"Determination of root causes should provide a clear and obvious understanding of the necessary solutions." - Jeffrey Liker and David Meier, The Toyota Way Field book

Factory workers manipulate and process titanium alloys or scratch-resistant iPhone glass faces. Knowledge workers manipulate and process information. Regardless of what kind of worker you are, you need 5S to provide you with quick access to what you're working on, and to allow you to spot abnormalities.

So, when the signal-to-noise-ratio approaches zero - when there's just a little bit of information coming through the static, as at the consumer products company described above - you know it's time for information 5S. It's time to identify what information is necessary to serve the customer, make decisions, and manage the business, and eliminate the rest. Anything else may be interesting, but is ultimately irrelevant - and even worse, it sucks valuable resources into the giant maw of waste

I will begin using this today. We'll see how it works.

There are three elements which are critical to any process improvement initiative, irrespective of the overall approach.

Might be useful for us.

Might be a good video to watch for those in a non-manufacturing environment.

Deploy a daily accountability process. Effective lean management systems include the use of tiered meetings to review team performance versus targets, plan for the next 24 hours, and identify issues, barriers and countermeasures. It drives shared understanding of process performance, foments dialogue, and "pulls" suggestions.

The last reason this works at Toyota is because of the roles and skills of the people. Front-line workers know the true meaning and value of each standard procedure - not only in theory. They have the skills and knowledge to solve problems and an end-to-end process perspective. The supervisors are pivotal in developing these competencies. They check and confirm that the standard procedures have been put in place and that workers are following them exactly. Supervisors can improve processes through coaching, questioning (not ordering), and making front-line workers think and take responsibility. Managers (supervisors, managers, directors, and above) motivate workers by meeting with them to communicate the corporate vision.

Couldn't resist posting a cartoon on Kaizen. In what ways do we exhibit this behavior?

Good video on Kaizen

Nice article on how to use the Fish Bone diagram.

What will not change in successful companies, though, are three things

To be clear about this, you first need to be clear about the strategic direction or vision for the organization.

5S is the systematic integration of all of the facets of manufacturing in the workplace in a manner that assures the best cost, optimum flow, perfact quality and absolute safety.  As this chart shows, straightening and sweeping is nothing more than a superficial, final step after the work place has been holistically designed and put in place.

Good article on Toyota Business Practice.

The truth is, when everybody practices status quo behavior almost every day,that is what is sustained. If employees are not practicing the new way every day, by default they are practicing the old. Practice makes permanent

Might be of interest to some of us.

One of the most important learning's I took from the experience was how effective rapid prototyping and hands on experimenting could be in an event. The Sensei went from team to team throughout the event and kept telling us to stop brainstorming and start "trystorming (actual simulation or creation of the idea)." This meant putting away the flip charts and sticky notes and getting out on the floor and getting our hands dirty. Having the 3D, tangible "mock-ups" allowed the teams to quickly understand each others ideas and iteratively improve the solution in a way that would not be possible on paper. Simulations became real and many of the bugs of standard work could be worked out in advance prior to a "down stream" implementation.