Kaizen Archives | Page 23 of 28

Considerations on Maintaining the Fairness of Kaizen Ideas Reward Systems

By Jon Miller - March 5th, 2008

Would you rather have 10 people each solving one $250,000 problem per year? Or would your rather have 100 people each solving ten $2,500 problems per year? This may be one of the key ways to distinguish continuous improvement via lean

Key Points for Managing Kaizen Idea Systems

By Jon Miller - March 4th, 2008

A sustained kaizen idea suggestion system can be one of the most powerful ways to keep people engaged in continuous improvement. Yet even after 50+ years, Toyota can struggle with this in some parts. Below are the three most common que

101 Kaizen Templates: Kaizen Idea Suggestion Form

By Jon Miller - March 3rd, 2008

Long-term success in becoming a Lean or Agile organization depends on making many small changes. The kaizen philosophy and its many thinking tools helps with this. The suggestion system, when combined with coaching of ideas, is also a

101 Kaizen Templates: Lean Leadership Self Check

By Jon Miller - February 26th, 2008

In a blog post, Ron Pereira explains that a Real Leader, “…listens, respects, challenges, disciplines, and genuinely cares about his or her employees. Yes, real leadership is hard to practice. But just like a healthy and ha

Kaizen Your Life with the Ten Lessons for Good Health

By Jon Miller - February 11th, 2008

These ten lessons for good health (健康十訓) are glazed onto my teacup. Reading these while sipping green tea has helped me survive over the years. Lean healthcare professionals take particular note: prevention trumps correction ev

Management by Kaizen Events

By Jon Miller - February 6th, 2008

Mark Graban made the point today in the Lean Blog that kaizen events are not enough. He agrees with another lean healthcare article that by themselves, the rapid improvement events of 3 to 5 days in duration are not sufficient to achie

The Cadence of Kaizen

By Jon Miller - January 4th, 2008

Kaizen is a Japanese word meaning “to change and make good,” embodying both the philosophy an the practice of continuous improvement in business as well as personal life. We are often asked about the “right” way

How to Sustain Kaizen? Follow Up with the Tenacity of the Terminator

By Jon Miller - January 2nd, 2008

Yesterday Mike Wroblewski asked How do we Sustain Kaizen Results? on his blog Got Boondoggle? This is a great topic and one that fits in with the theme of sustainability that is on the minds of lean thinkers like Toyota President Watan

Lean Journey Advice from an Optimistic Hungarian Scientist

By Jon Miller - December 5th, 2007

I spent last week in Hungary on consulting assignment. Several times I heard from the locals, “We Hungarians are a pessimistic people” but they are making slow but steady progress with Lean nonetheless. I was also introduce

Four Things to Do Before Letting the Lean Consultants in the Door

By Jon Miller - November 15th, 2007

We are often asked, “What can we do in the mean time?” when shaking hands on an agreement to begin a Lean consultation with a new client. For most companies that are new to Lean, and even some that have been at it for a whi

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