Annual Management Improvement Carnival 2010 Training within Industry

For the fourth and final blog review in my contribution to this year’s Annual Management Improvement Carnival, I will feature the Training within Industry blog written by Bryan Lund.



Bryan Lund started his blog back in September 2007 with his passion for TWI and continuous improvement. I saw first hand Bryan’s passion during his excellent presentation at the 2007 Reliable Plant Lean Manufacturing Conference where we both were speakers. He gave a teaching demo of the Fire Underwriters knot exercise for us to understand the TWI instruction process.

Bryan’s blog, Training within Industry, is an outstanding blend of posts on teaching, improving and leading continuous improvement along with personal reflection to stimulate our own lean thinking. Bryan Lund lives and works in the Burlington, Vermont area.

Here are a few of his best for 2010.

Management Reality
Bryan Lund discusses daily self-discipline and his approach as he takes on a new position in his company with the help of TWI pocket card checklists.

Gandhi gets Lean
Bryan Lund faces the challenge of influencing the behavior of one piece flow over batching 5 at a time with a little inspiration from Gandhi.

Do Not Write Work Instructions
Bryan Lund teaches us to stop and think before we jump to writing work instructions by going through a 5W1H thinking exercise.

5S Thinking
Bryan Lund reflects on the purpose of 5S and questions the tracking success metric of the 5S audit score.

Stealing Monkeys
Bryan Lund encourages us to not steal monkeys off the back of others in the name of help them.

Kaizen Teian First, Kaizen Events Last
Bryan Lund presents his thoughts on growing individual kaizen skill before leaping to the large improvements of kaizen events.

Please be sure to continue reading Bryan Lund’s blog, Training within Industry, in the future and comment on his posts.

Annual Management Improvement Carnival 2010 My Flexible Pencil

For the third of four blogs reviews in my contribution the 2010 Annual Management Improvement Carnival, I will highlight My Flexible Pencil written by David M Kasprzak.



This is another excellent new blog I stumbled upon this past year which just started last March. I was fortunate to have met David in October at the Northeast Shingo Prize Conference along with bloggers, Tim McMahon and Mark Hamel. At the conference, we attended several sessions together and had multiple opportunities to share ideas and thoughts on continuous improvement. David takes his lean thinking beyond the traditional shop floor and directs his focus on organizational effectiveness and leadership.

David lives and works in the Greater Boston area, dealing with the many challenges of fostering the lean approach at his company, the setting for many of his stories.

Here are a few of his best for 2010.

Why Performance Appraisals are Still Used and Why Team Building Still Suffers
David Kasprzak theorizes the often criticized performance appraisal system with lack of true teamwork in companies today.

The Rules are the Problem
David Kasprzak shares a great story illustrating that the way in which you approach a problem determines the way in which you solve it. I especially like the “Make it look like this” solution.

Employee Recognition Doesn’t Require Vision. It Requires Visibility
David Kasprzak reveals a compelling point of view in support of an open office environment in leading by example visibility.

Rube Goldberg Leadership: Waste and Value
David Kasprzak insightfully applies the 7 wastes to leadership that is thought-provoking.

7 Reasons I hate my desk
David Kasprzak questions whether the most common office standard, our desk, adds value or not.

Change Management and the 5S Framework
David Kasprzak uses the 5S Framework beyond the traditional physical environment and applies it to management systems.

Please be sure to continue reading David Kasprzak’s blog, My Flexible Pencil, in the future and comment on his posts.