Bring plant-floor zombies back to life; let them use their brains!
This blog will be somewhat short. I apologize, but I wanted to get a thought in this month. I hope that the content, as basic as it may be, sparks your interest enough to conduct some research on the subject. I hope that it eventually motivates organizational leaders to push for employee empowerment, succession planning and employee involvement. I have
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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
Why improvement efforts fail
Why do improvement efforts fail or perhaps not sustain the gains? There are many reasons, but those most often stated are “lack of commitment” and not “following the process”. But why is there lack of commitment, and why aren’t processes followed? Here are a few of the reasons
Go execute the CI plan!
Hello out there, and happy belated Thanksgiving to you! Before I start the actual blog, I wanted to tell you all that I am very thankful to be an American. I had family in town over Thanksgiving, and we cooked and ate like there was no tomorrow! As I was sharing the food and laughs with family, it just
Money from honey: Africa lean project generates results
I recently wrote about my trip in August to Zambia in Africa. I was visiting with my friends John and Kendra who have been working in Zambia for the past 10 years and in Congo the previous 25 years. Their work is centered on setting up indigenous economic development to give Zambians a sustainable livelihood
Improvements must be generated, implemented on a daily basis
I heard a radio interview some time back with Neil Sedaka. If the name is no longer familiar, he is probably one of the most successful songwriters of all time. His songs, more than 1,000 of them, (while not all are my favorites), are performed by many different and famous artists. How does he write?
PDCA: Moving from the Plan (P) to the Do (D)
Hello, all you Lean Six Sigma people! I hope this blog finds you all doing fantastic! I have been working on a series talking about the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle as it relates to continuous improvement (CI). We have covered the planning cycle, and now it is time to do some real work after a short
Your CI list is long. Which projects should you pursue?
In my last blog entry, I talked very generally about the PDCA cycle (Plan, Do, Check, Act). In the first blog in this series, I wrote about how too many organizations get into the Do, Check, Act cycle without taking time to plan it out. We have covered the need to plan and the big picture process
Breaking down the components of the PDCA cycle
Since we are all going through the planning process to various degrees, and since I received some feedback about my previous blog, I wanted to follow up with more thoughts about planning. Most of what I am writing is not new material, and I certainly don’t take credit for it. Most of this information
