Lean Archives | Page 155 of 157

Value Stream Mapping Confusion

By Ron - February 21st, 2007

When drawing value stream maps there can be confusion regarding the different “times” that are measured and, in some cases, calculated. I recently came up against this myself and thus want to share some tips with you all. Cycle Tim

Japanese Words

By Ron - February 20th, 2007

Over the years I have heard American and European employees from many companies grumble when hearing Japanese words. This is most apparent during Lean training. Personally, I feel it is extremely important to use the Japanese names for

My “Sensei” Wife

By Ron - February 20th, 2007

My wife is the best. As I have to travel some for my work she takes care of the house, kids, dogs, and pretty much anything else you can imagine without me around to yell at… I mean without me to help, of course.Well, in an attempt t

Two Bin Kanban

By Ron - February 15th, 2007

A two bin kanban is one of the most popular kanban systems due to its simplicity. The basic idea is an operator will get the material they need from one of the bins while the other bin is being refilled. When things are working properl

Why Some Lean Six Sigma Programs Fail – Part 2

By Ron - February 12th, 2007

In part 1 of “Why Lean Sigma Programs Fail” I discussed “activity centered programs.” Now I will introduce the alternative to ACP’s – results driven programs. Very simply stated RDP’s, as I will call them, aim for measura

Why Some Lean Six Sigma Programs Fail – Part 1

By Ron - February 11th, 2007

If you have not read the Harvard Business Review on Change I highly recommend it. It is a series of case studies focused on change management. One of the case studies is called, “Successful Change Programs Begin with Results” by Ro

Waiting

By Ron - February 10th, 2007

If you pick up any book about Lean or attend a Lean training course you will likely hear how overproduction is the mother of all wastes. OK, in the truest sense it probably is… especially for those that manufacture any type of produc

Lean Lexicon

By Ron - February 8th, 2007

I was fortunate enough to receive training from Gemba Research which was excellent and I highly recommend them, as I have stated before. But I would be doing the nice people over at Lean Enterprise Institute an injustice if I didn’t

Stop the Finger Pointing!

By Ron - February 7th, 2007

I despise, from the deepest pit of my being, the blame game that occurs within so many companies that manufacture products – any product. This problem is sadly amplified in western companies. It typically goes something like this, �

Standard Work

By Ron - February 6th, 2007

Since the mission of this blog is to offer ideas for how to align the strengths of both Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma I wanted discuss a topic I firmly believe all continuous improvement practitioners should practice. This topic is

Lean

Start your Lean & Six Sigma training today.