Guest Post: What #Lean Can Learn from Sports TAGS: basketball | boston | boston marathon | catch careers | christina kach | curling | field | golf | guest post | lean | lean blitz consulting | sme lean bronze certified | softball | sports | stephen colbert | track I am again off to the ASQ World Conference on Quality and Improvement in Indianapolis, so today we have a guest blog post from my friend, fellow Lean practitioner, and …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 →

Football Fans Falling from Stadium Upper Decks TAGS: alcohol | answers | arrowhead | atlanta falcons | barriers | baseball | blitz | chick-fil-a | chiefs | colorado rockies | consulting | continuous improvement | coors field | death | drinking | escalator | facilitate | fall | field | football | georgia dome | harness | hazards | houston | kansas city | kickoff | lean | nc state | nets | operations | osha | process | reliant stadium | safety | sports | stadium | tennessee | texans | texas rangers | upper deck | walls The 2012 football season was barely a week old when two fatal falls from stadium upper decks took place. First, a fan fell from a fifth-floor escalator at Reliant Stadium …Continue reading →

College Football Rule Changes and PDSA TAGS: alabama | ambiguous | analysis | behavior | college | consulting | cupcake | defense | defensive end | division ii | division iii | effects | failure | fbs | feedback | field | fmea | football | football bowl subdivision | football championship subdivision | force | gray area | helmet | hit | james madison | lean | lean blitz | mack brown | maximize | mode | modify | ncaa | nick saban | northwestern | off | offense | oklahoma state | operations | opposition | pdca | pdsa | plan do check act | plan do study act | pop | preseason | process | rip | rule | running back | safety | savannah state | six sigma | sports | texas | trial and error Recently I wrote about the lack of PDCA – the continuous improvement framework of Plan-Do-Check-Act – and how it affects college football teams because they don’t have the luxury of …Continue reading →

Vision and Value TAGS: ability | action | annie | associate | blitz | brand | cat food | cereal | consultant | consulting | detergent | difference | director | electronics | engineer | eradicate | expert | field | fish | fix | function | guru | improvement | indiana | irreplaceable | kelley | laundry | leader | lean | leibovitz | management | manager | marketing | mba | mentor | operations | opportunity | partner | photographer | pipe | plan | plumber | process | profession | retail | school | service | six sigma | sports | teach | university | value | vision | visualize Everybody has the opportunity to create value, in one fashion or another. A person can merely be a “warm body” that stands in as part of a process creating a …Continue reading →

The Big Oops with the Barclays Center TAGS: astros | bank | barclays | blitz | brooklyn | center | ceo | consulting | continuous | diamond | embarrassment | england | enron | europe | field | fixing | forfeit | franchise | houston | improvement | introduce | jay-z | lean | lite | maid | manipulating | miller | minute | move | naming | nba | nets | new jersey | new york times | operations | optimization | park | participants | pictures | process | rate | resign | rights | robert | scandal | six sigma | sports | stadium | supervisor | team You know the phrases “too many chefs in the kitchen” and “too many Chiefs, not enough Indians” or “a camel is a horse designed by a committee?” Too many people …Continue reading →

Opening Day at Turner Field TAGS: atlanta | blitz | bourn | braun | braves | brewers | brian | concessions | day | dress | extra | field | gates | glitches | jumbotron | lean | lines | martin | mccann | michael | milwaukee | opening | operations | out of town | patrons | prado | process | rehearsal | ryan | scoreboard | seat | six sigma | sponsorships | sports | turner | waiting | waste I had the opportunity to roll over to Atlanta for Opening Day for the Braves against the Milwaukee Brewers. While I did a lot more game watching than operations observing, …Continue reading →