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 →

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 →

ESPN Outside the Lines: “What’s Lurking In Your Stadium Food?” TAGS: ballpark | blitz | cleaning | concession | consulting | defects | department | droppings | espn | food | health | indianapolis | lavigne | lean | mice | negligence | operations | optimization | organization | paula | principles | process | spoil | spoilage | sports | stadium | stand | standardized | super bowl | twitter | violations | what's lurking in your stadium food A couple years back ESPN’s Paula Lavigne came out with a startling report about some of the health department findings in various concession stands at major ballparks and stadiums across …Continue reading →

The Toyota Way Principle #11: Challenging Your Extended Network TAGS: applebee's | application | blitz | challenge | check-in | chili's | consulting | customers | director | food | kitchen | lean | manager | menu | operations | optimize | order | partners | process | request | restaurant | server | six sigma | sports | stockout | store | suppliers | toyota | way One of the projects I’m working on today involves optimizing internal check-in/scheduling/approval processes for a network of stores. With store management and operations management we have found opportunities within those …Continue reading →

Safety, Common Sense, Product Recalls, and Poor Lennox TAGS: agenda | ambiguity | ants | belfast | bison | blitz | blog | bulldog | celebrity | city | cogburn | common | company | consulting | council | diamond | dna | dog | dog warden | domestic | educate | evidence | facebook | facts | feelings | food | foods | foster | french | gaston | gray area | high prairie | honest | huans | humanity | humans | judgment | labrador | lean | legal | lennox | life | lot number | manufacturing | matchbox | minimize | neutral | northern ireland | notice | objectivity | observations | operations | opinions | outbreak | page | pet | peter | petition | philosophy | pink slime | politics | process | processing | production | puppy | recall | relate | rescue | resemble | rob | robinson | rooster | safety | salmonella | save | sense | six sigma | south carolina | spiteful | sports | stillwell | stilwell | subjectivity | supercede | supply | system | taste of the wild | thomas | toyota | tractor | twenty | twitter | venison | victoria | way Through sharing of ideas and content in the Lean Blitz blog, on Facebook, and on Twitter, I do my best to follow some guiding principles and philosophies – present facts …Continue reading →

Worst Case Scenario for All-You-Can-Eat Events TAGS: advance | all you can eat | augusta | AYCE | baseball | batching | blitz | burgers | defects | facebook | feed your face | food | game time | greenjackets | inventory | lean | monday | operations | optimization | performance | postpone | process | rain | rainout | reduction | scrap | six sigma | sports | standardized work | trash | waiting | wasted | wastes | zero I have a more in-depth analysis of this type of event coming later, but a worst-case scenario has come to light today. The Augusta GreenJackets minor league team have introduced …Continue reading →

The Masters: Concession Stands TAGS: 2012 | abundant | augusta | band | beer | blitz | booster | bubba | cargo | cart | cashier | cheap | checkout | chips | club | concessions | consume | continuous flow | domestic | flow | food | football | golf | green | import | inventory | jacket | kanban | lean | masters | national | operations | patrons | people | pre-packaged | prices | process | pull | quantities | resource | speed | sports | supply | sweets | tournament | waste | watson (This is the final post on the observed business operations of the 2012 Masters at Augusta National Golf Club.) I am absolutely infatuated with the speed at which customers are …Continue reading →

Lean is Good Customer Service TAGS: alyson footer | alyson's footnotes | astros | beer | blitz | concession stand | cycle time | discounts | food | houston | inventory | jim crane | lean | minute maid park | operations | processes | six sigma | sports | stockouts | waste | water Yesterday, new Houston Astros owner Jim Crane announced some sweeping fan-friendly changes at Minute Maid Park that included: Cheaper tickets, some with food/merchandise credits Ticket plan rebates Beer specials all …Continue reading →

8 Wastes – Overprocessing TAGS: bathroom | buff | candy bar | custodian | envelope | food | fortify | groundskeeper | hair | hot dogs | lean | manipulate | mickey mouse | natural | overprocessing | overzealous | packaging | paint | painting | security software | shine | spam | stadium | standardized work | t-shirt | ticket | ticket sales | walt disney world (This is the second in a series of deeper dives into the 8 lean wastes.) “Overprocessing” in the food world refers to the continual changing/adding/fortifying/manipulating of materials that takes it …Continue reading →