GBMP's WIP It Video

My friends at GBMP sent me a great video yesterday. Bruce Hamilton (a.k.a. Mr. Toast) and the GBMP team sing a little jingle to Devo on WIP.  Excess inventory, be it raw material, work-in-process (WIP) or finished goods just results in waste, stagnation, quality risks, excess lead-time, increased costs, etc. etc. In fact "excess inventory is the shadow of muda". Hope you enjoy this video as much as I did.

Lean Quote: Mistakes are the Portals of Discovery

On Fridays 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.

"Mistakes are the portals of discovery." — James Joyce (1882-1914), Irish novelist and poet

One of the premises of Lean is to make it right the first time. The truth is people make mistakes.

In Lean organizations, mistakes are seen as opportunities to improve. There is no blame game if something goes wrong. People are not rewarded for how few mistakes they make, but on how well they improve the process when mistakes have occurred. Management bears the responsibility for creating effective systems that prevent mistakes.

Learning from mistakes clearly needs some analysis of the mistake itself to gain value from it. Here are a few steps to use to analyze a mistake quickly and efficiently:

1. Accept that it happened and can’t be changed.
2. Know there is always something to learn from it.
3. Look to understand it and the factors that caused it.
4. How could you have recognized the mistake earlier?
5. How can you avoid the mistake next time?
6. Are there similar things that might have a related mistake to avoid?
7. What has changed now to ensure that mistake doesn’t reoccur?
8. Who else should know about this and learn from it?

When you focus on the improvements and lessons learned from a mistake you reinforce the ability to make mistakes part of the process and something that is accepted as long as it improves things. There is no value in worrying about the mistake or dwelling on it after it is done. So, move on!

Meet-up: Gotta Go Lean's Jeff Hajek

Today's guest on the Meet-up is my good friend Jeff Hajek. Many reader's of this blog know Jeff from the Webinars we have done together over the last couple of years.  I have been fortunate to collaborate with Jeff because I have learned so much from him. We share a passion of continuous improvement, learning, and helping others do the same.



Who are you and what do you do?
I am Jeff Hajek, the owner and founder of Velaction Continuous Improvement, a company dedicated to making great Lean training more accessible to everyone. The backbone of the site is The Continuous Improvement Companion, a free online guide, complete with hundreds of pages of downloadable terms, and dozens of forms and tools.

We also sell an a la carte premium Lean Training System that allows you to choose any combination of modules (topics) and components (PPT, Student Guides, Exercises, DVDs, etc.).

How and when did you learn Lean?
I left the army and went to work as a manufacturing engineer, where I immediately became involved in a Lean transition. The company had fully committed to Lean, and I was quickly part of a series of kaizen events. I was hooked. About 18 months after joining the company, I transferred to the “Lean Promotion Office” and was in and out of Lean roles until I started Velaction.

In truth, though, most of the Lean principles I learned in the civilian world were present in the military. Specifically, tracking KPIs, strategic planning, personnel development plans, standardization, TPM, and 5S were all already ingrained in me from my military days. The transition to Lean was an easy one.

How and why did you start blogging or writing about Lean?
I left the workforce for a while for personal, family reasons, but never got Lean out of my blood. I started writing a Lean encyclopedia so I would not forget all the lessons I learned. Very soon, the book was over 500 pages with 700 terms in it, and I realized it was not something that could easily be published. I switched to writing a smaller, more focused book, which became Whaddaya Mean I Gotta Be Lean?, something of a Lean survival guide.

I didn’t want to let the other writing go to waste, so it became The Continuous Improvement Companion I mentioned earlier. It was a natural transition to start adding articles to the online reference guide, so now I publish the Gotta Go Lean blog as well.

What does Lean mean to you?
I tend to prefer the term continuous improvement to Lean. It has a lot more staying power. The meaning of Lean has really evolved over the last 20 years or so, and it is far different than it was in its early days. The biggest change was the shift to the office, which required a substantial modification in some of the tools, though not the key driver behind Lean or any other CI effort, for that matter.

It all comes down to problem solving. All of the Lean tools solve a problem. Policy deployment solves communication problems and alignment problems. Kanban solves the problem of stockouts.5S solves the problem of workspaces working against workers. So, I guess that’s the specific answer to the question. Lean is problem solving.

As far as the actual term “Lean”, though, I have nothing against it I just think it will fall out of use in the next 10 or 20 years. The principles behind it will stick around, but we’ll all be calling them something different. As long as it is popular, an is the term people are looking for in search engines, I’ll continue to use it. But the problem solving mentality is far more meaningful to me.

What is the biggest myth or misconception of Lean?
I think the biggest misunderstanding about Lean is that it is often pitched to employees as a way to make jobs easier. The truth is that people in a Lean company work just as hard, if not harder, than those in other companies. The difference is that the time is much more productive, and much less frustrating. Further, Lean tends to eliminate some of the worst aspects of jobs, which, in turn, takes away some of the conflicts between managers and their teams.

So, the energy expended for both a Lean employee and a non-Lean employee might be the same, but the Lean employee would tend to have a higher sense of job satisfaction.

What is your current Lean passion, project, or initiative?
I am in the midst of a multi-year project to build up the most comprehensive set of Lean training materials available in the world. Right now, I’m fleshing out the modules that are currently posted on Velaction with more student guides and DVDs. After that I’ll be adding additional modules.

My Tribute to Stephen Covey

The well-known author, Stephen R. Covey, who impacted the world with his books and self-help products died on Monday, July 16, 2012. Covey died in Idaho Falls, Idaho in the hospital with his wife and all of his 9 children at his side. His death was due to complications from a fall, having lost control of his bicycle on a steep road the previous April.

In order to pay tribute to the contribution Covey has made in my life and career I thought I would highlight several posts that commemorate his thinking:

A Formula for Success explains a simple priority planning model that everyone can use for success based on Covey’s Urgent/Important Priority Matrix.

Visual Task Board Part 1 expands on Covey's urgent and important prioritization matrix to establish a visual task board.

Lean Quote: Empowerment Leads to Success looks at 10 ways to create conditions for more empowerment.

Lean Quote: Applying Active Listening to Engage Others is about active listening tips you can use to understand situations.

Stephen Covey will always be remembered for improving the lives of millions in business, professional and personal ways. How did he influence your life and career? Share your story in memory of Stephen Covey.

Lean, Quality, and Social Responsibility

This month on ASQ's blog Paul poses an important question about making the case for quality and social responsibility.

When executives understand they can save money, reduce risk, and enhance their reputation by being socially responsible–they will. Who better than the quality community to provide the needed education?

In Lean we talk of two main components: Continuous Improvement and Respect for People. In Toyota, Respect for People extends past the staff of the company to the community. Toyota strives to assist the communities where we live and work by supporting local organizations focused on the areas of environment, education and safety. They believe this is there social responsibility and part of their long term (50 years or more) thinking.

Some organizations have misinterpreted social responsibility to be more environmentally conscientious, hence, the recent boom on the “Lean and Green” movement. However, there is much more to social responsibility than a focus on the reduction of environmental waste.

The phrase social responsibility represents a wide-ranging group of concerns that includes environmental impact, corporate citizenship, ethics, stakeholder accountability, community relations, and more. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in Geneva, Switzerland, developed an international standard to help organizations in all industries and sectors understand and address social responsibility issues.

ISO 26000: Guidance on Social Responsibility was launched in 2010.  It defines social responsibility as the “responsibility of an organization for the impacts of its decisions and activities on society and the environment, through transparent and ethical behavior that:
• contributes to sustainable development, including health and the welfare of society;
• takes into account the expectations of stakeholders;
• is in compliance with applicable law and consistent with international norms of behavior; and
• is integrated throughout the organization and practiced in its relationships.”

A basic Lean principle is to create a focus on the customer. We must re-define the ‘customer’ to include society, local communities, and employees’ quality of life of outside the organization. Organizations must deal with the social responsibility factor in all its operations, processes, and partnerships. As Lean exposes additional resources within an organization, explore social responsibility possibilities with those resources.

ISO 26000 also identifies seven subjects that are core to social responsibility: organizational governance, human rights, labor practices, the environment, fair operating practices, consumer issues, and community involvement and development. Lean and quality improvement gives organizations a way to unify their previously discrete efforts to address these issues.

Social Responsibility, like Lean or Quality, is a choice. We must strive to be self-sustaining without impact to society and provide for society.


I’m part of the ASQ Influential Voices program. While I receive an honorarium from ASQ for my commitment, the thoughts and opinions expressed on my blog are my own.

Lean Quote Impossible Is Not a Fact. It’s an Opinion.

On Fridays 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.

"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing." — Muhammad Ali

Like Muhammad Ali, Henry Ford had tremendous self-belief and he constantly preached on it. He would hire workers that didn’t understand the meaning of impossible and would keep pushing the limits of their imagination. This was the ingenuity behind his continuous improvement

Your self-belief as a leader is infectious. What do you believe about yourself? What do you believe about your ability? What is possible and what is impossible? Your willingness to try the impossible will inspire your team push the limits as well.

Easy goals don’t require innovation. A good BHAG does. It’s achievable, but only through different thinking, real struggle, and a dash of luck. If it’s truly impossible—as opposed to perceived as impossible—people will disengage from the process entirely.

It's easier to say something is impossible, or at least extremely unlikely. Everyone has periods of doubts. Everyone considers giving up sometimes, but then you just have to remember why you tried so hard in the first place.

Nothing is impossible. If you never tried it then you would never know if it worked. Every failure teaches you something if you are willing to learn from your mistakes. Those saying it can not be done should not interrupt those trying it. Artificial roadblocks are wasteful and counterproductive. Keep trying. Keep learning.

Meet-up: Beyond Lean's Joe Wilson

Joe Wilson, who blogs at Beyond Lean, is the subject of our Meet-up today.  Joe has been involved with Lean and continuous improvement activities for over a decade in multiple industries. He shares his experience and real world examples in his writing which makes it highly relateable.


Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Joe Wilson. I currently work for a pharmaceutical company and also have worked in the meat processing and automotive industry, mostly in a variety of Industrial Engineering and Continuous Improvement roles. I am also a contributor to the Beyond Lean blog.

How and when did you learn Lean?
I guess my formal training started when I worked for what was then a Dana plant where I got to take part in a formal kaizen event. The event itself wasn’t that memorable, but I was fascinated because the training material seemed to codify a lot of the way I already thought. After that, I went to work for a company that was all in on Eli Goldratt and Theory of Constraints, so I got to see a different angle of the CI picture. From there, I went to work with Matt Wrye (not because of him, but that’s where we met) and had the opportunity to really go deep with being a part of a Lean conversion. I also got to work with somebody who later went on to a supplier development position with Toyota who was invaluable in helping to informally coach me and close some of the theory gaps in my mind. I had some evolution in my role there that allowed me to spend time developing my formal problem solving skills, including working with some incredibly talented Shainin Red X problem solvers and a passionate Six Sigma Black Belt. There have been some formal classes and certifications and thousands of hours of self study.

How and why did you start blogging or writing about Lean?
Matt may remember it differently (and his version is probably right), but when he told me about starting up Beyond Lean, I told him to let me know if he wanted any help. He told me that if I ever wanted to contribute, he would let me guest post. That evolved at the beginning of this year to a more permanent role as an author. Unfortunately, because of some other time-sucking issues, my contributions have been a little more sporadic than I would like. For me, the writing is the easy part…it’s the editing part that kills me.

What does Lean mean to you?
Personally, Lean is that example that I can point to when I’m trying to make a point that other people can’t see. It is leverage in trying to change the way other people think about their work. It’s a community of people who allow me to validate or challenge my existing ideas about what’s possible. I don’t have a clue in the “chicken or the egg” argument of whether or not Lean makes me think this way or if I think this way and it aligns with Lean. I just know that Lean fits for me.

What is the biggest myth or misconception of Lean?
It seems lazy, but I’ll fall back on the whole “Lean is not a collection of tools” line. Let’s be honest, when most people talk about “lean”, what they are talking about is the understanding of what Toyota has done. In that sense the discussion revolves around trying to study somebody else’s solutions to their problems. To me, breaking down specific tools makes for some enjoyable philosophical and theoretical conversation, but it often seems like a distraction when you are trying to actually do something.

What is your current Lean passion, project, or initiative?
Professionally, I am focused on the concept and practice of how problems are defined. I don’t mean that in terms of an individual problem or for an A3. What I mean is, organizationally, how are we going to identify what is and isn’t a problem, what scale the problem is, and how we are going to dedicate resources to solve the problems. Toyota’s system became what it is because they made certain decisions along the way that shaped what they will and won’t do. I believe everything else (from a CI perspective) flows from that point.

Personally, I’m on a quest to see if there is such an animal as “Lean Six Sigma”. Although I’m “certified” in both Lean and Six Sigma, I have never been able to understand how the two could merge. So far, the closest mental model I’ve been able to come up with is a food truck. In theory, it’s mobile food service. In practice, it’s either a truck or it’s a kitchen. It can’t be both at the same time effectively.