A Lean Journey

John this is great story of how improvement can wo...

2012-05-28T20:27:57.579-04:00

John this is great story of how improvement can work in government. Personally, I a skeptical because of the governments track record. However this doesn't mean elected official are like this. It is encouraging to see more Lean thinking being applied in government. This is a positive trend which is good since it is necessary.

Thank you for this reminder, Tim. Have a great Me...

2012-05-28T08:27:48.615-04:00

Thank you for this reminder, Tim. Have a great Memorial Day.

The customer focus is interesting. The Madison Po...

2012-05-28T06:18:20.357-04:00

The customer focus is interesting. The Madison Police chief gave people they arrested customer comment cards and paid attention to them. He wasn't oblivious to the fact that some of these people had an axe to grind, but you could learn what could be improved about the process even in this case. Of course he actually respected people (which seems absent in so many police operations lately). He retired to become a minister. The city (including the police) did lots of great work using management improvement ideas to better perform their mission.

He for example, knew their job was to promote a peaceful society (which some police forces say but few act on - they mainly just deal with symptoms addressing crimes after the "defect" is already made.

Excellent Quality Awareness Presentation ! Good J...

2012-05-27T02:35:32.410-04:00

Excellent Quality Awareness Presentation !

Good Job!

Congratulations on keeping up with the blog!

2012-05-23T18:44:16.524-04:00

Congratulations on keeping up with the blog!

Well done Tim.

2012-05-23T12:01:20.378-04:00

Well done Tim.

Congrats, Tim! Three years is a great accomplishm...

2012-05-23T09:56:17.831-04:00

Congrats, Tim! Three years is a great accomplishments. I look forward to more great posts.

Tim - great news - keep up the good work . I am su...

2012-05-23T08:56:35.178-04:00

Tim - great news - keep up the good work . I am sure we all have gained some insight and inspiration form experinced lean practitioners to new.

regards Howard Bettany UK

Mark, You have some good points in rebuttal to my ...

2012-05-22T23:08:53.615-04:00

Mark, You have some good points in rebuttal to my parking guard example. We do have a choice but my point is that with the rules (laws) in place in many situations when dealing with government the choice isn't entirely yours in reality. The free market works with competition I am not sure there is much in government. Your alternatives are limited therefore the desire/need to keep customers is lost. They have a captive audience in many regards.

I don't know if my view point is popular. I am sure many disagree. But while I know we can benefit from practicing Lean Thinking in Government I understand that what makes it such a powerful methodology is lost in a Government setting.

We need to keep in mind the real rationale for Lean. Customer focused approach to add value by empowering everyone in the process so we can grow our business. Anything less becomes an uncertain cost reduction (waste reduction) effort. For me personally Lean is much more than that.

Thanks for commenting on this post Mark. I appreciate your feedback.

Hi Tim. Interesting and well-written post today. ...

2012-05-22T22:47:06.217-04:00

Hi Tim. Interesting and well-written post today. I can’t get my computer to work with your comments section, so I thought I’d comment to your email address.

One section of your post read, “Citizens are customers sometimes, but often they are subjects, voters, taxpayers, and users. When a parking guard or a policeman gives you a bill for incorrectly parking your car. Are you his customer? Are you in the position to say no and go to a competitor?”

I’d say that even though a parking guard gives me a bill for incorrectly parking my car, I am still his customer, because I pay taxes that provide his service and I expect him/her to enforce the parking laws, even if I am the person breaking them. In fact, he is providing value to me when he gives me that ticket because he is actively engaged in doing what he is paid to do. Maybe this isn’t purely value in the most strict sense, and I may not like it, but holding people accountable is what he/she is paid to do. That is the value he/she provides to the tax-paying public.

Am I in a position to say no and go to a competitor? Well, I am in a position where I can choose to park responsibly. If I choose not to, then the parking attendant does his job. Seen another way, I can say “no” if I choose to appeal the ticket. I can go to a competitor if I choose to live in another city. Quite an inconvenient choice, but it’s a choice nevertheless.

Anyway, it’s sure sad that government is so short-sighted as you point out so well. So many of them are more interested in getting reelected than doing what’s right for the public. Some days it makes me want to just wash my hands of politics and issues altogether.

Keep up the good writing. I enjoy your blog.

A good analysis of the quotation. Keeping a positi...

2012-05-21T19:13:47.697-04:00

A good analysis of the quotation. Keeping a positive attitude can help overcome even the large obstacle.

Looks really interesting--I'll definitely be c...

2012-05-21T16:59:05.474-04:00

Looks really interesting--I'll definitely be coming...

Lottie, I hope you are a regular reader here as we...

2012-05-15T19:39:17.936-04:00

Lottie, I hope you are a regular reader here as well. I read Kevin and Bill's articles weekly.

Tim, This is a good guideline for any practitione...

2012-05-15T09:01:47.005-04:00

Tim,

This is a good guideline for any practitioner to follow. I wish I had this a few weeks ago. A client liked a training deck I prepared but didn't want to confuse anyone with terms like Deming Cycle and such. The final version of PDCA was a 6 step process improvement method that's very similar to yours. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Chris

Hi Tim, I'm a regular reader of Kevin Meyer...

2012-05-15T03:27:04.971-04:00

Hi Tim, I'm a regular reader of Kevin Meyer's blog. I'm glad you've chosen to include his blog here.

Leveraging quality is so important if you want you...

2012-05-14T12:13:01.096-04:00

Leveraging quality is so important if you want your business to flourish. It's imperative. Great post Tim

I don't know if it would be considered an app ...

2012-05-11T11:59:12.718-04:00

I don't know if it would be considered an app or not, but one of the most powerful tools I have in my bag is the face to face conversation. I see too many conversations being held over email, text, skype, etc and the personal touch of conversing in real time to attack an issue seems to be fading away.

It all goes back to the go to gemba ideology.
in addition to pencils, post-its, flip charts, and a camera, interpersonal skills can make a huge impact on any improvement activity.

Looks like a great bunch. I've participated i...

2012-05-11T01:35:09.056-04:00

Looks like a great bunch. I've participated in Dan McCarthy's Great Leadership blog carnival before. Be great to get involved in the Management Improvement one too if I may toss my hat into the ring?

Adi, I have a number of blogs I follow (maybe...

2012-05-10T11:40:10.921-04:00

Adi,
I have a number of blogs I follow (maybe too many sometimes). Routinely, I look for new bloggers in the community (many reach out to me as well). Frankly, I pick article based purely on interest and perceived value to my audience.
Why do you ask?
Tim

Hi Tim, How do you select articles for the carniv...

2012-05-10T08:12:55.178-04:00

Hi Tim,

How do you select articles for the carnival?

Adi

Amen, Tim. Old school is the way to go. The tool...

2012-05-09T12:17:07.751-04:00

Amen, Tim. Old school is the way to go. The tools you mentioned are quick, easy and very visual. Paper and pencil and post-it notes make it very easy to modify and improve or correct on the fly.

I always tell my groups, learn to do it the old school way first and then add new technology once you have truly understood what you want.

Nothing tracks, presents, visualizes, & helps ...

2012-05-08T08:29:37.221-04:00

Nothing tracks, presents, visualizes, & helps get consensus at the Gemba on the fly better then a flipchart.

good

2012-05-05T00:41:39.833-04:00

good

This is one of my favorite quotes. Root Cause Ana...

2012-05-04T08:29:19.291-04:00

This is one of my favorite quotes. Root Cause Analysis is a perfect example of such an opportunity our our manufacturing sites. Thanks for looking at it from the Lean perspective.

Raj, this is more more clear. Similar to my backg...

2012-05-03T21:44:55.440-04:00

Raj, this is more more clear. Similar to my background with extrusion where we changed materials and colors. There was a period of time for the consistency of the material flow and the color changes to bleed through. In my experience we did not change the definition for linear continuous flow production from that of discrete piece part production. Changeover is defined at the time from the end of the last good part to the beginning of the first good part. The problem is probably not in knowing when you are done but rather when it is good. Well, you need to develop standards. For instance in the color changes of a cable you would need to bleed through from one to another. We developed color standards so you would know when you were are the standard color and could therefor go to the good spool. Without this standard the time changed but more importantly the quality of the the cable color.
One other point I would make is the time is not the important part. All you need is a consistent measure by which to make and measure improvements. Remember the goal is not the accuracy of the the changeover time but rather the improvement of the changeover process so it can be done quicker.