Kaizen Archives | Page 19 of 28

Important Lessons in Kaizen from A Different Kind of Map

By Jon Miller - August 31st, 2009

Can you guess what the small squares on this map indicate? This is an image that has been distributed on science news websites during the past week. The picture has been cropped to hide some information. This map and the tiny squares o

Bad News from MIT for the PDCA Cycle?

By Jon Miller - August 30th, 2009

According to research reported from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Picower Institute for Learning and Memory we don’t learn from our mistakes. Oh-ho. If this is true the whole scientific basis for kaizen is in tr

The Lean Energy Treasure Hunt

By Jon Miller - August 26th, 2009

One of the most enjoyable and rewarding lean manufacturing improvement activities is the energy treasure hunt. The booty we claim on these energy treasure hunts include savings by shutting off motors or machines left running, replacing

The Harmony of Discipline and Creativity

By Jon Miller - August 5th, 2009

“Creativity and discipline go hand in hand.” So said best-selling author and business guru Jim Collins during an interview in the April 2009 issue of Inc. magazine. These words resonate and bounce around in the back of my h

When Automation is Stupid

By Jon Miller - July 11th, 2009

I don’t know how many times I’ve passed through this section of Narita airport. Only yesterday did it strike me how stupid this moving walkway was. It is all of 18 paces long. Hardly worth breaking your stride to step onto,

The Funny Thing About Waste

By Jon Miller - June 23rd, 2009

The funny thing about waste is that it’s all relative to your sense of scarcity. At least that’s how a Wired magazine article by Chris Anderson titled Tech Is Too Cheap to Meter: It’s Time to Manage for Abundance, Not

How to Engage People in Kaizen

By Jon Miller - June 9th, 2009

As always, thank you for your questions, comments and improvement suggestions. Today one of our readers shared via email a challenge with getting people engaged in kaizen. Whether it is an improvement suggestion system, a software syst

What is the Role of a Kaizen Promotion Officer?

By Jon Miller - June 2nd, 2009

Raghavendra asked, “What is the role of a kaizen promotion officer?” I have never been in a kaizen promotion office (KPO) but have worked with and round them for many years. At worst the KPO is a coordination, preparation,

8 Ways to Get Total Involvement

By Jon Miller - May 13th, 2009

There was an inspiring article by Pete Abilla on the Shmula blog yesterday called Total Company Involvement. In any company-wide continuous effort, there are various levels and degrees of employee engagement. In a true high-performance

The Drop, the Bucket and Continuous Improvement

By Jon Miller - April 22nd, 2009

Mr. Obama, who held his first cabinet meeting Monday, has tasked officials with finding $100 million in savings. Asked by reporters after the meeting if that amount is a drop in the bucket of the government’s budget, Mr. Obama sa

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