Real Kaizen thinking is based on making these little changes on a regular basis: always improving productivity, safety and effectiveness while reducing waste.  The western philosophy is often summarized as, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." However, the Kaizen philosophy is to "do it better, make it better, improve it even if it isn't broken, because if we don't, we can't compete with those who do."

A little bit into the video he shows a digital printing operation. POD team should watch this.

Here's the truth: you've got problems and things you really need to work on, personally and professionally.  We all know that's true, so here the real question:  What are you doing about it?

Think of these key points and the training that they drive as temporary countermeasures.  They are stop gaps you have in place until you can do something more robust.

A key component of continuous improvement is to show progress. It's not about miracles or heroic solutions or solving massive problems overnight. It's about building momentum. It's showing your employees that you're headed in the right direction. It's making visible changes, even slight ones, that show you're doing something. You're demonstrating that you support them. You're giving them a reason to trust you. You're building faith.

Interesting technology!

Cool video of a Belgian company using Kanban cards in its shipping operations.

There is a strong relationship between ergonomics and repetitive stress injuries. Lifting heavy objects at uncomfortable angles is also known to cause injury. Finally, fatigue occurs in poorly designed work areas. This can contribute to a higher injury rate because tired people tend to make more mistakes than rested ones,

In the spirit of doing better, the smallest ideas are likely to be the easiest to adopt and implement. These improvements are sometimes called Point or Mini Kaizen. Making one small change is both rewarding to the person making the change and if communicated to others can lead to a widespread adoption of the improvement and the possibility that someone will improve on what has already been improved. There's no telling what might occur if this were the everyday habit of all team members.

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.

Great article on problem solving

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.

Today we're going to go over the fundamentals of habit - four key habits to form habits. If you can learn these four habits, you'll have the foundation to form pretty much any habit.

Office Waste

How many handoffs are there within each process? How visible are the key performance indicators - cost, quality, delivery, and safety - to each person working in the department? Does each process have a clear owner? How much and how often do people have to rework the information that they receive from their upstream colleagues? How often and how long do people (or customers) have to wait for information? How many different ways are there of doing a job (i.e., do you have standard work for each function)?

Operating systems, government programs, established non-profits, teachers with tenure, market leaders, businesses with long-standing customers--these organizations are all facing an uphill battle in creating a culture where there's an urgency to improve. Just because it's uphill doesn't mean it's hopeless, though. One of the most essential tasks a leader faces is understanding just how much the team is afraid of making things better (because it usually means making things worse--for some people).

Lean as a habit.

Great article on habits.

Of all the skills I've learned in the past 7 years of changing my life, one skill stands out: Learning to be comfortable with discomfort.