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Desk experiment: Author stands up for lean (literally)
I would first like to express thanks to everyone for the e-mails I have received in response to my previous blog postings. I am pleased to see that there are plenty of individuals thinking outside the box. Continuous
CI groups can do more harm than good to lean efforts
As strange as it may sound, I believe that continuous improvement (CI) culture is something that many organizations resist without realizing it. Sometimes it is not a mountain to climb but an anthill to step over. In this blog, I will discuss that anthill as I have seen it. Culture is defined as integrated
Coke, Pepsi and lean: Is it all in the packaging?
I have been a developing change agent at my company for about five years now. I have saved my company a lot of money and have been promoted twice. I have had the opportunity to be trained by multiple lean consulting firms and have traveled to Japan, Mexico and California for continuous improvement training.
Best-selling checklists?
As an unrepentant checklist fanatic/junkie, I recently had to pick myself up off the floor in an airport newsstand (not a bookstore, but a newsstand!). There with all the romance novels, Dan Brown books and the latest silver-bullet management books was The Checklist Manifesto by Dr. Atul Gawande. A best-selling
Expert advice on how to deal with difficult people
One of the first people to study difficult employees in the workplace and to assign specific characteristic descriptors to these groups of people was Robert M. Branson. In 1981, he wrote a book called “Coping with Difficult People.” In this book, he identifies seven categories of difficult
A game plan to resolve conflict in the workplace
Conflict in the workplace seems to be a fact of life. We’ve all seen situations where different people with different goals and needs have come into conflict. And, we’ve all seen the often-intense personal animosity that can result. Organization leaders are responsible for creating a work
Is a deflationary economy a bad thing? Not from a lean perspective
The United States has created levels of wealth well beyond any other civilization in history. Yet, much further potential is sitting right under our nose. This potential lies in lean thinking; that is, the lean business model. Applying the lean business model across the board would lead to immense productivity
Reduce or eliminate waste through training
Following along with my blog “Reliability is a green initiative”, I would like to talk about waste reduction by training. Waste is seen in many different forms in manufacturing, and many of these wastes can be reduced or eliminated through training. Training is one of the first costs to be
Lean maintenance: Is it a new concept or another ‘acronym’?
It seems as if new weight loss programs and products come out every week. The latest I saw was a plastic wrap that you place around your stomach called “Sauna Fit”. If you strap it around your stomach, you will sweat and lose weight. Brilliant! I’m thinking that you’ll probably
Flavor of the day: Terror isn’t just for airplanes anymore
Christmas Day. Terror in the skies! A bomb and a terrorist pass through airport screening undetected. If not for a failure to detonate, there would be many lives lost over American soil. It will certainly seem that I am rambling off-subject for a maintenance blog as I talk about terror in the skies (and
