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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
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
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
Where do you want your CI initiative to go in 2010?
In the ever-changing world of continuous improvement (CI), we must always remember to walk our own walk. If we, as CI leaders, are teaching and coaching people in the PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) process, we too must ensure that we are leading by example. We must not vary our process from this cycle of
In the M&R business, good enough never is
About 15 years ago, I was fortunate to attend a conference where the keynote speaker’s focus was quality. This person was a successful entrepreneur and had built a top-flight company over the past two decades. The company’s success was based on making the best-quality, best-tasting cookie
Lessons from Boulder Dam: Maintenance Achievements Begin with the Essentials
There’s a really great documentary that shows up periodically on public television. It describes the building of the Boulder (Hoover) Dam on the Colorado River back in the early 1930s. (Like many, I was never really sure if these were two separate dams.) This was a project of truly incredible size
The 10 components of an effective lean operation
In my opinion and experience, there are 10 components or definitions for an “effective” lean operation. These include: Safety is not a slogan. It is acted upon and driven similar to quality and other key metrics. Productivity is improving 10 percent or more per year, quality metrics are
The rise of autonomous operator maintenance and work redesign
My blog entry on the “White Glove Story” got close to the idea of operator maintenance. My study on the coal gasification generating plant was about the ultimate vision of the one employee who has the skills and ability to do whatever is necessary to keep the process operating effectively. What
