The Buddy Wheel is an easy way, that takes advantage of Visual Management Principles, to manage resources and responsibilities: People and Time. Another aspect in managing people and time is the aspect of who and when - because here we're talking about essentially a round robin of people.

Please read this brilliantly simple system of ordering at Waffle House.

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.

In your workplace, do people act like shopowners?  Do they do work extra hard to take care of the shop, own its processes, design its delivery of goods and services, and constantly seek out innovative ways to provide value?  Are they looking for ways to grow the business, since that growth leads to both stability and prosperity?

While workplaces don't have commanders, they do have leaders. So the same principle of intent holds true in the civilian world. If you are a manager and your team knows how you define success, they will be able to make decisions in your absence. That is a critically important skill for a highly functioning team to develop

One of the challenges of teaching and consulting is resisting the temptation to give people the answers. Honestly, I like giving people the answers. It feels genuinely helpful, and it provides a nice ego boost. But according to this article on Time's "Time Ideas" site by Anne Murphy Paul titled " Why Floundering is Good," that isn't the best way to teach. In fact, it can hinder learning.

Fundamental to understanding any process and eventually generating practical ideas for improvement is to ask the 5W's and 1H. So, here's the definition of the 5W and 1H.

"But, we got the parts in and shipped the units. I thought we handled that quite well," protested Valerie.

"You are right, your supervisor did a good job. That's what supervisors do. But your work, as a manager, was not done," I replied. "The job of the manager is to create the system. When you discovered you would be short of parts, it was your supervisors job to go find the parts, but it was your job to ask

The heart of most effective continuous improvement is experimentation. Experimentation is the mother of all learning methods. It drives learning throughout an organization based on what is real, not based on theory or opinion. Whether you use PDCA, DMAIC, 8D, A3s or any other method in the alphabet soup of continuous improvement, there is a backbone of experimentation whose spirit you can follow, or fail to.

When using drawers to store equipment, one expression stands out: Out of sight, out of mind. Things in a drawer tend to get piled up, misplaced, and forgotten about. Drawers take time to open and close, and slow down processes. They hide things. Bottom line: Drawers are fine for storage, but they hinder 5S and flow in a production environment.

I don't agree with every point in this article, but I like his point about understanding the process before you set a goal. The setting of target conditions as goals is also something to think about.

Take a look at the video, and then the flowchart beneath it (click on the flowchart for the full size version), then we will discuss what this has to do with lean thinking.

"The best time to train workers is when an error is first detected. It also is the best time to solve a problem." - Dr. Ryuji Fukuda, VP of Production at Sumitomo Electric When do you train your personnel in problem solving? How do you train them in problem solving? Dr. Ryuji Fukuda, VP of Production at Sumitomo Electrics says "The best time to train workers is when an error is first detected. It also is the best time to solve a problem." He refers to this activity as On-Error-Training (OET). The following five rules are necessary to make OET work successfully in your shop.

Very simple things to do while in Gemba

Before rushing ahead with a process mapping and improvement effort, consider some of the following questions. Some of these may seem basic, but yet I see people not thinking these basics through. If our process was much better than it is today, would it yield the performance gains we desire? How much better is today's best process compared to ours? What else besides our process might be holding us back? How much better could we get just by executing our current process with more discipline? Please understand that one of the last things I want to do is give people excuses for not doing process improvements. But since the objective of process improvement is to improve results, then we better be darn sure this is what we are going to accomplish.

In this post I am going to show you how you can use these same concepts that you use to manage your workspace to save your inbox.

A good test of whether something is overproduction or overprocessing is to question the reason why the waste exists. Overproduction is often a conscious act of producing more than necessary in order to hedge against future failures, maximize the output or utilization of a resource, to keep busy when there is no other work to be done, or just because you had a pot that served 6 when you were making dinner for 4 people.

Here are a few of my favorite Bruce Lee quotes that I find helpful as a source of inspiration: "The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be." "It's not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential." "If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them."Obey the principles without being bound by them. "Fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." "Knowing is not enough we must apply. Willing is not enough we must do" "Those who are unaware they are walking in darkness will never seek the light."

"A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.""To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person." "A goal is not always meant to be reached. It often serves simply as something to aim at." "To grow, to discover, we need involvement which is something I experience everyday, sometimes good, sometimes frustrating."

"There are four purposes of improvement: easier, better, faster, and cheaper. These four goals appear in the order of priority." Shigeo Shingo

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?)