mark | meme | memegenerator | memes | moa | moar | murderer | olympics | operations | overly attached girlfriend | pdca | pdsa | phone | plan do check act | plan do study adjust | point of use storage | poka-yoke | priest | priorities | process | quickmeme | root cause analysis | safety | set in order | seven | shine | shotgun approach | signal | six sigma | sort | soviet russia | suggestion box | utility belt | value stream management Lean consultant, author, and notable public speaker Mark Graban of LeanBlog.org has started a web collection of Lean-related memes at Lean Memes. He’s hosting a contest for his readers to …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 →

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 →

Melky Cabrera and Why Continuous Improvement Principles Matter TAGS: 2012 | 50 games | 5S | audit | banned substance | baseball | blitz | buster olney | concessions | consulting | continuous improvement | equipment | espn | games | lean | level playing field | london | melky cabrera | mlb | notre dame football | olympics | operations | outfielder | ped | process | ryan braun | safety | san francisco giants | sports | stadium | steroids | testing | ticket sales | toyota way When I first started to write about lean and continuous improvement applications in sports, I was more focused on the business operations – ticket sales, concessions, stadium upkeep, equipment manufacturers, …Continue reading →

Toyota Way Principle #2: Continuous Flow TAGS: 2 | 5S | activities | balancing | blitz | capabilities | continuous | flow | ideal | insulation | lean | load | operations | operators | principle | process | products | services | six sigma | state | stockouts | tools | toyota | waiting | waste | wasteful | way | wip | work in process This image, used as a depiction of a process with minimal waste, was first examined last week with regard to defining what lean is. This timeline shows an ideal state …Continue reading →

S.M.A.R.T. Goal Update TAGS: 5S | augusta | blitz | books | dayton | deck chair | desk | entertainment center | french bulldog | georgia | goals | goodwill | kitchen | lean | moving | ohio | operations | process | refrigerator | relocation | rooster | s.m.a.r.t. | six sigma | smart | sort | sports | television | u-shaped | weed trimmer | weights Back in January I provided a definition to S.M.A.R.T. goals and also shared a few examples I have for myself. One of those goals is reducing the amount of “stuff” …Continue reading →

The Masters: Temporary Structures TAGS: 5S | angc | augusta | bathroom | blitz | camera | club | concession | georgia | golf | grandstand | lean | links | masters | national | operations | patrons | phil | process | rory | scoreboard | six sigma | stand | storage | structures | teardown | tiger | tower Welcome to the Lean Blitz blog coverage of The Masters at Augusta National Golf Club! Instead of analyzing the actual golf tournament being played on the links, we’ll instead be …Continue reading →

Time for a Lean Blitz Update! TAGS: 5S | anthony | augusta | blitz | carmelo | crean | disney | ebook | flop | georgia | golf | graban | hoosiers | indiana | jeremy | john carter | kentucky | knicks | lean | leanblog | lin | linsanity | mark | masters | memes | movement | ncaa | new york | operations | process | six sigma | sixteen | sort | sports | sweet | tom | tournament | tournaments | university There are a few updates on some previous posts that should be shared. Remember Linsanity? Part of the reason Jeremy Lin got the opportunity to start for the New York …Continue reading →

Lean Tools: What Does Sort Look Like at a Stadium Office? TAGS: 5S | blitz | broken | computers | discard | discipline | documentation | equipment | inventory | lean | literature | office | operations | organize | peripherals | process | raw materials | recycling | schedules | set in order | shelves | shine | six sigma | sort | sports | stadium | standardize | supplies | sustain | tools (See previous installments about 5S here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. This is a continuation of deeper dives into the lean tools.) Remember, the definition of sort is …Continue reading →