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 →

Toyota Way Principle #8 and Implementing Technology that Helps TAGS: activities | blitz | client | computer | consulting | current | director | expectation | future | identification | lean | manager | manual | map | mapping | money | note | operations | optimize | people | post-it | principle | process | projects | provider | requirement | resource | risk | serve | six sigma | solution | sports | state | technology | time | time study | toyota | waste | way One of my current clients has a two-pronged plan for improving a process that is absorbing a lot of resources (people, time, risk, money). The first prong is to optimize …Continue reading →

Roger Clemens and System Failure TAGS: answers | asleep | baseball | blitz | braun | bud | buster | career | culture | dollars | drugs | enhancing | espn | first | fix | juror | league | lean | litigate | major | mistrial | money | olney | operations | ped | performance | play | principle | problems | process | public | quality | roger clemens | ryan | selig | six sigma | sports | steroids | stop | tax | time | toyota way | trial | widespread Yesterday former major league pitcher Roger Clemens was found not guilty on all counts of perjury with respect to the accusation that he lied to and obstructed Congress about his …Continue reading →

Know Why You’re Being Paid TAGS: accounting | baits | barista | blitz | brand | burger | burgers | bushes | coffee | concession | contract | customer | defect | delicious | demand | expectation | exterminator | flip | follow | guarantee | hunger | infestation | investment | landscape | lawns | lean | machine | memories | money | mow | operations | paid | pictures | process | rats | refund | repair | research | resources | roof | satisfaction | save | six sigma | sports | stand | starbucks | status | symbol | taxes | time | tools | traps | trim | wedding | why This past weekend I visited some friends in Columbia, South Carolina and they shared horror stories of a trio of rats that have invaded their house’s walls. One of those …Continue reading →

Lean and the Profit Equation TAGS: assets | blitz | business | equation | expenses | footprint | inventories | lean | liquid | maintenance | money | operations | overdeliver | processes | profit | revenues | save | seth godin | six sigma | time | time studies | underpromise | waste To examine the impact lean implementation can have on a business, let’s look at the high-level super-simplified equation for profit. PROFIT = REVENUES – EXPENSES Components of the revenue term …Continue reading →

A Lean Discussion With My Grandma TAGS: baseball winter meetings | brochure | cans | chicago | dallas texas | envelope | excess inventory | floor | grandma | green beans | inventory | kitchen | money | o'hare | pantry | sales After flying out of Dallas from the Baseball Winter Meetings and landing in Chicago, I was all set to drive home to Ohio but stopped off to stay at my …Continue reading →

What is lean? TAGS: activities | assembly | atlas shrugged | blitz | consulting | cost | definition | efficiency | efficient | lean | lean blitz | money | operations | process | savings | six sigma | sports | time | transmission | value | waste Before you can run off and start using lean principles or figure out why lean is so important, you have to first ask, “What in the heck is ‘lean’ anyway?” …Continue reading →