One cultural aspect of American business that is both a driving force and a curse is our obsession with getting results. It does not matter if we are looking at company performance or individual performance. It does not matter if we are looking at strategy, marketing, sales, manufacturing, or finance. Neither does it matter if we look at our lean progress or any other business approach, our business metrics or our stock performance. Bottom line, everything and everyone is rated and evaluated on results and only on results.
Just as in sports, all the matters is the final score, who won. What do we see in the majority of sports headlines…who won, who lost and the score.
For most of us, this is just a fact of life, a given, part of our competitive nature, our culture. I can not argue against results entirely, results are important.
Sometime we can easily quantify the results making them objective. Sometime we can not. Results that are subjective are like beauty, it is in the eye of the beholder. Despite our efforts to make all results objective and quantifiable, in many cases, subjectivity remains.
Overlooking this problem, we obsess over results. What is our stock price? What were our quarterly financials? Did I hit my quota? What is our 5S audit score? What is our OEE? What is my direct labor costs? Was this project a success? What are each employee’s talent matrix rating? Just tell me the score.
But does this tell us the whole story? Are we focused long-term? Does it reflect the struggle? What about the knowledge gained? Does it matter? What impact will it have on our future? What was the cost of our success? Were there any negative consequences in getting our results? Do we care?
In our obsession with results, do we actually miss something, perhaps something greater?
Friday, May 21, 2010
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
How to Kaizen
It is not important to know “how to kaizen” as it is “to kaizen”. It does not matter so much if we start with 5S on our lean journey as it is to start our lean journey. It does not matter how to use each of the lean tools as it is to use the tools to solve our problems.
Kaizen is a messy, bumpy struggle to improve. However, it is in this struggle that we will learn and gain knowledge. This is the only knowledge that will truly help us succeed in lean.
Each of our lean transformations will be different. It will not be like it says in any one book or how some other company operates in their lean approach.
Do not wait for perfect kaizen rather just kaizen continuously. Results from any kaizen are secondary to the act of kaizen itself. The only failure in kaizen is to no longer kaizen.
There are no right and wrong ways to kaizen, only the way we kaizen and better ways. There is always a better way.
Kaizen is a messy, bumpy struggle to improve. However, it is in this struggle that we will learn and gain knowledge. This is the only knowledge that will truly help us succeed in lean.
Each of our lean transformations will be different. It will not be like it says in any one book or how some other company operates in their lean approach.
Do not wait for perfect kaizen rather just kaizen continuously. Results from any kaizen are secondary to the act of kaizen itself. The only failure in kaizen is to no longer kaizen.
There are no right and wrong ways to kaizen, only the way we kaizen and better ways. There is always a better way.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
The Winning Poker Hand of Corporate Metrics
When we say company metrics, many of us quickly think of Cost, Quality, Safety, Delivery and Morale. All are important metrics for any company however we tend to view them differently. Specifically, we focus our time and attention to one or maybe two metrics while virtually ignoring the rest because some are valued higher.
The King of all metrics is Cost.
The Queen is Quality.
The Ace is Safety.
The Jack is Delivery.
And the lowly 10 card is Morale.
Many companies consider these to be the top company metrics. In my experience, the overwhelming majority of companies focus primarily on COST as THE key metric. How do I know?
Just look at your company’s key performance indicators (KPI).
How many ways is cost charted, measured and analyzed? Could it be…
Sales dollar per employee?
Sales dollar per Direct Labor Manhour?
Direct labor cost per department, per shift, per plant, per product, per on and on?
Overtime cost?
Piece part cost?
Purchasing variance?
Overhead cost?
Capital budget?
EBIT?
The list goes on and on.
The metric that the majority of companies focus the least amount of their attention is Delivery. How do I know?
How many ways is delivery charted, measured and analyzed? Could it be…
On-time Delivery?
And that’s about it.
Quality, safety and even morale have more than one KPI.
Similar to delivery, morale does not rank high on anybody’s list of metrics. Many of us may think morale is too vague, not quantifiable and too hard to measure much less have any control in improving it. So we tend to ignore it, unless it is close to contract time for those of us in union shops. Besides, we can still post stellar financial results with low morale.
In any management meeting when the company metrics are reviewed, how much time is spent discussing cost? How much time is spent discussing delivery? And when was the last time morale was even mentioned?
Quality and safety are somewhere in the middle and time spent on these metrics is directly proportional to the number of safety incidents or customer complaint issues of late. No issues, not much discussion. But when an incident occurs, the discussion time goes up.
As a lean thinker, how should our time be spent with regard to our metrics? In my opinion, we should spend the majority of our time on Delivery, Quality, Safety plus Morale and spend less time on Cost. If you think about it, improvements in delivery, quality and safety are process focused while Morale is a good indication of employee engagement (ie employee suggestions). Focusing on these areas will end up improving cost.
As for single delivery KPI of on-time delivery, this is the perhaps the easiest one to achieve in most cases…just increase our inventory level, right? But is this the best course of action? Is on-time delivery the only measurement we should concern ourselves with? What about leadtime?
How many companies focus on leadtime reduction? Now how many of us relentless pursue leadtime reduction with the same passion as we tend to do in cost reduction? In our kaizen, do we focus on eliminating waste to reduce costs or shorten leadtimes? Do we understand the difference?
If we focused the majority of our time and attention on cost, our King card, it would be like holding a handful of kings. The best poker hand we could hope for is a four of a kind. But if we aligned the whole organization to follow suit, holding each our metrics in our hand, we beat a four of a kind every time, royally.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Is U.S. Productivity at its Limit?
According to the USA Today, printed in the Friday, May 7th, 2010 edition, a glimmer of economic hope is seeming given with news of U.S. productivity and our job market. The slowing of U.S. productivity to a mere 3.6% annual rate in the first quarter and applications for unemployment dropping over the last three weeks led analysts to predict an increase in hiring as growth in production, the output per hour of work, is predicted to slow even more.
As quoted in this article, Nigel Gault of HIS Global Insight stated, “Companies are close to the limits of what they can do with their existing staff. They are going to have to start rehiring people.”
Hogwash! Not even close! Yet Mr. Gault's prediction may end up correct despite the flawed data, in my opinion.
Instead of looking at their spreadsheets and computer models, these analysts need to go to gemba to see for themselves. The only problem is that they probably don’t know what to look for if they did. From my gemba perspective, limited to the small sample size of companies I know about, U.S. manufacturing companies have only made a small dent in productivity. They same goes for our service industries or any other category for that matter.
There are still vast amounts of waste remaining in our processes if we only could see it.
So I believe that there are still enormous opportunities in the U.S. to substantially increase our productivity.
On the other hand, I see limitations in what companies are doing to improve and the rate of their improvement. The majority of companies in the U.S. are not relentless pursuing a path of waste elimination and continuous improvement. As demand picks up (not really noted in the predictive analysis), companies may in fact start rehiring.
As quoted in this article, Nigel Gault of HIS Global Insight stated, “Companies are close to the limits of what they can do with their existing staff. They are going to have to start rehiring people.”
Hogwash! Not even close! Yet Mr. Gault's prediction may end up correct despite the flawed data, in my opinion.
Instead of looking at their spreadsheets and computer models, these analysts need to go to gemba to see for themselves. The only problem is that they probably don’t know what to look for if they did. From my gemba perspective, limited to the small sample size of companies I know about, U.S. manufacturing companies have only made a small dent in productivity. They same goes for our service industries or any other category for that matter.
There are still vast amounts of waste remaining in our processes if we only could see it.
So I believe that there are still enormous opportunities in the U.S. to substantially increase our productivity.
On the other hand, I see limitations in what companies are doing to improve and the rate of their improvement. The majority of companies in the U.S. are not relentless pursuing a path of waste elimination and continuous improvement. As demand picks up (not really noted in the predictive analysis), companies may in fact start rehiring.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Management Improvement Carnival #97
Got Boondoggle is proud to host this edition of the Management Improvement Carnival. Please check out the following top posts from follow lean thinkers in recent weeks. Enjoy and learn!
Don’t Do 5S by Jamie Flinchbaugh – “So make sure that using 5S, at any point in the journey, is solving actual problems that you currently have. Start with the problem statement, then pick the tool. Don’t start by picking the tool.”
The Will, the Willow and the Frog by Jon Miller – “There are many stories from many cultures that remind us that with faith and will, nothing is impossible. The irony is that if you don’t believe this, you will never find out whether it is true.”
Leadership: The Power of Influence by Tim McMahon – “The challenge is to get people to follow in a direction they might not otherwise go.”
Continuous Improvement by Lee Fried – “Thus, there is no way an organization can claim to be promoting continuous improvement through events or projects. It will only occur when improving the work is the work.”
Kaizen in the Laundry Room and My Domestic Shortcomings by Mark Hamel – “Kaizen opportunities are often best identified (and done) by those who do the work.”
Lean Thoughts During Saturday Errands by Mark Graban – “In the course of these errands, I had some thoughts about lean or related to it (or just fun thoughts, maybe), including: Why 100% utilization isn’t possible or optimal, Visual controls with moving tape and Good “flow” from a store to a dental practice office.”
Some Growth is not Visible by Pete Abilla – “When you think about it, that’s how a culture is created. Not through some big program, or some big push top-down. Instead, true, long-term cultural change happens over a long period through many, many, small micro-interactions.”
3 Tips for Continuous Improvement by Ron Pereira – “In this article, I want to share some ideas for how to approach things such as workout programs and continuous improvement as they are surprisingly similar.”
Toyota the Bad Guy by John Shook – “Even so, we must recognize that even at its peak as an organizational GPS, Toyota was never as good as its reputation in some ways, but better in others. Both at once.”
The Human in the Loop by Mark Rosenthal – “If we truly want to construct a work environment where people make the best possible decisions, it behooves us to rid ourselves of decades old stereotypes and convenient beliefs about why people decide what they do.”
The Secret to Successfully Running a Lean Office: Daily Management by Jeff Hajek – “Daily Management is a proactive, systematic approach to balancing capacity and expected demand. In a nutshell, it is a process for using Deming’s PDCA cycle to manage a workday.”
Should I Pursue Waste Elimination or Lead Time Reduction? by Michael Balle as the Gemba Coach – “To respond to your question directly; there is no debate: Kaizen without a pull system will be disappointing.”
Bagel with a side of Jidoka by Evan Durant – “And the more we explore the concept of Jidoka the more we are forced to challenge our assumptions about what exactly the human and machine elements are. Often there are untapped opportunities to separate the two.”
Don’t Do 5S by Jamie Flinchbaugh – “So make sure that using 5S, at any point in the journey, is solving actual problems that you currently have. Start with the problem statement, then pick the tool. Don’t start by picking the tool.”
The Will, the Willow and the Frog by Jon Miller – “There are many stories from many cultures that remind us that with faith and will, nothing is impossible. The irony is that if you don’t believe this, you will never find out whether it is true.”
Leadership: The Power of Influence by Tim McMahon – “The challenge is to get people to follow in a direction they might not otherwise go.”
Continuous Improvement by Lee Fried – “Thus, there is no way an organization can claim to be promoting continuous improvement through events or projects. It will only occur when improving the work is the work.”
Kaizen in the Laundry Room and My Domestic Shortcomings by Mark Hamel – “Kaizen opportunities are often best identified (and done) by those who do the work.”
Lean Thoughts During Saturday Errands by Mark Graban – “In the course of these errands, I had some thoughts about lean or related to it (or just fun thoughts, maybe), including: Why 100% utilization isn’t possible or optimal, Visual controls with moving tape and Good “flow” from a store to a dental practice office.”
Some Growth is not Visible by Pete Abilla – “When you think about it, that’s how a culture is created. Not through some big program, or some big push top-down. Instead, true, long-term cultural change happens over a long period through many, many, small micro-interactions.”
3 Tips for Continuous Improvement by Ron Pereira – “In this article, I want to share some ideas for how to approach things such as workout programs and continuous improvement as they are surprisingly similar.”
Toyota the Bad Guy by John Shook – “Even so, we must recognize that even at its peak as an organizational GPS, Toyota was never as good as its reputation in some ways, but better in others. Both at once.”
The Human in the Loop by Mark Rosenthal – “If we truly want to construct a work environment where people make the best possible decisions, it behooves us to rid ourselves of decades old stereotypes and convenient beliefs about why people decide what they do.”
The Secret to Successfully Running a Lean Office: Daily Management by Jeff Hajek – “Daily Management is a proactive, systematic approach to balancing capacity and expected demand. In a nutshell, it is a process for using Deming’s PDCA cycle to manage a workday.”
Should I Pursue Waste Elimination or Lead Time Reduction? by Michael Balle as the Gemba Coach – “To respond to your question directly; there is no debate: Kaizen without a pull system will be disappointing.”
Bagel with a side of Jidoka by Evan Durant – “And the more we explore the concept of Jidoka the more we are forced to challenge our assumptions about what exactly the human and machine elements are. Often there are untapped opportunities to separate the two.”
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
We can't Handle the Truth
In the movie, A Few Good Men, Jack Nicholson playing the role of a hard-core, old-school, tough-as-nails Marine Colonel delivers the famous line in a military court, “You can’t handle the truth” in answer to Tom Cruise’s cross examination demanding the truth about a code red.
This is a problem for many of us. We can’t handle the truth. Maybe our huge egos prevent us from seeing the truth. Perhaps it is rooted deep in our survival genes to protect us from harm both physical and non-physical. Maybe it is our arrogance from our over-the-top self-image or self-importance. Whatever the reason, we can’t handle the truth if it is not in alignment with our thinking.
We all believe in truth however the truth is not always easily believed. What blinds us from seeing the truth? What in our minds automatically blocks us from seeing the truth? Why do we not want to believe the truth? How do our perceptions create different lenses in seeing the truth?
According to Jon Miller in How to scold like a Kaizen Sensei, the role of the Sensei is “to speak truth to power in ways that a member of the organization could not.” This honest, insightful and raw truth telling skill has very powerful results depending on the delivery by the sensei and the reaction of the learner. Regardless if you are an outside consultant or inside the company, there is a risk in truth telling.
It is easy to see why this truth telling skill does not work coming from within an organization. Unfortunately, the proverbial “kill the messenger” is alive and well in American business. People who speak the truth are often labeled as a non-team player, a disrupter, a trouble maker or the current tag of being “not a good fit”. End result the person either quits or is fired.
Have you ever compromised the truth to keep your job? What about keeping silent? How does your company leadership handle the truth? How do you handle the truth?
It doesn’t take much to see that the truth can get watered down, altered or hidden entirely inside a company, especially as it moves vertically up the ladder. We may believe, at least in the short term, that this is the best way considering the risk, political correctness and social politeness but at what cost? In the long term, is the cost greater? Doesn’t this render our problem solving capabilities as impotent? Isn’t our continuous improvement quest towards perfection halted without seeing the truth?
“New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become.” Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
Management Magical Mystery Tour
I strongly believe that one of the keys to a successful lean transformation is management involvement, not just management support. Involvement means full contact, hands-on, go and see for yourself approach. Involvement means leadership. That means more time away from the comfort of your desk and spending this time on the shop floor, in the office areas, in the warehouse, or going to customer sites.
Company executives have gotten so comfortable with seeing their company through the lenses of reports, emails, charts, graphs, boardroom meetings or what their staff tells them that many never venture out for a first hand experience. Charts and graphs are fine tools however I would prefer to know about my operation by experience. Which gives you a better understanding of Hawaii – a) reading travel brochure, looking at pictures and hearing stories by people who went there or b) by your own travel adventure walking on the warm sands of Maui, taking in a deep breathe of ocean air and seeing the waves crashing onto the shore?
Unfortunately, we get distorted glimpses of C-Level executives going “undercover” in TV shows to see first hand what is going on in their company as some great revelation. Kevin Meyer has a great post, MBWA is not a Gemba Walk, that I tend to agree with.
Closer to reality is the planned visit by the high level leader to a site which turns into huge parade of leaders trying to look their best, normally part of a Management Magical Mystery Tour. It’s just like if you invited your priest or pastor over for dinner, you get your house all cleaned up and a special meal is planned and prepared (not a typical night at home, right?).
The plant is notified well in advance so the facility is cleaned up (even to the extent of hiding stuff out of view until after the show) along a pre-determined tour route. Everybody practices and rehearses their lines for the presentation. The smell of fresh paint is hanging in the air. We are ready. Places everyone.
The show usually starts in a conference room with a presentation by the plant staff. If the plant manager is cunning, he will give the executive time to pass on some words of wisdom which can easily take up some of the time for the planned tour. At best, the tour will be rushed which minimizes the chance for problems to surface. It is even possible that the tour is canceled because the meeting, which there was great discussion, took all the time allocated for the visit. Then the C-Level and his entourage travel to the next site.
The only thing missing is the official tour t-shirts. What a wasted opportunity.
How can we get out of this management magical mystery tour routine. First, the C-level executives should visit so often that the event is not special. Second, a visit should not always be a planned event that prompts a show and tell. Third, the C-level executives should not make it a visit to punish but a visit to learn, teach and mentor. Fourth, visit with a purpose and not make it a social hour. It’s nice to talk with people but don’t let that become the mission. If a problem is found, help by coaching and not seeking to blame someone. This would be a good start.
A true lean transformation changes the way the entire business operates from sales to the shop floor. This requires a hands-on, personal approach that cannot be delegated to staff or outside consultants. It is a new way to run the business that requires behavior changes. It is not a project or event. It demands leadership based on first hand experience and it must start at the top.
Friday, April 02, 2010
Cats and Dogs in Manufacturing
Many times in manufacturing career I have struggled in dealing with the dilemma of producing the cats and dogs. The cats and dogs are those parts or products that are typically the small volume, hard to make, mainly less profitable, or generally the pain in the ass parts that cause us headaches and disrupt the harmony in our manufacturing flow.
Since our lean manufacturing focus is to improve flow, how do we deal with our cats and dogs?
Do we outsource our cats and dogs so we can maximize our internal efficiency by producing only our high runners? Do we discontinue making the cats and dogs entirely if they are not profitable? Do we outsource some of our high runners to work on the cats and dogs? Do we separate the cats and dogs from the rest of the pack?
It would be easy for us to take the path of least resistance and either outsource them or drop them from our product offering. Life is too short so why struggle with the headaches day after day. With our short term thinking and pressure for quick results, we can present convincing arguments to get rid of these cats and dogs and do it fast. Especially if we are not making any money on them, it should be a slam dunk to get rid of them. Let’s just focus on our core competency and we will be more profitable.
Sounds logical or not?
From my experience, I do not completely trust our accounting systems in determining the profitability of individual parts or products. With the typical standard cost method, erroneous data, estimated inputs based on some formula or worse, some average and our sometimes strange allocation of costs; how can we really make good decisions on true profitability on a part by part basis? Just take a stopwatch to gemba and do a simple random audit to see that our data is as reliable and trustworthy as a celebrity in rehab.
If we outsource these cats and dogs, passing the headache on to others to deal with, we will only add additional waste to our overall process. We will need to increase our efforts to insure the quality of these parts now on the outside, increase our inventory levels to protect our delivery to our customers and most likely soon end up paying more for these parts. Before long, we will end up dropping them because they will be deemed unprofitable.
In the book, The Birth of Lean, Taiichi Ohno faced the same dilemma at Toyota; his thoughts on this issue were described as follows:
“A lot of people in the company thought that we should outsource small-volume parts to low-cost contractors and make the large-volume parts on our own, like bicycle manufacturers did. They figured that we could build an export business by getting the contractors to supply parts on a just-in-time basis and by assembling vehicles from those parts and from the parts that we made in-house.
I argued for taking the opposite approach. I insisted that we should produce low-volume items in-house and buy large-volume parts-stuff that anyone cold make inexpensively-from outside suppliers. Making the low-volume parts in-house would mean high unit costs, and that would pressure us to tackle kaizen improvements and cost reductions.”
What a great viewpoint, to send out the easier, high-volume parts and keep the hard ones in-house to pressure our kaizen efforts. Think about that for a moment. Do we trust outside suppliers to kaizen better than we can internally? Do easy, high volume parts present the same kaizen opportunities that low-running parts provide? Which would challenge us to be better problem solvers? As for our customers, which kinds of products are growing in demand, the generic, high-volume products or the custom, low-volume products? How about the trend in the future?
What do you think?
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Mocking Boards
As we embrace many of the lean ways including shifting to a more visual management approach, be careful not to turn a good visual management board into a mocking board.
Let me explain. Recently, while on a gemba walk through a plant, I spotted a new TPM board by one of the machines. TPM stands for Total Productive Maintenance. From the aisle, I could see some cool stuff on the board including a TPM map, TPM checksheets, timelines, problem logs, problem tags, etc. Excited and curious about this new visual management board, I approached the operator and asked her about it.
Her reply surprised me. “Oh, that. It’s my mocking board.”
I asked her what she meant by mocking board. She explained that the board was just put up a month ago by maintenance. She even attended a training session on filling out all the forms and how to do tasks to check on the machine herself. The first couple of days, they (the maintenance guys) were responsive to fixing items on the machine but than nothing.
For weeks nothing more happened despite all the tagging and logging of items requiring attention. She had asked her supervisor, on several occasions, on the status when maintenance was going to fix the items. No answer and no action.
As a result, she now views the visual board as a mocking board. All the items stay on the list, always in front of her, mocking her, because they are still undone. It is a visual monument to all that is wrong and broken with her machine with no activity to fix it.
Wow. Here are the beginnings of a cool visual management system that is quickly turning into a clear message that as managers we do not care.
The good thing is that this problem is quite visible and all we have to do is see it and take action to correct it.
Let me explain. Recently, while on a gemba walk through a plant, I spotted a new TPM board by one of the machines. TPM stands for Total Productive Maintenance. From the aisle, I could see some cool stuff on the board including a TPM map, TPM checksheets, timelines, problem logs, problem tags, etc. Excited and curious about this new visual management board, I approached the operator and asked her about it.
Her reply surprised me. “Oh, that. It’s my mocking board.”
I asked her what she meant by mocking board. She explained that the board was just put up a month ago by maintenance. She even attended a training session on filling out all the forms and how to do tasks to check on the machine herself. The first couple of days, they (the maintenance guys) were responsive to fixing items on the machine but than nothing.
For weeks nothing more happened despite all the tagging and logging of items requiring attention. She had asked her supervisor, on several occasions, on the status when maintenance was going to fix the items. No answer and no action.
As a result, she now views the visual board as a mocking board. All the items stay on the list, always in front of her, mocking her, because they are still undone. It is a visual monument to all that is wrong and broken with her machine with no activity to fix it.
Wow. Here are the beginnings of a cool visual management system that is quickly turning into a clear message that as managers we do not care.
The good thing is that this problem is quite visible and all we have to do is see it and take action to correct it.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Where's the SMED?
The SMED system which stands for Single Minute Exchange of Dies, developed by Shigeo Shingo and published in his 1985 book, guides us to achieve a machine setups in under 10 minutes. The quick changeover thinking has been around for a couple of decades now but many companies still have not achieved this level of changeover. To this day, we have setups taking 60 minutes and longer. Why?
Are these long setups not viewed as a problem?
Do we just accept the status quo of long setups?
Do we even track and monitor setups?
Is it easier the just buy faster (more expensive) machines than to roll up our sleeves and figure out how to reduce our changeovers?
Is it not a priority? Are we too busy with out limited resources (yet we let go resources in the last layoff)? Short term thinking wins again?
Where’s the SMED? Can any company report that all of their setups are 10 minutes or less?
Are these long setups not viewed as a problem?
Do we just accept the status quo of long setups?
Do we even track and monitor setups?
Is it easier the just buy faster (more expensive) machines than to roll up our sleeves and figure out how to reduce our changeovers?
Is it not a priority? Are we too busy with out limited resources (yet we let go resources in the last layoff)? Short term thinking wins again?
Where’s the SMED? Can any company report that all of their setups are 10 minutes or less?
Friday, March 05, 2010
Best Kanban Signal of All
There are many types of kanban. A kanban could be cards, bins, containers, trays, carts, spots on the floor, golf balls, ping pong balls just to name a few. What’s the best kanban signal?
First, what is a kanban? A kanban is simply a signal used to authorize production in a production system. Any method of signal works can work well if we are disciplined to follow and maintain the system. A kanban is typically tied directly to the physical parts making it easier to keep in synch with demand. As parts are pulled for consumption, this signal is sent to the supplying workstation or source as authorization to make more parts to replace the ones used.
However, before we automatically jump to using any kanban system just because we believe it is the “lean” thing to do, is there a specific problem or need in the first place? This is one of the most common mistakes made on the lean journey. We see a lean technique and rush to put it in use everywhere we possibly can. It’s like holding a hammer and running around looking for nails to hit, soon everything starts looking like nails. We rarely take the time to really understand our problems or needs before we act.
What if we can produce products for our customers in one week while the customer delivery expectation is two weeks, would we set up a kanban system to replenish parts? No, just build to the actual customer order which is the best kanban signal of all.
In this example, there is no need for a typical kanban replenishment system at this time. But if our leadtime extends beyond our customers delivery expectation, we certainly have a need to set up a production system to satisfy our customer with the least amount of inventory. After gaining a better understanding of the problem, we might consider using a kanban system while we are working on reducing our production leadtime within our customer delivery expectation.
First, what is a kanban? A kanban is simply a signal used to authorize production in a production system. Any method of signal works can work well if we are disciplined to follow and maintain the system. A kanban is typically tied directly to the physical parts making it easier to keep in synch with demand. As parts are pulled for consumption, this signal is sent to the supplying workstation or source as authorization to make more parts to replace the ones used.
However, before we automatically jump to using any kanban system just because we believe it is the “lean” thing to do, is there a specific problem or need in the first place? This is one of the most common mistakes made on the lean journey. We see a lean technique and rush to put it in use everywhere we possibly can. It’s like holding a hammer and running around looking for nails to hit, soon everything starts looking like nails. We rarely take the time to really understand our problems or needs before we act.
What if we can produce products for our customers in one week while the customer delivery expectation is two weeks, would we set up a kanban system to replenish parts? No, just build to the actual customer order which is the best kanban signal of all.
In this example, there is no need for a typical kanban replenishment system at this time. But if our leadtime extends beyond our customers delivery expectation, we certainly have a need to set up a production system to satisfy our customer with the least amount of inventory. After gaining a better understanding of the problem, we might consider using a kanban system while we are working on reducing our production leadtime within our customer delivery expectation.
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
Lean Six Sigma Survey
James Marsh, Senior Researcher at Sheffield Hallam University is requesting our help in the lean community on his research project exploring Lean and or Six Sigma and its environmental benefits/tradeoffs. It takes 5-10 minutes to complete and is completely anonymous.
Please click on this link http://www.psychology.nottingham.ac.uk/staff/sea/LSS
Thank you for your help!
Please click on this link http://www.psychology.nottingham.ac.uk/staff/sea/LSS
Thank you for your help!
Top 14 Ways to Reduce Changeovers
If you are looking to boost your output or increase your responsiveness to customer demand but want to avoid the significant capital costs of purchasing new equipment, take a look at reducing your changeovers or setups. If you typically spend one hour to changeover a machine and run 8-10 setups a week, you are wasting a whole day a week or up to 52 days a year of potential machine time. Try focusing on these few things and you can spend less time in your changeovers almost immediately.
1.Have Everything Ready for the Changeover Next to the Machine Ahead of Time. This means everything- material, tooling, tools, fixtures, paperwork, check gages, etc. Our goal is not to leave the machine to search for anything while doing a changeover. No more walking around and searching. Create a home location staging area for these items or use a tool setup cart and make it easy to find these items in order of need during the set up all within reach. Anyone can really lead this activity once trained in what needs to be collected up-the machine operator, the setup person, the leadperson, the supervisor, a temp employee, or even one of the office employees. Even if you don’t do any of these others items list below, DO THIS ONE.
2. Use a Checklist. The easiest and simplest way not to forget any items needed for each changeover is to list everything on a checklist and use this list to verify things are not missing ahead of time. A pencil and paper is all you need to create a checklist.
3. Fix Broken Equipment. What gages, tools and equipment are broken and we force the setup operators to workaround these problems? Find what is broken and repair it.
4. Keep up with Current Events. Make sure all the data (program numbers, machine settings, etc) are the latest and greatest. The only thing worse that not having information is to have conflicting or wrong information. Review all the standard set up documents and make sure all the right information is recorded and consistent.
5. Just Ask. By simply talking with the set up operators and asking what would be helpful to make setups easier, you can find out what they need. If you ask, be prepared to act on this information fast. If not, you will be sending a message that management doesn’t care and this valuable source of information can be lost in the future.
6. Look for Cheat Sheets and Share the Knowledge. Some operators who perform changeovers have a log book or set up notes to help them remember setup information. Use this information to look for helpful “tricks” or techniques that is undocumented. Officially record this information to eliminate the need for having personal notebooks and share it.
7. Improve Homemade Work Aids. Perhaps the setup operator has made up some cool homemade work aids to position, lift, gage hold, align or perform some other function in a setup. How can we improve this homemade devises?
8. Double up the Changeover Team. Most setups are done by a single person which can add to the wasted time in a setup especially when we need to work on both sides of the machine. What would happen if we used a two person team for changeovers? More likely we can cut our setup time in half and do tasks in parallel.
9. Don’t Skimp on the Tooling. Invest in additional sets of tool holders so the tooling can be pre-set ahead of time. But before you wake up your purchasing person to start ordering all this brand new tooling, do a plant wide sort (step 1 from 5S) and see if there are any underutilized tooling that can be used. Check the auction pages for potential sources of used tooling. Go to local shops or manufacturing facilities to see if they are willing to sell any of their tooling. You don’t have to duplicate all the tooling immediately to make a big impact, target a few critical setups and concentrate on getting a few holders to start.
10. The Best Changeover is No Changeover at All. What opportunities are there to dedicate equipment to certain parts thereby eliminate the setup completely?
11. Don’t Screw Around. How much time are we spending bolting, fastening, blocking and clamping the tools? Can we reduce the number of bolts and clamps? Can you use ¼ turn bolts or other quick clamps? Can we replace manual tools with an air ratchet?
12. Throw Away your Hand Tools. Taking the last step a bit further, can we eliminate the need for hand tools all together? Instead of using allen head screws or bolts, can we use hand twist ¼ turn fastener?
13. Put it Away Later. Sometimes in our eagerness to maintain an organized workplace, we have conditioned ourselves to put things away immediately. This is a great behavior but don’t delay a setup with putting items away. Wait until the machine is up and running and then put everything back in it’s home location.
14. Don’t Go the Mountain; Make the Mountain Come to You. What resources demand the setup operator leave the machine? For example, do we have to take the first piece parts to a Quality Lab for approval? Instead of going to the Quality department what if we had the Quality department came to us? Take a close look at our quality procedures and requirements with the goal of approving the part at the machine with no waiting. What do we need to make this happen? Can’t we get the quality inspector to be at the machine when needed? Do we really need to use that monument QA equipment instead of portable check gages or go/no-go gages?
1.Have Everything Ready for the Changeover Next to the Machine Ahead of Time. This means everything- material, tooling, tools, fixtures, paperwork, check gages, etc. Our goal is not to leave the machine to search for anything while doing a changeover. No more walking around and searching. Create a home location staging area for these items or use a tool setup cart and make it easy to find these items in order of need during the set up all within reach. Anyone can really lead this activity once trained in what needs to be collected up-the machine operator, the setup person, the leadperson, the supervisor, a temp employee, or even one of the office employees. Even if you don’t do any of these others items list below, DO THIS ONE.
2. Use a Checklist. The easiest and simplest way not to forget any items needed for each changeover is to list everything on a checklist and use this list to verify things are not missing ahead of time. A pencil and paper is all you need to create a checklist.
3. Fix Broken Equipment. What gages, tools and equipment are broken and we force the setup operators to workaround these problems? Find what is broken and repair it.
4. Keep up with Current Events. Make sure all the data (program numbers, machine settings, etc) are the latest and greatest. The only thing worse that not having information is to have conflicting or wrong information. Review all the standard set up documents and make sure all the right information is recorded and consistent.
5. Just Ask. By simply talking with the set up operators and asking what would be helpful to make setups easier, you can find out what they need. If you ask, be prepared to act on this information fast. If not, you will be sending a message that management doesn’t care and this valuable source of information can be lost in the future.
6. Look for Cheat Sheets and Share the Knowledge. Some operators who perform changeovers have a log book or set up notes to help them remember setup information. Use this information to look for helpful “tricks” or techniques that is undocumented. Officially record this information to eliminate the need for having personal notebooks and share it.
7. Improve Homemade Work Aids. Perhaps the setup operator has made up some cool homemade work aids to position, lift, gage hold, align or perform some other function in a setup. How can we improve this homemade devises?
8. Double up the Changeover Team. Most setups are done by a single person which can add to the wasted time in a setup especially when we need to work on both sides of the machine. What would happen if we used a two person team for changeovers? More likely we can cut our setup time in half and do tasks in parallel.
9. Don’t Skimp on the Tooling. Invest in additional sets of tool holders so the tooling can be pre-set ahead of time. But before you wake up your purchasing person to start ordering all this brand new tooling, do a plant wide sort (step 1 from 5S) and see if there are any underutilized tooling that can be used. Check the auction pages for potential sources of used tooling. Go to local shops or manufacturing facilities to see if they are willing to sell any of their tooling. You don’t have to duplicate all the tooling immediately to make a big impact, target a few critical setups and concentrate on getting a few holders to start.
10. The Best Changeover is No Changeover at All. What opportunities are there to dedicate equipment to certain parts thereby eliminate the setup completely?
11. Don’t Screw Around. How much time are we spending bolting, fastening, blocking and clamping the tools? Can we reduce the number of bolts and clamps? Can you use ¼ turn bolts or other quick clamps? Can we replace manual tools with an air ratchet?
12. Throw Away your Hand Tools. Taking the last step a bit further, can we eliminate the need for hand tools all together? Instead of using allen head screws or bolts, can we use hand twist ¼ turn fastener?
13. Put it Away Later. Sometimes in our eagerness to maintain an organized workplace, we have conditioned ourselves to put things away immediately. This is a great behavior but don’t delay a setup with putting items away. Wait until the machine is up and running and then put everything back in it’s home location.
14. Don’t Go the Mountain; Make the Mountain Come to You. What resources demand the setup operator leave the machine? For example, do we have to take the first piece parts to a Quality Lab for approval? Instead of going to the Quality department what if we had the Quality department came to us? Take a close look at our quality procedures and requirements with the goal of approving the part at the machine with no waiting. What do we need to make this happen? Can’t we get the quality inspector to be at the machine when needed? Do we really need to use that monument QA equipment instead of portable check gages or go/no-go gages?
Monday, February 01, 2010
Leaving Batesville Casket
It is with mixed emotion that I am officially leaving my position as Lean Sensei at Batesville Casket Company. I am happy with all that we accomplished the last several years however not satisfied since there is so much more to do. All the milestones I first set out to accomplish were completed and the lean journey at Batesville is stronger as a result. I wish all my friends at Batesville many years of continued lean success.
Looking forward, I am extremely excited about my new adventure working with Jon Miller as part of the Gemba Research team helping others on their lean journey. If you ever considered bringing in lean consultants on your lean journey, please contact me. Our staff at Gemba Consulting North America are all top notch lean practitioners with many years of successful lean experience. I will continue posting ideas, thoughts and stories as I continue learning and sharing on the lean journey.
Looking forward, I am extremely excited about my new adventure working with Jon Miller as part of the Gemba Research team helping others on their lean journey. If you ever considered bringing in lean consultants on your lean journey, please contact me. Our staff at Gemba Consulting North America are all top notch lean practitioners with many years of successful lean experience. I will continue posting ideas, thoughts and stories as I continue learning and sharing on the lean journey.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Go to Gemba
Knowing is better than guessing.
Seeing is better than hearing.
Doing is better than talking.
Seeing is better than hearing.
Doing is better than talking.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Pursuit of Perfection
One focus on the lean manufacturing path is the pursuit of perfection. When this point is brought up, many people don’t believe perfection is possible so this objective is pushed aside as not realistic so why try?
The same goes for goals of zero inventory, zero machine breakdowns, zero accidents, zero defects and zero customer disappointments. How many of us believe these goals to be impossible? So why try?
After all we are just human and humans are imperfect and make mistakes. So why try?
All systems are imperfect including lean manufacturing so why try?
Looking to religion, as Christians we are on a path to live by the example that Jesus Christ has given us. In other words, we try to be Christ-like in our words and actions. Many other religious beliefs, if not all of them, teach each follower to become better in their life. All religions acknowledge our human imperfections yet each pursue a path of perfection in life. Perhaps the quest to be better is at the core of being human.
I believe that is our purpose in life-to become a better person so “trying” is what life is all about.
The same goes for our pursuit of perfection in lean manufacturing. It is all about the never ending pursuit of perfection. Emphasis is on the pursuit and not on perfection. Are we moving to be better today than yesterday? Can we be closer to perfection each day? Do we learn from our mistakes?
Do we see the gap between where we are today and our vision of perfection? Do we view this gap as the impossible or as an opportunity? Do we view this gap as a pointless journey or a path of many small steps?
The same goes for goals of zero inventory, zero machine breakdowns, zero accidents, zero defects and zero customer disappointments. How many of us believe these goals to be impossible? So why try?
After all we are just human and humans are imperfect and make mistakes. So why try?
All systems are imperfect including lean manufacturing so why try?
Looking to religion, as Christians we are on a path to live by the example that Jesus Christ has given us. In other words, we try to be Christ-like in our words and actions. Many other religious beliefs, if not all of them, teach each follower to become better in their life. All religions acknowledge our human imperfections yet each pursue a path of perfection in life. Perhaps the quest to be better is at the core of being human.
I believe that is our purpose in life-to become a better person so “trying” is what life is all about.
The same goes for our pursuit of perfection in lean manufacturing. It is all about the never ending pursuit of perfection. Emphasis is on the pursuit and not on perfection. Are we moving to be better today than yesterday? Can we be closer to perfection each day? Do we learn from our mistakes?
Do we see the gap between where we are today and our vision of perfection? Do we view this gap as the impossible or as an opportunity? Do we view this gap as a pointless journey or a path of many small steps?
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
English Speaking Lean
After reading Mark Graban’s post, 10 Things I Wish Lean Practitioners Wouldn’t Say in 2010 on his Lean Blog, I thought it was interesting that 4 of the 10 things were aimed against using Japanese terms. Mark clearly states he is not opposed to Japanese terms but asks if we might be “getting a bit carried away in embracing Japanese words.” He further suggests that we should avoid using Japanese words in an English-speaking environment, and just use simple, plain English.
But perhaps simple, plain English is not what we believe it to be. Although it is difficult be exact with our dynamic and expanding vocabulary, it is estimated that over 80% of our English vocabulary has come from other languages (source: Wikipedia.com). Most of our English words come from Latin, French, Italian, and Greek origin to name a few. Due to contact with other cultures over the centuries in conquests, commerce, travel and immigration, the English language has adopted or derived many words into our fold. As our world gets smaller and contact increases with the speed of the internet and television, I can easily speculate that our “English” language will add many more words in the future and at a much faster rate.
If we choose the path of halting the spread of Japanese words in our lean approach except for select few like kaizen or gemba, would we be promoting the status quo (oops, Latin)? Maybe we should form an ad hoc (Latin, again) committee to set a policy on the use of Japanese words in our company? If we can’t decide, we can leave it up to the head honcho (Japanese) to put the kibosh (Yiddish) on this glitch (Yiddish) in our improvement path.
Instead of sending our kids to Kindergarten (German) we should say we are sending them to Pre-First Grade. Or should we simply say we live on a quiet, dead-end street instead of a cul-de-sac (French)? Instead of going out for sushi (Japanese), let’s go out for some raw fish..yummy. States like California (Spanish) and Colorado (Spanish) would be shopping for new names. No more going out on Karaoke (Japanese) night , let’s just go out to the local bar to sing off key to taped music after drinking some liquid courage. We would also give up using words like café, chipotle, chocolate, ballet, protégé, entrepreneur, blasé, gaffe, whiskey, banana and mosquito.
My personal bias is to use the Japanese words in talking and teaching lean because I was taught by Japanese Sensei for the first 10 years of my lean journey. It has become second nature to me and I embrace the words as I embrace the lean thinking.
This does not mean that Japanese words need to be used by everyone, it is up to each person to decide on their own. The use of Japanese words is not to impress or exclude, it is just to seek greater understanding of the meaning. Hopefully we won’t get lost in translation.
Update added (1/7/2010)
There are certainly many great comments on this topic. Thanks to all!
Please check out these other posts on this topic by :
Mark Rosenthal's post on The lean Thinker
Brian Buck's post on Improve with Me
Ron Pereira's post on LSS Academy
But perhaps simple, plain English is not what we believe it to be. Although it is difficult be exact with our dynamic and expanding vocabulary, it is estimated that over 80% of our English vocabulary has come from other languages (source: Wikipedia.com). Most of our English words come from Latin, French, Italian, and Greek origin to name a few. Due to contact with other cultures over the centuries in conquests, commerce, travel and immigration, the English language has adopted or derived many words into our fold. As our world gets smaller and contact increases with the speed of the internet and television, I can easily speculate that our “English” language will add many more words in the future and at a much faster rate.
If we choose the path of halting the spread of Japanese words in our lean approach except for select few like kaizen or gemba, would we be promoting the status quo (oops, Latin)? Maybe we should form an ad hoc (Latin, again) committee to set a policy on the use of Japanese words in our company? If we can’t decide, we can leave it up to the head honcho (Japanese) to put the kibosh (Yiddish) on this glitch (Yiddish) in our improvement path.
Instead of sending our kids to Kindergarten (German) we should say we are sending them to Pre-First Grade. Or should we simply say we live on a quiet, dead-end street instead of a cul-de-sac (French)? Instead of going out for sushi (Japanese), let’s go out for some raw fish..yummy. States like California (Spanish) and Colorado (Spanish) would be shopping for new names. No more going out on Karaoke (Japanese) night , let’s just go out to the local bar to sing off key to taped music after drinking some liquid courage. We would also give up using words like café, chipotle, chocolate, ballet, protégé, entrepreneur, blasé, gaffe, whiskey, banana and mosquito.
My personal bias is to use the Japanese words in talking and teaching lean because I was taught by Japanese Sensei for the first 10 years of my lean journey. It has become second nature to me and I embrace the words as I embrace the lean thinking.
This does not mean that Japanese words need to be used by everyone, it is up to each person to decide on their own. The use of Japanese words is not to impress or exclude, it is just to seek greater understanding of the meaning. Hopefully we won’t get lost in translation.
Update added (1/7/2010)
There are certainly many great comments on this topic. Thanks to all!
Please check out these other posts on this topic by :
Mark Rosenthal's post on The lean Thinker
Brian Buck's post on Improve with Me
Ron Pereira's post on LSS Academy
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Be Prepared
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Be Prepared is the motto of the Boy Scouts and most likely the simplest method for productivity improvement. Lord Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scout movement, coined the motto for all scouts to be prepared in mind and be prepared in body. Scouts who do their best at living by this motto would be in position to do the right thing at the right time. In other words, when the moment arrives, a scout is ready for anything.
How does this relate to productivity and the lean approach?
On a tactical level, take machine changeovers or set ups for example. In my experience, the single biggest element that takes time in a typical changeover is collecting everything you need like tools, fixtures, dies, clamps, sheet up sheets, materials, gages, etc. I would certainly not be surprised if 50% of current set up time is consumed in just this activity.
If we want to make a significant impact in reducing set up time, work on designing a system or process that ensures everything we need to change over is at hand prior to the set up change, every time! A person or persons performing the changeover should never have to leave the machine or wait on any item.
No capital spending required, just planning, practice and discipline to “Be Prepared” when the set up time moment arrives. Discipline is the key ingredient which can be harder to find than this year’s hot Christmas toy on December 24th.
Go to gemba and watch any machine changeover. How prepared are we when the machine is stopped?
Using this same “Be Prepared” motto, are we prepared for meetings, kaizen events, daily production, material delivery, customer requests, etc? How much smoother and efficient would all our activities be if we spent time on being prepared?
Here is another simple example, getting ready for work in the morning. How much time do we spend? How about bathroom time, dressing time, eating time, etc? If we were to select, iron and layout out our clothes the night before, would we save time the next morning? What about shoes, car keys, laptop, or those notes needed for this morning’s meeting? If we had all our grooming items, towels, etc ready to go the night before, would we save time? What if we filled up our car with gas the night before? What are all the things we can do the night before to “be prepared” for getting ready for work in the morning?
But being prepared is more than just having things ready ahead of time, it means to “be prepared” for anything. To be mentally ready, knowing what we should do in case different events should occur and be ready to face difficulties and challenges.
Going back to the morning work routine example, what do we do if the power goes out in the night? What do we do if we have no power in the morning? What do we do if we break a shoe lace? What if bad weather hits? We could prepare for all these events ahead of time and be ready when the time arrives. (Sounds like the beginnings of a FMEA – Failure Mode and Effects Analysis).
As lean thinkers, we might consider adopting the same motto, Be Prepared. What do you think?
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Do our Customers Really Benefit from our Lean Effort?
One of the principles of the lean approach is long term thinking with focus on adding value to our customers and society. We are taught to eliminate waste, things that don’t add value to the customer.
We improve flow, reduce set up time, improve productivity, eliminate waste and reduce cost. Kaizen events successful hit targets and employees are trained. 5-S activities are done daily, audits are conducted and our facilities look better. We create value stream maps and work hard to transform our company to our future state.
Somewhere in all this lean activity, our customer focus can be lost. We do all the things that we believe will make us leaner. But have we truly adding value to our customer? If not, why not?
Do our lean efforts hit the bottom line and stop there? Is our lean effort all about improving our margins? Is our lean effort all about head count reduction?
It is not enough to just eliminate waste and reduce cost. Our customers don’t care about our 5-S audit scores, the number of kaizen events we conduct, if we use ERP or Kanban, or the number of our inventory turns. Our lean efforts must add value to the customer. It must be seen and felt by our customers.
Bottom line: Are we giving our customers what they want, when they want it, at the highest quality and affordable cost? Is our lean system effort supporting this mission?
We improve flow, reduce set up time, improve productivity, eliminate waste and reduce cost. Kaizen events successful hit targets and employees are trained. 5-S activities are done daily, audits are conducted and our facilities look better. We create value stream maps and work hard to transform our company to our future state.
Somewhere in all this lean activity, our customer focus can be lost. We do all the things that we believe will make us leaner. But have we truly adding value to our customer? If not, why not?
Do our lean efforts hit the bottom line and stop there? Is our lean effort all about improving our margins? Is our lean effort all about head count reduction?
It is not enough to just eliminate waste and reduce cost. Our customers don’t care about our 5-S audit scores, the number of kaizen events we conduct, if we use ERP or Kanban, or the number of our inventory turns. Our lean efforts must add value to the customer. It must be seen and felt by our customers.
Bottom line: Are we giving our customers what they want, when they want it, at the highest quality and affordable cost? Is our lean system effort supporting this mission?
Monday, December 14, 2009
Thank You God for Giving Me Problems
I just finished reading an inspirational book “Play to Win, The Make a Difference Gameplan” by Tom Karbowski , a co-worker from Southern Indiana. In his book, he wrote the follow prayer, reprinted with his permission:
When my customers complain about problems, thank you for giving me the opportunity to meet the needs of others. My competitors would love to be in my shoes.
When I am frustrated with my career, thank you for allowing me to live in a country that has a vibrant economic system. I can always do something else or start my own company.
When I am unhappy about the pace of change in the world, thank you for allowing me to live during such incredibly exciting times. The possibilities for improvement are endless.
When I am exhausted because I have too many things to do, thank you for giving me such an interesting and full life.
And when I am annoyed with my spouse or children, thank you for giving me a loving family and for all the happy times when they make me laugh with joy.
When I am sick, thank you for allowing me to live in a country with such a wonderful health care system.
When I am unhappy with elected politicians, thank you for allowing me to live in a democratic society. I can change the future with the power of a vote.
When I do not understand something, thank you for giving me the ability to learn and the curiosity to search for a better way.
When my prayers go unanswered, thank you for providing me with patience until I understand your will.
And when I have a true problem, thank you for giving it to me. All problems present an opportunity for me to enhance my character and deepen my faith. When I resolve this problem, I will be a better person.
Becoming better problem solvers is part of the lean way. How we go about solving them is part method (scientific method) and part attitude (positive). Regardless of our opinions on politicians, our economic system, our health care system, our companies, our jobs, etc, even if we are currently facing money problems, loss of a job, family problems, etc, we all have the same choice that only we can make, are we going to face our problems with a positive attitude or a negative attitude?
Thank you God for giving me problems.
When I am at work and get frustrated, thank you for giving me a job. There are many people who need employment and would welcome the opportunity to confront the challenges I face.When my customers complain about problems, thank you for giving me the opportunity to meet the needs of others. My competitors would love to be in my shoes.
When I am frustrated with my career, thank you for allowing me to live in a country that has a vibrant economic system. I can always do something else or start my own company.
When I am unhappy about the pace of change in the world, thank you for allowing me to live during such incredibly exciting times. The possibilities for improvement are endless.
When I am exhausted because I have too many things to do, thank you for giving me such an interesting and full life.
And when I am annoyed with my spouse or children, thank you for giving me a loving family and for all the happy times when they make me laugh with joy.
When I am sick, thank you for allowing me to live in a country with such a wonderful health care system.
When I am unhappy with elected politicians, thank you for allowing me to live in a democratic society. I can change the future with the power of a vote.
When I do not understand something, thank you for giving me the ability to learn and the curiosity to search for a better way.
When my prayers go unanswered, thank you for providing me with patience until I understand your will.
And when I have a true problem, thank you for giving it to me. All problems present an opportunity for me to enhance my character and deepen my faith. When I resolve this problem, I will be a better person.
Becoming better problem solvers is part of the lean way. How we go about solving them is part method (scientific method) and part attitude (positive). Regardless of our opinions on politicians, our economic system, our health care system, our companies, our jobs, etc, even if we are currently facing money problems, loss of a job, family problems, etc, we all have the same choice that only we can make, are we going to face our problems with a positive attitude or a negative attitude?
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