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Within virtually any serious lean transformation effort, there are moments of truth. The "truth" represents not the orthodoxy of lean tools and even systems, both extremely important, but lean principles themselves. Violate the principles and fail that moment of truth. Do it consistently and the lean transformation will be nothing more than a lean charade. Effective lean leaders must be unbending when it comes to principles. See figure below for the lean principles as identified in the Shingo Prize Model. So, why do lean leaders waffle on lean principles?

What do you get when you combine free and Lean?  Well, the FreeLeanSite.com. Jay Watson is the Lean thinker behind this site. It grew from a passion of implementing Lean on the shop floor at companies like Motorola, Honeywell, and General Electric. He started the site to make "lean thinking" concepts of continuous improvement highly accessible for practitioners in North America. Our primary focus is on accelerating the developmental process, sustaining the effort, and most importantly - driving for results. The majority of the training modules are absolutely free to download and modify as needed. A management improvement process focused on elements of Safety, Quality, and Speed of Execution provides a framework for action. The site has four major sections to aid in finding the right resource: Jay also provides some advice on implementing Lean by defining a Lean Roadmap.The roadmap consists of the following three phases: PHASE 1 (GET READY): PLANNING FOR IMPROVEMENT PHASE II (GET SET): CONDUCTING A PILOT PROGRAM PHASE III (GO!): TEAM PROBLEM SOLVING/ SKILLS DEVELOPMENT I have been truly amazed by the sheer amount of Lean related material that Jay has compiled.  This is a great resource for learning on your own or sharing with your team.

I really like these three tips: Complaining trumps self satisfaction. The people in an organization which is 10 years into a lean transformation should not be satisfied with their condition. A happy lean culture is a faltering lean culture. People should be happy, but there should be a distinct sense of dissatisfaction with the status quo. Frequent and brief complaining followed by 5 why root cause analysis and corrective action is a characteristic of a sustaining lean culture. Structured program trumps invisible behaviors. It's tempting to think that a formal, structured lean program is no longer necessary after 10 years of practicing lean because it is now "in the blood" and does not require special promotion or attention. However this is rarely the case. Nature abhors a vacuum, and corporations seem to abhor a vacuum in program-space. Best to keep the lean program and improve it also continuously as a support mechanism. Pedal to the metal trumps cruise control. Thomas Jefferson said, "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance" and coincidentally this is also the price of a sustained lean culture. At no time is it safe to put the program on cruise control. Corners always want to be cut, people naturally want to do what is easy, and without strong leadership to remind people that sometimes the important things are not easy, a lean culture will not sustain. Developing people trumps driving results. After 10 years even people who may have only paid this lip service begin to see the cause and effect connection and begin to believe. It takes time to develop people. When you can point to people that have developed with the organization and are driving results, this is a sign that the elements of a sustainable lean culture are in place.

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Lean Tip #901 - Turn Employees into Problem Solvers and Improvement Specialists. The most important aspect of lean is to involve employees in developing lean processes. Many times companies create a culture in which the employees don't make the decisions, management does. Then when problems occur, employees are unable to diagnose or solve problems without involving a supervisor. Lean reverses that by revolving around employees and looking to them as the improvement specialists.

The following key points summarize Lean and Lean Metrics: 1) Make Lean so simple anyone can understand it. 2) Fix what bugs you and improve it everyday. 3) Every employee must make a 2 sec improvement everyday. 4) People fail sometimes and solutions may not valid but you learn from that. 5) Create a routine like: start day with Sweep, Sort, Standardize, then improvement time, then morning meeting. 6) Give people time everyday to experiment, train, and teach. 7) Simple metrics -            a) 1 improvement everyday            b) Orders out in 2 hours            c) Less than 1 mistake a week            d) Want customers to rave about us 8) Defects are something the customer sees. 9) Develop the skill and capacity to solve problems by everyone everyday.

Can we also put "Kaizen: FastCap Style" on the list.

Sure, just post it here, and tag it "film festival".

Lean is not about the destination but rather the direction or path you take toward an idealistic place. The journey towards Lean can be difficult and filled with obstacles. Developing the ability to recognize waste is an essential first step on the right path of the Lean journey.

"Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better." - Maya Angelou This quote pretty much sums up the aim of Lean. The lean approach to managing operations is really about: Doing the simple things well Doing things better Involving employees in the continuous process of improvement …and as a result, avoiding waste, providing value

Lean manufacturing often focuses on the processes and employees. True lean manufacturing takes the entire facility into consideration. You cannot achieve your goal without looking at the equipment you are using. Here are some tips for optimizing your plant and leaning out your store of equipment.

A principle that has been often discussed (and hopefully practiced) in the Lean community over the past few years is usually described as "respect for people." A certain British rabble rouser recently said at a Lean conference "all this respect for people stuff is horse sh*t," and that it is a "conventional Western management interpretation." He mocked the idea of "respect for people programs," although I'm not sure where such a standalone program has ever been attempted.

A Lean Product Development Process comprises 3 basic elements: (1) driving waste out of the product development process, (2) improving the way projects are executed with stage-gate A3 management process, and (3) visualizing the product development process.

BUT, lean principles in action are initiated, taught, coached, and reinforced by lean leaders largely through their behaviors within the context of the lean management system.

Get out there, go to the Gemba. I say this to executives and to people on-the-floor alike. They must start their Lean journey with a trip to see what Toyota calls the three reals - the real place, the real data and the real problem. They must go and see for themselves, not just take the advice of a Lean committee!

A Lean Enterprise is centered on the concept of flow. Flow is one of five key Lean Principles identified by Womack and Jones in their book Lean Thinking. They stressed that you need to make value flow. It was this creation of flow that would make it possible to eliminate waste. When material and information flow continuously, there is less waste in the system. This is true by definition. If there were a lot of waste, material and information would not be flowing.

It would be bold... where do we start!?

Our process is different Why people believe this: Most people have a limited view of other processes, and don't see the similarities. Many cultures also value independence, so people are biased towards seeing uniqueness in their processes. The truth: There is a great deal of overlap in processes, and most are not as unique as people think they are. As a Lean consultant, I see new processes and methods with every project, but the majority of the tasks people do are things I've seen before. How to overcome this: Have a couple of go-to people to talk to the group that is experiencing change. They should be people who have recently used Lean to improve their process. Teams believe each other far more than they believe their bosses.

"Many cultures also value independence, so people are biased towards seeing uniqueness in their processes." Certainly our culture!

Agreed Paul.

Lean Tip #241 - Leaders must teach by example to transform a culture. To get people across an organization to systematically work on improvement every day requires teaching the skills behind the solution. And for that to happen, their leaders and mangers also need to practice and learn those skills.

Lean Tip #251 - Effective problem solving requires good understanding of the problem and the current situation. The first step in problem solving is to be certain you have a good understanding of the current situation. To ensure your solutions get to the root cause, you must understand the process where the problem initially occurred. When starting to diagnose a problem, don't rely on verbal reports to provide the details. Go to the work area, observe the situation, solicit help from the people in the area, and collect hard evidence for yourself. Gathering the facts first hand will help you gain a better understanding of the problem which, in turn, will allow you to better focus your solutions.

Lean Tip #406 - Clearly specify all Activities Standardize work Content (what is being done?) Sequence (in what order?) Timing (how long should it take?) Outcome (what clearly defined measurable results are expected?)

Too often [kaizen] has come to mean assembling a special team for a project using lean of Six Sigma methods, or perhaps organizing a kaizen "event" for a week to make a burst of changes. We sometimes hear the phrase "doing a kaizen" as if it were a one-off activity. At Toyota, kaizen […] is how the company operates at the most fundamental level.

It's often easier to describe what lean isn't than what it is. Lean isn't about being spartan, skinny or stingy. It isn't about slash-and-burn cost cutting, reducing headcount or beating up suppliers to get the lowest price. Being lean means systematically removing anything impeding the free flow of value to the receiving party. Lean innovation isn't about doing more with less; it's about doing better with less. That might sound like a nuance, but think about it: You've undoubtedly said "no more" many times, even about something good. When was the last time you said, "Let's not have better"? There's no limit on better.

How could we use this in POD for example? Obviously, the manufacturer has taken an existing batch process, moved to single piece flow and seen tremendous results. The benefits are clear. Reduced inventory and faster delivery times. This alone will make any manufacturer more competitive. But lean doesn't stop here. Any process can be optimized and, when cost and space allows, moving to a flexible work cell is the logical next step.

My kids enjoy playing with Legos so it is no surprise that they got some new sets for Christmas.  The last few weeks have been fun filled with these little bricks building cars, houses, and other scenes.  As I look at this time together I can't help but think there are a number of Lean lessons that you can take away from this experience.