Lean Roundup #62 - July, 2014

A selection of highlighted blog posts from Lean bloggers from the month of July, 2014.  You can also view the previous monthly Lean Roundups here.

5 Words That Have a Totally Different Meaning to Practitioners of Lean Manufacturing – Pete Abilla shares some common words that have a different meaning to us Lean Thinkers.

Keepin' 'em in the Loop – Bill Waddell shares a story that highlights the importance of communication and sharing information with employees.

Where is the Frontline? – Bruce Hamilton shares a personal story that reminds us of all those employees that can be missed on the frontline when you just look at the shop.

Don't Confuse Posters With Action – Dan Markovitz says if you want to improve then you need more than pictures, you must lead by example.

Making Learning Habit – Gregg Stocker discusses the importance of learning and how to make it a habit for life.

CEO's journey with Lean- How to get everyone on board? – Tracey Richardson answers the question about how to get everyone on board with a Lean transformation.

Put Your Strategy on a Diet – Pascal Dennis talks about the importance of focusing on the vital few versus trying to do everything without success.

A CEO might be a good at lean but poor at leading change – Jeffery Liker says if a leader is having trouble with Lean conversion they may be the problem with leading the change.

Motivating Leaders to Embrace Lean – Bob Emiliani discusses the challenged with getting leaders to embrace Lean and how to strengthen intrinsic motivation.

Leadership – John Smith explains the elements of leadership found in influencing people like purpose, direction, and motivation.

Do Lean with people rather than to people – David Meier says you can do Lean to people you must do it with them.

Coaching – John Shook discusses coaching to develop individual and organizational capability.

3 Operations Habits of Highly Successful Manufacturing Companies – Brian Wilkins describes 3 traits of successful companies with real examples from manufacturing companies.

Look Inward for Root Causes – Bill Waddell shares a story that illustrates the struggle between shipments (revenue) and quality and where this mentality comes from.

11 Common Continuous Improvement Mistakes You Are Probably Making – Jeff Hajek describes 11 common mistakes people make in continuous improvement implementation.

Effort Without the Right Knowledge and Strategy is Often Wasted – John Hunter shares a Deming quote that explains managements role is to ensure that people right knowledge and tools and head in the right direction.

Picking on the Pick Chart – Mark Graban explains that Lean is a means to move ideas from kill column to the can implement column.

Thinking Required – Not Just a Recipe to Follow – John Hunter says management needs to learn to think, experiment, think, improve, think, etc.

Doing Lean Versus Becoming Lean – Jim Luckman defines Lean by describing the difference between fake Lean and real Lean.

Standardization is a Countermeasure, Never the Goal – Mark Graban explains why problem solving is more important than haphazardly implementing standard work.