Got Boondoggle?

In today's Wall Street Journal, I read an interesting article - Toyota's New U.S. Plan: Stop Building Factories . You can read it on...

Here is a problem I discovered on my Gemba walk. After I noticed a damaged box with components spilled on the floor, I called the first empl...

Look at handoffs in your process for waste and hidden opportunities for improvement. Most obvious of these wastes are piles of inventory eas...

While on the road last week, I discovered a cool visual management aid at the Holiday Inn Express in Dundee, Michigan. It certainly catches ...

No matter how well you plan, prepare and perform, sometimes things just happen that you do not expect. Sometimes these things are painful an...

Past headlines have brought to light a suspected phenomenon in our High Schools and Colleges in the United States where it is believed that ...

The kaizen formula of Aha! + Eureka! =Wow! is just part of larger pattern, or a continuous improvement cycle, discovered on my lean improvem...

Aha! + Eureka! = Wow!

There seems to be a swell of support against 5S activities which is certainly not a new phenomenon. The backlash against any attempts to org...

I liked Jon Miller’s post yesterday Seven Ideas Towards a Healing Workplace and it sparked some of my own ideas on the subject. I think the ...

Before Kaizen : What was my problem? My laptop cords and mouse cords gets tangled up in my computer bag. After Kaizen : What is my simple i...

I was reminded this week of the important lesson to be careful what you measure, measurements drive action and behavior. The productivity nu...

Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Indiana (TMMI) officially announced last week, April 25, 2007, their plans to eliminate its “variable workforce”...

While on a Gemba walk, I saw a section of the warehouse that was neat, clean, organized and free from the piles of inventory awaiting dispos...

Celebrate your employee’s kaizen improvements by creating your company’s own Kaizen Wall of Fame. While I visited Japan, I noticed several o...

The windy city, Chicago, turned into a blowing, wet, snowy mess today. It was quite a shock to my body after spending last week working in s...

While waiting in the drive thru line at my local bank, I looked up and noticed these conflicting signs. One sign clearly stated the roof cl...

One of the best aids in sustaining a daily 5S process is found in the 5S Assignment Chart. This assignment chart lists all the 5S tasks to ...

Early in my management career, the hot management technique was something called Management By Walking Around (MBWA). Basically, a good con...

Ask all the experts what is critical to a successful lean transformation and one item always surfaces to the top of the list, must have Uppe...