On Friday’s I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.
Feel free to share some of your favorites here as well.
Watch the little things; a small leak will sink a great ship. ~Benjamin Franklin
There is a better way. Store your wet floor signs at point of use. The picture below shows an example of this.
On Friday’s I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.
Feel free to share some of your favorites here as well.
“I say an hour lost at a bottleneck is an hour out of the entire system. I say an hour saved at a non-bottleneck is worthless. Bottlenecks govern both throughput and inventory.” - Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal
A WSJ article yesterday talked about a growing concern for businesses to retain top talent. The author indicates that based on historical data workers will look elsewhere as the economy improves. This would pose a significant problem to those employers who may have weeded out weak performers while keeping top performers during this recession. A survey from last winter cites pay and benefits as the most important factors employees' value. Normally I would not concur with this but can understand with this recession why compensation is a top concern for workers.
"We will not retain our staff if we can't get them to believe in us," Mr. Stack says. "If you value your employees, their trust will grow and they will not look around for another position."
According to the DOL, employee turnover cost American businesses about $5 trillion each year. Employee recognition is still one of the powerful strategies to combat turnover. A recent HR Daily Advisor Tip covered eight keys to successful retention. The advice includes exuding confidence in employee's ability, including significant others in praise, knowing what motivates and inspires employees, encouraging employees develop new skills, and simply saying thanks. Successful companies learn that you get what you reward.
In Lean retention and recognition come under the respect for people pillar of TPS. Respect for people comes from organizations building employee relationships that are fulfilling for their people as well as for the business.
A reader studying quality management and researching Lean recently asked me, what is Lean really about? In realizing that I have never fully defined my view of Lean on this blog I thought I should.
Let me preface this by saying it is difficult to succinctly define Lean in way that would capture the breadth and depth of knowledge. There are volumes and volumes of written text on many aspects and concepts of Lean. I have been studying in this field for a dozen years and my learning will never be done.
Lean is all about respecting people while eliminating Muri (overburdening), Mura (unevenness), and Muda (non value added activity) in all business processes. It is a philosophy which embodies a manufacturing culture of continuous improvement based on setting standards aimed at eliminating waste through participation of all employees.
The originators of Lean include thinkers like Henry Ford but its most notable and well studied collection of thinkers comes from
The Five Fundamental Principles:
1) Specify Value – End-use customer view
2) Indentify Value Stream – Activities that create value
3) Flow – Make value flow
4) Pull – Respond to customer demand
5) Perfection – Zero waste
The Lean Rules-in-Use:
1) Activity Rule – Specify all work to content, sequence, timing, and outcome.
2) Connection Rule – Customer-supplier connections must be direct & unambiguous.
3) Pathway Rule – Pathways for product/service must be simple & direct.
4) Improvement Rule – Improvements are made using scientific method (PDCA) at place of activity (Gemba) under the guidance of a teacher (Sensei)
It is the endless pursuit of perfection which I refer to in the title of this blog “A Lean Journey: A Quest for True North”. True North is making 1 by 1, defect free, on demand, immediately, safely, and at no cost. It is the ideal target condition not easily achieved. It is approached by eliminating waste, the opposite of value. Value-added activities are those activities that transform materials or information, increase the form or function of products or services, and the customer wants. All other activities are wasteful; add no value; and consume resources, time, and space. The eight wastes are characterized as:
Defects
Over-production
Waiting
Non-utilized Resources/Talent
Transportation
Inventory
Motion
Excess Processing
This is only made possible by believing people are the cornerstone. You must engage all human resources and provide knowledge. These two elements are the key drivers to the speed of continuous improvement.
Lean is creating and implementing processes throughout the entire organization that are highly responsive and flexible to customer demand. Lean paves the way for delivery high quality products and services, at the right location, at the right time, all in a cost effective and profitable manner.
Here are some other resources for Lean definitions:
Lean Enterprise Institute's lean definition page
This is a post that I will continue to reflect on (hansei) and update throughout my Lean Journey.
