Tips for Lean Managers Archives | Page 12 of 22

Lean Management Means Shifting from PPT to PPS

By Jon Miller - December 18th, 2007

One of the fundamental behavior changes required by organizations today in order to successfully practice lean management is to shift from communicating via PPT to communicating via PPS. By PPT we mean Microsoft PowerPoint and by PPS w

The Three Habits Required for Built-In Quality (Jidoka)

By Jon Miller - November 19th, 2007

As one of the pillars of the classic TPS house, jidoka represents two distinct but important ideas. The first part of jidoka or “automation with a human touch” involves the harmonization of people and machines. Humans shoul

Diverse people discussing problem solving

A3 Problem Solving as a People Development Process

By Jon Miller - November 15th, 2007

Too many organizations today have no effective, simple, and formalized method of developing front-line leaders. The typical new supervisor or manager is lucky to be given instruction in how their job is done properly, and why. Most oft

Management by FACTS!!

By Jon Miller - November 12th, 2007

These are the words staring at me each day while standing or sitting at my desk: FACTS! Please feel free to hit Print and place this visual reminder for all to see. Sadly my personal MTBFTFTBF performance (mean time between failures to

Three of the Lessons Learned from Gemba’s 2007 Hoshin Kanri

By Jon Miller - November 4th, 2007

We are in our pre-planning phase for our 2008 hoshin kanri (policy deployment) here at Gemba. That means we start by reflecting on 2007 and the progress made so far. Without airing too much dirty laundry, here are three of the lessons

Thank You, Thank You, Sam-I-Am

By Jon Miller - October 30th, 2007

One of my favorite philosophers is Theodor Geisel, a man whose illustrated stories continue to entertain and speaks to children and adults alike. Anyone continuous improvement professional who has read his “Green Eggs and HamR

Stumbling on the Lesser Category of Obstacles

By Jon Miller - October 29th, 2007

The important and influential ideas of W. Edwards Deming include a System of Profound Knowledge, 14 Points for Management, and the 7 Deadly Diseases. While Deming was not an innovator of practical tools to implement Lean manufacturing,

Do You Understand the System of Profound Knowledge?

By Jon Miller - October 28th, 2007

W. Edwards Deming said “without theory there is no learning” while Taiichi Ohno said “understanding means doing.” Deming left a great legacy with his Theory of Profound Knowledge which if followed allows the way

Lean Specialists, Lean Generalists and the Benefit of Half-Persons

By Jon Miller - October 20th, 2007

Things seem to come in threes. Or perhaps we become satisfied and stop counting at three when in fact the particular phenomena we are counting in fact persists. This week three separate organizations asked us on three separate occasion

How the Skill Matrix Enables Downstream Pull

By Jon Miller - September 19th, 2007

Downstream pull, one piece at a time, works not only for inventory control by signaling production or material movement, but also for maintaining smooth balance and flow of work done by people. This can be manual factory work such as a

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