Lean Archives | Page 58 of 68

Now in Paperback: Taiichi Ohno’s Workplace Management

By Jon Miller - December 15th, 2009

Taiichi Ohno said, “Your wits don’t work until you feel the squeeze.” By that measure I and most of the world ought to have seen a significant improvement our mental capacities in 2009. It’s been quite a year. A

Free Practical Problem Solving Overview Video

By Ron Pereira - December 9th, 2009

Gemba Academy has recently released the first three modules of our latest course – Practical Problem Solving. Here is the first overview module of this course. Please note that if you are reading this article via email or your

Thank You and Last Chance to Purchase Lean Audio Book at $7.95

By Ron Pereira - October 19th, 2009

Just a quick post to thank all of you that have purchased the LSS Academy Guide to Lean Audio Book. Your generous support helps us pay the bills around here (i.e. monthly hosting, site maintenance, etc.) without having to plaster annoy

Kaizen – FastCap Style

By Ron Pereira - September 28th, 2009

If you’d like to see kaizen in action, and I do mean real kaizen, you need to set aside around 23 minutes to watch this video of the FastCap team improving the way some items are packaged. As an aside, FastCap has been practicing

To Certify or Not…

By Ron Pereira - September 25th, 2009

Mark Graban wrote a relatively simple post a few days ago that has simply BLOWN up with comments. Mark, if I may be so bold, doesn’t really believe in certifications… especially if the words six sigma are involved! Me, well

Free Quick Changeover / SMED Overview Training Video

By Ron Pereira - September 23rd, 2009

We continue to add new content over at Gemba Academy. So far we’ve covered the following topics: 5S Workplace Productivity. They say, “If you can’t do 5S, you can forget the rest.” Learn why 5S is far more tha

The Coffee Kaizen

By Ron Pereira - September 22nd, 2009

By Rick Foreman, Lean Development Manager Note from Ron: This is a guest post from my friend, frequent LSS Academy commenter, and most importantly Brother in Christ – Rick Foreman. Enjoy! We’ve heard of the phrase, “rose-co

The Seven Wastes & $10 Off Subscription to iSixSigma Magazine

By Ron Pereira - September 3rd, 2009

I recently wrote an article for the iSixSigma magazine focused on the 7 Deadly Wastes. And as it turns out the good folks over at iSixSigma have been nice enough to allow me to offer this article to LSS Academy readers in PDF form. So

Learning From You

By Ron Pereira - September 3rd, 2009

I’ve been reflecting on my earlier post this week about my “mini-kaizen” while placing labels onto CDs. As always, your comments were great. Some folks agreed with my approach. Nice work and you have a good looking sister in law!

Complexity and Love Songs

By Ron Pereira - August 31st, 2009

My family and I recently took a much needed vacation. One of our stops was in Chicago where my wife and daughters attended my sister-in-law’s wedding shower. One of the party favors for the ladies that attended the wedding shower was

Lean Thinker Interview with Former Toyota Quality Manager

By Ron Pereira - August 24th, 2009

We’ve recently added a new series of videos over at Gemba Academy called the “Lean Thinker Interviews.” During these interviews we’ll be talking to senior lean practitioners about their experiences and life less

Free 7 Deadly Wastes Overview Video (Spanish Subtitles)

By Ron Pereira - August 11th, 2009

We’ve been unbelievably busy over at Gemba Academy the last few months. We continue to develop new content (we’re now up to 44 videos, 28 interactive quizzes, 28 PDF summary documents, and much more) and most recently our t

If Lean Is So Great, Why Is Toyota Struggling?

By Ron Pereira - August 9th, 2009

Balaji, a reader of LSS Academy, recently sent me the following question/comment via email: Toyota, GM, and Ford are experts in state of the art assembly technology and in implementing Lean and Six Sigma process improvement methods and

Management Improvement Carnival #72

By Jon Miller - August 8th, 2009

John Hunter over at Curious Cat Management Improvement blog has asked me to guest host an episode of the Management Improvement Carnival. Kudos to John for having done 71 of these over the past several years. Here are my choice of arti

Do You Read Much Russian?

By Ron Pereira - August 4th, 2009

The LSS Academy Guide to Lean has been translated to Hungarian and most recently to Russian. If you’d like to download the Russian version please visit this site (free registration required). If you’d like to download the H

Queuing Kaizen at Southwest Airlines

By Jon Miller - July 29th, 2009

I can count the times I’ve flow on Southwest airlines, which is to say not often. Their no-frills approach and unique profitability as an airlines has earned them praise and the designation as “lean” by some. My impre

Lean Hackathons – Are You Using Them?

By Ron Pereira - July 27th, 2009

Are you on Facebook? I am but that’s not the point of this article. No, the point of this article is that I just watched a short video about how the Facebook development team uses what they refer to as “Hackathons” to quickly bri

Inexpensive (But Powerful) Visual Controls

By Ron Pereira - July 5th, 2009

I love simple visual controls. And I love them even more when they don’t cost a lot of money! Thus the smile that came across my face when watching the “Lean Leadership” interview we recently did with a cell leader from a Washing

Your Valuable “Lean Feedback” Is Requested

By Ron Pereira - June 29th, 2009

I am helping some fellow lean thinkers out with a short lean related survey. This survey appeals to me for a few reasons. First, it’s all about lean and second this survey is SHORT! You’ll be done in a few minutes. Th

How clean is clean enough?

By Ron Pereira - June 28th, 2009

Here’s a question for you. When practicing the 3rd step of 5S – often referred to as shine or sweep – how clean is clean enough? Should the area you’re working in shine as bright as the Texas sun? Should the floor be clean enou

45 Inches and Sizers

By Ron Pereira - June 18th, 2009

I recently got an email from American Airlines titled, “Important Reminders About Carry-On Baggage.” Normally I delete these kinds of emails but for some reason I decided to give this one a quick read. Click the image thumbnail to

Is Economic Lot Size Dead?

By Ron Pereira - June 16th, 2009

On page 19 of Shigeo Shingo’s masterpiece A Revolution in Manufacturing: The SMED System he writes an extremely strong statement: “In fact, there is an important blind spot in the concept of economic lot size: the assumptio

Parenting and Lean Six Sigma

By Ron Pereira - June 15th, 2009

I am the father of 4 wonderfully perfect children. I love them more than words can describe and couldn’t imagine my life without them. And, recently, I’ve been thinking about how much having children helps me to sharpen my lean and

Free Gemba Academy Video: The 7 Deadly Wastes

By Jon Miller - June 11th, 2009

It has now been three months since we launched Gemba Academy – the online learning center for continuous improvement. Each month we add new videos, quizzes, self-study materials and forum discussions. The School of Lean is curren

Old-School Vertical Hierarchies

By Ron Pereira - May 31st, 2009

By: Michael Lombard As the saying goes, I wasn’t born in Texas, but I ran here as fast as I could. When I arrived, I found that the Lone Star State produces some fine beer, specifically, Shiner beer… While I could go on all

Lean

Start your improvement training today.