Mercury Marine Video: 8-minute Lean Manufacturing Wake-up Call

Thanks to YouTube, it is possible to view the classic Lean awareness video of the Mercury Marine continuous improvement program called Quest. I have used this many times to great effect. In less than 10 minutes you can show this video, ask people to tell what they observed, estimate how much value-added and non value-added work is in the process, and finally reflect on similarities to their own processes.
Stop the video at minute 5:13 and ask the following questions:

How many individual steps are there to make a Mercury Marine outboard motor?

How many of these are production (value-added) steps?

How far do you think the product traveled?

How many hours do you think it was in the process?

How many people do you think touched the product from beginning to end?

The answer to these questions rarely fail to surprise. For many it is an eye-opening video. We always encourage our clients to go out to their gemba with a camera or video and make their own educational Mercury Marine video.
Send this YouTube link to any leader needing a lean manufacturing wake up call, in under 8 minutes it will get them thinking.
If you don’t need anymore lean manufacturing awareness, maybe just watch it for the bonus amusing-nostalgic 1980s haircuts and fashion.
Follow me on Twitter jmiller_kaizen

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