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 →

Why Overpurchasing Is Wasteful TAGS: baseball winter meetings | batch | bulk | china | concession | consulting | continuous improvement | dayton | defects | discounts | excess | hats | inventory | lean | lean blitz | liquid assets | merchandise | motion | operations | overpurchasing | process | production | promotions | purchasing | safety | shipping | six sigma | sports | stand | transportation | up and running | wastes It’s very easy to get caught up in volume discounts – buy more at one time or buy earlier, and we’ll give you a price break on each piece. It …Continue reading →

Daytona International Speedway and “Our Safety Protocols Worked” TAGS: car | consulting | crash | daytona | emergency | error-proof | fence | incident | joie chitwood | kyle larson | lean blitz | nascar | nationwide | officials | operations | preventive | process | protocols | race | racing | reactive | safety | sports Yesterday’s Nationwide Series race at Daytona International Speedway was marred by a final lap pileup of cars sprinting to the finish line. One of those cars, driven by #34 Kyle …Continue reading →

FMEA and College Basketball Games on Aircraft Carriers TAGS: aircraft | ambient | analysis | barack | basketball | blitz | california | carrier | charleston | consulting | continuous improvement | court | design | detection | dfmea | effects | espn | failure | fema | florida | fmea | georgetown | jacksonville | lean | marquette | michigan state | mode | moisture | myron medcalf | ncaa | noise | north carolina | notre dame | number | obama | occurrence | ohio state | operations | pfmea | president | priority | process | product | rain | risk | rpn | safety | san diego | san diego state | severity | six sigma | south carolina | sports | syracuse | temperature | university of florida | uss yorktown | winds A really novel concept – a regular season college basketball game played between high-profile teams outdoors on an aircraft carrier – was introduced last season. It really couldn’t have gone …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 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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

Stuff I’m Reading – August 8, 2012 TAGS: 2012 | advertisers | anibal sanchez | attendance | attention | ballpark | belly putter | blitz | blog | consulting | david samson | golf | golf digest | hanley ramirez | heath bell | improve | jeff gordon | jeffrey loria | jose reyes | lean | lean wastes | leanblog | lightning strike | london | love | mark buehrle | mark graban | marketing | miami marlins | nascar | nbc | olympics | omar infante | operations | optimization | organization | pocono | policy | process | product | revenue | safety | sailboat | sailfish | seth godin | small business | sponsors | sports | sprint cup | thad greiner | toyota way | weather There are ample opportunities for performance improvement in sports business and small business operations that I simply can’t get to it all as issues occur day after day. In addition, …Continue reading →

Troy Polamalu, NFL, Concussions, and Cheating the System TAGS: administer | baseline | bears | blitz | blow | brian | cheated | chicago | clinic | commissioner | concussion | consulting | countermeasure | culture | damage | equation | espn | establish | foolproof | football | game | goodell | head | health | hearing | lawsuit | league | lean | mayo | memory | national | nfl | operations | physician | pittsburgh | player | polamalu | priority | process | reflex | retired | roger | safety | six sigma | sport | sports | steelers | strength | success | system | team | test | trainer | trauma | troy | urlacher | vision | vomit The NFL is currently in the midst of a large lawsuit on behalf of retired players who are suing the league for health-related issues caused by on-field concussions during their …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 →

Overproduction Example: Too Many Boxes! TAGS: beer | blitz | boxes | cleaning | concessions | customers | cycle time | forklift | hot dogs | inventory | lean | material handler | nachos | operations | operator | overprocessing | processes | productivity | safety | six sigma | sports | standardized work | supplier | thomson plastics | training As a refresher, the definition of the lean waste overproduction is the manufacture/assembly/production of more than what is needed at the time. An example of where overproduction can be a) …Continue reading →