- The Fall and Rise of Automotive (and Healthcare) Quality
[13 Feb 12, 10:00am] “they One of my favorite newspaper writers is Ed Wallace of my local Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Wallace appears in the Sunday automotive section and usually writes about broader business issues beyond cars. His most recent column (“The Fall and Ri… - Upcoming Lean Speaking Engagements – Las Vegas and Phoenix
[10 Feb 12, 5:00pm] I’ll be attending and speaking at three public events in the next few months, twice in Las Vegas and once in Phoenix. Hope to see you there. First, I will be speaking about Healthcare Kaizen at the Society for Health Systems conference in Vegas Feb… - Kaizen on the Boeing 737 Line
[10 Feb 12, 10:00am] There was a nice article in the Wall Street Journal this week about the Boeing 737 and some of their Lean and Kaizen (continuous improvement) work: “Boeing Teams Speed Up 737 Output — Jet Maker’s Innovation Crews Search for Ways to Streamline P…
- Is takt time the most misunderstood lean concept?
[13 Feb 12, 10:30am] Is takt time the most misunderstood lean concept? My experiences suggests yes, although this surprises me quite a bit. It’s not that the misunderstanding is highly significant, or has a dramatic impact on people’s actions. But when we ask the que… - Kodak and Fuji: a tale of two companies in the face of the same insurmountable problem
[8 Feb 12, 9:30am] The Economist had an excellent article detailing the difference between Kodak’s historic bankruptcy and Fujifilm’s equally remarkable success, in The last Kodak moment?, and expanded on in Sharper focus. Both companies faced the same problem stat… - The failure of “Don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions!”
[7 Feb 12, 9:30am] I head this approach many times, and in many different forms. Managers say “I don’t want people to bring me problems; I want them to bring me solutions.” Or “I don’t want more questions, I want answers.” I ran across this on the Harvard B…
- Necessary and Valuable are not the same
[13 Feb 12, 2:53pm] by BILL WADDELL Heather Peters is not someone you have likely heard of - unless you are a lawyer, that is, or Honda. In that case, you have not only heard of her but are probably either furious with her,... - The Independence of the French
[6 Feb 12, 7:08pm] By Kevin Meyer A recent Wall Street Journal article on French parenting methods has been rattling around in my noggin for a week so I've got to do something about it to free up some aging neurons. Yes it is... - A Few Observations
[2 Feb 12, 5:48am] by BILL WADDELL A curious observation on the Apple article Kevin covered the New York Times Apple article quite well, so I won't repeat. I had to point out, however, the curious incongruity between the Dow Corning exec who said...
- Learning Lean - Collaboratively
[26 Jan 12, 5:00am] I wish I knew more about learning. I know quite a lot, just not nearly enough. Like you, I’ve been educated – hopefully even learning throughout that process – for many (too many?) years. I’ve – again hopefully – continued to learn outsid… - So, what are you going to do about it?
[28 Oct 11, 4:00am] What a year for global supply chains! It started quietly, with a few leading firms taking the lead in reintegrating hopelessly disintegrated supply lines. Then came the shock of the catastrophe known in Japan as 3-11 that left automotive and electron… - Was Steve Lean?
[20 Oct 11, 4:00am] I don't know that much about Apple. The only gemba I've visited are lots of Apple stores (I don't know if they're lean but they go far in solving customers' problems) and a few (far from lean) suppliers in East Asia. …
- Hybrids save fuel? Just askin'
[12 Jan 12, 6:31pm] I was reminded today about the value of hybrids when I caught this article from Industry Week: Detroit unsure over the future of green cars. Because really, do they save fuel? So it has a battery -- how do you recharge it?Resources Graphics.comIt… - 2011 Management Blog Roundup: Business 901
[28 Dec 11, 8:26am] Joe DagerIn an organization's lean transformation, getting sales on board is not always easy. They are used to a tug of war over winning business and fulfilling it and seem to speak a different language. You may be looking around for a new way t… - 2011 Management Blog Roundup: The Lean Thinker
[27 Dec 11, 8:46am] Mark RosenthalMy second pick for a great blog that might be new to you is The Lean Thinker: Thoughts and insights from the shop floor by Mark Rosenthal.Mark's got plenty of experience in the trenches, including an 11-year stint in the military g…
- The Denver Health & Hospital Authority -- The Results Are In
[25 Jan 12, 7:10pm] Over on the Hospitals and Health Networks site, I read this great article about the Denver Health organization's incredible benefits resulting from its six-year Lean journey. Patricia A. Gabow, CEO of the Denver Health and Hospital Authority, b… - Lean and Agile Software Development: How Do We Make It Happen?
[10 Jan 12, 6:08pm] Recently, I had the chance to speak in person with Michael Levine, author of a new book published this past December titled A Tale of Two Transformations: Bringing Lean and Agile Software Development to Life. His book provides entertaining and thoug… - The Visual Author
[3 Jan 12, 7:21pm] Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a healthy and happy holiday season.CRC Press, the parent company of Productivity Press, recently established a YouTube channel that will feature many Productivity Press authors discussing performance-improvement to…
- We Don't Know
[21 Jan 12, 4:37am] After a great kaizen event this week, kicking off an eight week project looking at reducing real waste (actually reducing landfill waste generated by the organization), we asked the team members for lessons learned. Our Team Leader, David York, leadi… - To Get Results, You Gotta do the Work
[28 Sep 11, 9:27pm] Some lessons for our lean journey can be easily seen on NBC’s The Biggest Loser in every single episode: To get results, you gotta do the work. The trainers don’t run on the treadmill for you. You must do all the heavy lifting and all the sweatin… - Boeing Delivering First 787 Dreamliner
[26 Sep 11, 11:02pm] On our kaizen tour last week in Seattle, we included a stop at Boeing in Everett, Washington to observe their production lines and witness a test flight of the first customer production 787 for ANA (All Nippon Airways). The 787 lifted to the sky smoo…
- PDCA, even in 140 characters
[13 Feb 12, 12:39am] In this recent Wall Street Journal column, Carl Bialik wrote about efforts to quantify public opinion by analyzing millions of Twitter feeds rather than conducting traditional phone polling. The validity of this approach, according to one person… - Labels
[10 Feb 12, 12:20am] "Sure, you can bring it back" said the customer service rep, with a friendly voice.Which door at your store should I come to, I asked."Oh, just the one in the back," she replied, casually.I knew from a previous visit there w… - Can't Have It Both Ways
[9 Feb 12, 12:10am] Some days, the Lean Leader has to be fully strategic. Big picture stuff. "Here's why we use pull and not a scheduled build." "This is why we make these labels so clearly." It's qualitative. Perhaps cerebral. …
- Toyota Production System used to build homes faster and better.
[23 Sep 11, 12:49am] - Insane, Wasteful Activity - Volume I
[8 Sep 11, 2:46am] A simple highlight of what some people would call "work", I call pure taxpayer waste and with a dash of insanity:Gibson: Feds Want Guitar Woodwork Done By Foreign Labor | Fox News:'via Blog this' - Taylorism is Progressivism?
[3 Sep 11, 7:15am] Kevin Carson is what some might call a Mutualist, or for the rest of us an apolitical type, not even on the spectrum of politics. In my view, this is what makes his writing so interesting. He has frequently contributed to libertarian and anarchist (n…
- Consultancy Partnership to Improve Improvement?
[30 Jan 12, 12:39am] From great adversity comes great innovation. This was the case for Toyota, who transformed their business philosophy and processes after Japan was decimated by World War II – bringing the world lean thinking, andToyota the title of world’s larges… - Seeing Waste
[11 Jan 12, 4:04pm] One of the most powerful aspects of Lean is that it teaches team members to view their processes through a new lens. It teaches us to understand and seek out waste and it requires us to question “why” things are done the way they are done. … - Small Changes = Big Difference
[22 Dec 11, 3:12pm] Sometimes what seems like really small and simple changes can make a huge impact. The type of changes that team members ask “how did we ever work in the old way?” A great example I have seen again and again in healthcare is the lack of team…
- Management Improvement Blog Carnival #157
[10 Feb 12, 12:21pm] The Curious Cat management blog carnival is published 3 times a month with hand picked recent management blog posts. I also collect management improvement articles for the Curious Cat Management Articles site; you can subscribe via RSS for new articl… - Agile Story Point Estimation
[8 Feb 12, 2:34pm] In agile software development tasks are documented as user stories. Then the level of effort for those stores can be estimated by assigning each story points. The velocity that can be produced in a period (called a sprint, for us … Continue reading… - Looking at Auto Manaufacturing in the USA
[6 Feb 12, 12:13pm] America’s Dirty War Against Manufacturing Bob Lutz, the former head of GM, says it was neither uncompetitive wages nor unions that drove the Big Three into decline. It was a management with its eye focused on the bottom line and … Continue readin…
- Last Chance to Head To MatthewEMay.com!
[29 Oct 10, 11:49pm] I'll be taking this page down soon. Please head to MatthewEMay.com to continue receiving blog posts! - Facebook Like Page Up!
[5 Oct 10, 12:14am] The Facebook Like page for The Shibumi Strategy is now up. "Like" the page and read Chapter 1 free! - The 3 Cs of Trust
[25 Sep 10, 3:03pm] During a recent design thinking workshop in which the participants addressed the issue of creating social capital through new media, I observed a great deal of discussion focused on trust—building it, keeping it, deepening it, avoiding the loss of…
- ARTIC Touch-Point Cards for Service Design
[13 Feb 12, 3:32am] The AT-ONE project headed by Simon Clatworthy at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design produced a set of service touch-point cards for the Nordic Service Design conference. I was curious about the cards and contacted Simon and he was kind enough… - Getting Resistance to Appreciative Inquiry?
[12 Feb 12, 3:35am] In this weeks Business901 Podcast, my guest will be Sara Orem, co-author of Appreciative Coaching: A Positive Process for Change (Jossey-Bass Business & Management). Our conversation centered on the Appreciative Inquiry approach. From Wikipedia:… - The Secret Structure of Great Talks
[11 Feb 12, 3:30am] If anyone has followed this blog for anytime they know that Nancy Duarte is a favorite subject of mine. She passionately pursues the presentation development and design niche. Her two books, Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences a…
- What Spammers and Scammers Can Teach You About Lean
[10 Feb 12, 3:41pm] Every morning, as I clean out the assortment of spam, scams, and general junk mail from my inbox, it strikes me that the senders seem to have a fairly strong understanding of Lean principles. Don’t mistake that comment for me saying that I approve… - Names
[8 Feb 12, 7:47pm] Remembering someone’s name tells them that you place value on them as an individual. It shows that you respect them enough to remember who they are. Unfortunately, many, if not most, people have an extremely hard time remembering names of people th… - Concrete Head
[7 Feb 12, 11:57am] A concrete head is someone who is resistant to the changes that Lean brings. Obviously this is a derogatory term. The term “concrete head’ is the result of a translation from Japanese.
- Mr. Miyagi’s Christmas
[5 Dec 11, 6:47am] After their long stay in US, Thanksgiving, Christmas andother celebrations have become a part of life for Mr. Miyagi and Mrs. Miyagi.This time they are preparing for the season little early. They had many thingsto get done before the Christmas… - Mondays, Fridays, super deals and lean
[29 Nov 11, 5:10am] Just like any of you I am really excited about this season.I love the shopping experience. I always wonder how a retailer can sell their stuffwith such large discounts. Are they selling at a loss? Why can’t they alwaysgive this kind of a dis… - Why lean works well in crisis situations?
[27 Oct 11, 4:43pm] Crisis has almost always made lean to work. But why? Let’sdiscuss the possible reasons for this. Lean requires huge amount of change. It will challenge yourcore beliefs. For an example you believed having work in progress is going tosave…
- Six Sigma Blogs: Change: Involving Those Who Are Never Asked or Rarely Listened To
[22 Feb 11, 4:25pm] Over the past month, as I’ve been reading and researching articles in my new role as editor in chief of iSixSigma, I’ve come across the term VOC a bunch of times.VOC, or voice of the customer, is important and worthy of its numerous mentions. Th… - Six Sigma Blogs: Edutainment Has Its Place Within the Change Initiative
[21 Feb 11, 5:11pm] There are two schools of thought when it comes to engaging employees ... either in training or for roles within a change initiative.One says that it is perfectly fine (even necessary) to infuse such efforts with elements of entertainment, creativity… - Six Sigma Blogs: Correlation and Variation
[20 Feb 11, 2:25pm] Six Sigma projects differ from traditional projects in one important requirement – understanding of the Y=f(x) relationship with data before developing or implementing a solution. In the DMAIC framework, we identify, test and verify the causal rel…
- CKGygi client wins Shingo Prize
[21 Jun 11, 10:48pm] I am extremely pleased to announce that one of my clients, US Synthetic, won the 2011 Shingo Prize. The Shingo Prize is considered the Nobel Prize for operations. You can read about US Synthetic receiving the Shingo Prize here or you can watch a US S… - “Ruined by ‘Best Efforts’”
[12 Apr 10, 1:42pm] When W. Edwards Deming famously said, “We are being ruined by ‘best efforts,’” he was conveying the idea that simply striving to improve—even with laudable effort—can actually have the opposite outcome. How can this be? How could good int… - Product Innovation Through Powerful Problem Statements
[17 Dec 09, 5:39am] Last week I had the opportunity to present a webinar at the Project Management Viewblog. I spoke on how Six Sigma-powered problem statements can actually improve innovation in a project. Interestingly, that’s contrary to what many product managers…
