I recently had the opportunity to repost a popular post on The Green Economy Post. Below is an excerpt from this post. It can be said that lean is green. The obvious benefits of green and lean are energy savings, productivity savings, and savings from improved utilization of materials. They can also lead to innovations that
READ MORE“Back Door” by kpe II via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr For the experienced identifiying and eliminating waste may not be difficult. For other it may not be easy to find wate when you look at the production line or the warehouse or a process. If you are new to Lean and just starting
READ MOREOn 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
READ MOREThe Lean educator in me is always looking for effective ways to teach and reinforce Lean Thinking. I recently had the opportunity to review a great educational product called the Lean Product Cards. The Lean Thinking Pocket Cards pictured above were created by Pascal Dennis teach Lean concepts with a light touch. The images are funny, intuitive,
READ MOREMy friends over at 5S Supply have created a superbowl commercial just in time for the big game this weekend. As you can understand, they didn’t have a lot to spend on a commercial so they brought back a classic – with a twist of course. Since their beloved Bears (they’re near Chicago) didn’t make it to the show
READ MOREIn the northeastern part of the US we have received some record snow falls in the last few weeks. All this snow got me thinking on the way home that there are some lean lessons we can take away from these snowstorms. Forecasts are inaccurate. You can only count on actual demand. We have all
READ MOREOn 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
READ MOREMistake-proofing is the use of process design features to facilitate correct actions, prevent simple errors, or mitigate the negative impact of errors. Poka-yoke is Japanese slang for mistake-proofing, a term coined by Shigeo Shingo. Here is a good example of mistake proofing a process by Paul Aker at Fastcap. For more on Poka Yoke visit Mistake
READ MOREWhen I started my journey into Lean Thinking the likes of Taiichi Ohno and Shigeo Shingo, the founders of the Toyota Production System, were gone. I consider myself the next generation of Lean implementers, learning from those who learned from the best. My own sensei worked for Toyota for 30 years and often told stories
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