Paul Akers from FastCap answers the question from a follower on what Lean is and what metrics you measure in a Lean environment. Paul’s response is a great one and worth repeating. The following key points summarize Lean and Lean Metrics:

1) Make Lean so simple anyone can understand it.
2) Fix what bugs you and improve it everyday.
3) Every employee must make a 2 sec improvement everyday.
4) People fail sometimes and solutions may not valid but you learn from that.
5) Create a routine like: start day with Sweep, Sort, Standardize, then improvement time, then morning meeting.
6) Give people time everyday to experiment, train, and teach.
7) Simple metrics –
           a) 1 improvement everyday
           b) Orders out in 2 hours
           c) Less than 1 mistake a week
           d) Want customers to rave about us
8) Defects are something the customer sees.
9) Develop the skill and capacity to solve problems by everyone everyday.

Here is Paul in his own words:



Paul says he likes Lean compared to other methodologies because it is focused on the individual, respect for their creativity, and brings them into the process on a daily basis.

What do you think? Did Paul Akers get it right?