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 →

Where I Got My Start In Lean (and Sports) TAGS: automotive industry | autonomous management | consulting | continuous improvement | dannon | dr. robert jacobs | eaton corporation | engineer | georgia | indiana university | kaizen | kelley school of business | l.a.m.e. | lean | lean as misguidedly executed | lean blitz | lean in name only | mark fougerousse | ohio | operations | optimization | plastic engineering technical services | pontiac coil | problem solving | process | root cause analysis | sandy cutler | six sigma | solving efeso | south carolina | sports | thomson plastics | tri-state university | trine | wastes I don’t often get to tell my story of how I got started with Lean, but more frequently I’m asked about how I’ve gotten into and what I’m doing with …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 →

San Francisco Giants Bobbleheads and Benefits of Supply Meeting Demand TAGS: andrew baggarly | bobblehead | concessions | continuous improvement | csn bay area | demand | goodwill | lean | lean blitz consulting | lines | operations | optimization | process | rob neyer | san francisco giants | sbnation | six sigma | sponsor | sports | supply | tim lincecum | waiting | wastes CSN Bay Area columnist Andrew Baggarly reports some pretty good news for fans of bobbleheads, the San Francisco Giants, and both bobbleheads and the San Francisco Giants: the team is …Continue reading →

What is Lean vs. Six Sigma vs. Kaizen? TAGS: blitz | condiments | consulting | continuous improvement | control chart | difference | kaizen | lean | operations | process | project | six sigma | sports | toyota way | wastes Questions I’m asked often – by potential clients and colleagues and friends alike – center around Lean versus Six Sigma, and versus Kaizen. What are the differences between them? When …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 →

Imagery of Poka-Yoke TAGS: cable | computer | consulting | continuous improvement | defects | error | feedback | hdmi | imgur | lean | lean blitz | mistake | operations | orientation | plug | poka | poka-yoke | pokayoke | process | proofing | rca | rework | scrap | sports | stereo | technology | time | tools | toy | usb | wastes | yoke A quick little background on “poka-yoke.” Also written by others as “pokayoke” or “poka yoke,” it all refers to error-proofing or mistake-proofing. And what do those terms mean? Why, making …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 →

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 →

State of the Lean Blitz Blog: April 2012 TAGS: activities | alignment | apparel | atlanta | audience | augusta | baseball | baseball winter meetings | basketball | bat | ben hill | blitz | blue | braun | braves | championship | club | cnbc.com | columbus | comments | communication | concessions | consultants | continuous | customer | darren rovell | david schoenfield | dayton | e-book | elmore | email | espn.com | experience | facebook | five whys | followers | football | georgia | giveaway | golf | google | greenjackets | group | hot dog | improvement | jackets | jersey | knowledge | lean | locker room | manufacturing | mascot | masters | merchandise | minor league | moneyball | movie | national | ncaa | notre dame | ohio | operations | pin flag | plus | principles | process | questions | respond | ryan | satisfaction | season | service | seth godin | silver hawks | six sigma | sneezers | Soccer | south bend | sports | sportsbiz | steroids | subscribers | subscriptions | sweetspot | t-shirt | tools | tournament | toyota way | twitter | waste | wastes I figured that since the blog is between 5-6 months old now that I provide a “state of the blog” address – what has changed since the blog first kicked …Continue reading →

So What Is Lean Anyway? TAGS: activities | blitz | burger | buttons | cash register | cashier | combination | defects | diet | excess | lean | lean enterprise institute | motion | non-renewable | non-value-added | operations | pop | process | resource | scrap | six sigma | soda | sports | time | timeline | transfer | transporation | value | value-added | waiting | wastes | what is lean We should step back and start from the beginning. Lean Blitz has already looked at the lean wastes, started to review some of the lean tools, and touched on the …Continue reading →

Popeye’s Chicken and Stockouts TAGS: blitz | chicken | communicate | dining room | disaster | forecasting | franchise | funny | inventory | lean | marketing | operations | planning | popeye's | process | promotion | root cause | sports | stockouts | traffic | video | viral | volume | wastes And this is exactly why companies carry high amounts of inventory when they don’t need to – fear of stockouts. This problem could have been prevented without having to hold …Continue reading →

Overprocessing Example: Protective Bags TAGS: bags | blitz | customer | end customer | flash | injection molding | knots | lean | muda | operations | overprocessing | plastic | processes | scrapes | scuffs | shipment | six sigma | sports | steps | thomson plastics | tickets | undo | wastes As a quick refresher, the lean waste overprocessing is the application of extra work, process steps, or effort than is required by the end customer. Sometimes “going the extra mile” …Continue reading →

Case Study: University of Notre Dame Football Locker Room “Deep Clean” TAGS: 5S | autonomous management | basic conditions | bcs championship | boston college | bowl game | brian kelly | captain | cleaning | continuous improvement | deep clean | espn | flu | football | harrison smith | head coach | infected | irish | kitchen | lean | locker room | notre dame stadium | processes | standards | stephon tuitt | tpm | university of notre dame | wastes | weight room While this is slightly old news now that the college football season comes to a close tonight with the BCS Championship Game, the University of Notre Dame football team experienced …Continue reading →