#EarthDay 2013 and Conservation of Resources TAGS: 2013 | baseball | conservation | consulting | earth day | hot dogs | inventory | lean | lean blitz | operations | sourcing | sports | strategic | transportation | waiting Today is Earth Day 2013, and the Earth Day mission is to promote actions toward environmental protection and conservation. The focus of Earth Day 2013 is The Face of Climate Change. …Continue reading →

The #2013 Masters: On-Site Logistics and Materials Supply TAGS: 2013 | aesthetics | augusta national golf club | box trucks | customer experience | excess motion | golf carts | inventory | lean | lean blitz consulting | logistics | material handling | operations | process | sports | stockouts | temporary | the masters | transportation | waiting | warehousing | wastes | water spider Masters Week is finally here! All of the golf world has descended upon Augusta, Georgia for April 8-14 for the 2013 Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club. Augusta National …Continue reading →

Minnesota Twins Shorten Communication Gaps AND Minimize Beer Keg Transportation TAGS: baseball | beer | columbus blue jackets | concessions | don't stop believing | english | hockey | inventory | journey | karaoke | kegs | language | lean | lean blitz consulting | lines | marc aune | minnesota twins | motion | overpurchasing | singing | spanish | spring training | stockouts | transportation | uni-watch | waiting | waste Here are two quick stories about the Minnesota Twins finding ways to increase efficiency (or productivity, which is probably a better depiction). First, the Twins have enrolled some of their …Continue reading →

Mobile Beer Vendors Cut Customer Wait Times At Sporting Events TAGS: beer | concessions | continuous improvement | customer experience | futbol | lean blitz consulting | leansempai | mobile | operations | process | russell watkins | sempai | six sigma | Soccer | sports | transportation | vendor | waiting | walking | waste Russell Watkins of Sempai Lean Consulting in the UK posted a great photo on Twitter this weekend from a soccer (okay, futbol) game he attended: On the plus side, mobile …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 →

Goodbye, Unwanted TSA Naked Body Airport Scanners! TAGS: administration | airport | body | continuous improvement | eric ries | hassle | implementation | invade | invasive | lean blitz consulting | lean startup | minimum viable product | naked | pilot | privacy | problem | public | scanner | scans | scrap | security | transportation | tsa | tsa.gov | waste Last month the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced they were finally doing away with the awkward naked-body scanning imaging systems. When they were first introduced in 2007 they came under …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 →

A Case for Kanban and Materials Management TAGS: associate | business | car | consulting | consumable | defects | dollar foolish | excess | fuel | gasoline | glut | inventory | kanban | leak | lean | lean blitz | maintenance | material | motion | operations | penny wise | process | product | pull | ruin | sam's club | save money | six sigma | sports | stockout | storage | supplier | tool | transportation | vehicle | visual | wal-mart | walking | wastes A prominent sports organization in the area (that shall remain nameless) normally uses an outside materials supplier to stock about 200 individual consumable items (paper products, food and drink items, …Continue reading →

“I Want Some Nasty!” T-Shirts and Speed to Market TAGS: blitz | city | coach | conference | culture | demand | domestic | duncan | durant | facebook | finals | flex | ginobili | gregg | hot | i want some nasty | lean | merchandise | nba | oklahoma | operations | overseas | parker | planning | pop | popovich | press | production | promo-sa | san antonio | shipping | six sigma | sports | spurs | t-shirts | thunder | transportation | twitter | waoi | westbrook | western I have long since railed against overseas production of merchandise and overproduction of inventory well in advance of the known demand. (Need more evidence?) The San Antonio Spurs have (indirectly) …Continue reading →

Defective Product and Making a Wrong Turn TAGS: accurate | blitz | defects | document | garmin | gps | lean | map | mapquest | operations | process | resources | rework | scrap | self-discipline | six sigma | sports | standardized | tomtom | transportation | utilization | work To continue the unintentional theme of cars as metaphors for lean… I equate the creation of defective products and services to making a wrong turn and getting lost while driving. …Continue reading →

Defects and Excess Motion at a Sandwich Shop TAGS: activity | beach | beef | blitz | boar's head | carolina | charleston | defect | deli | edisto | excess | ham | hog | lean | mayo | meat | motion | operations | peppers | piggly wiggly | process | reduce | roast | sandwich | six sigma | south | sports | tomato | transportation | turkey | waste | wild This past weekend I visited Edisto Beach in South Carolina. (If you’ve never been, it’s lovely and relatively quiet.) After hitting the driving range just off the main drag on …Continue reading →

Sergio Tacchini, Unmet Demand, and Losing Novak Djokovic TAGS: apparel | baseball | batching | biz | blitz | cnbc | darren | demand | djokovic | domestic | inventory | labor | lean | meetings | novak | ocean | open | operations | process | production | rovell | sergio | shipping | sigma | six | spokesman | sports | states | tacchini | tennis | transportation | united | us | waste | winter As reported by Darren Rovell with CNBC.com, tennis apparel manufacturer Sergio Tacchini and tennis superstar Novak Djokovic have parted ways. The reason there is a split is because Djokovic has …Continue reading →

Manufacturing Process of Footballs TAGS: ada | blitz | defects | downtime | effort | employee | ergonomics | excessive | football | handling | inventory | issues | knowledge | lacing | lean | leather | measured | motion | new york | nfl | ohio | operations | overprocessing | overproduction | perfect | perfection | players | process | production | sbnation | six sigma | sports | stitching | tenure | transportation | turning | video | waiting | wastes | wilson | wip | work in process To continue the series of posts on how sports equipment is made (see baseballs and bats as well) here’s the video from SBNation on Wilson’s production process for NFL footballs. …Continue reading →

Production of Baseball Bats – From Forest to Field TAGS: bat | blitz | business | chainsaw | cut | effort | felled | finish | florida | hanley | human | inconsistency | inventory | kentucky | lathe | lean | louisville | manufacture | miami | motion | operations | pennsylvania | plant | process | quality | queue | ramirez | six sigma | slugger | sports | sticks | transportation | tree | trim | trucks | warren | waste As a follow-up to the video about the production process for baseballs, Mark Graban of LeanBlog.org passed along this ESPN video about how baseball bats are made. Forest to Field …Continue reading →

Spotting Waste at the Stadium: Concessions TAGS: concession stand | defects | excess motion | hot dogs | inventory | lean | lean blitz | operations | overprocessing | overproduction | pop | popcorn | processes | production | scrap | six sigma | soda | sports | transportation | trash | waiting | waste So now we’ve identified the eight lean wastes and dug deeper into what kinds of havoc they can wreak on resources. Let’s go see if we can find these wastes …Continue reading →