Tips for Lean Managers Archives | Page 8 of 9

Hoshin is 5S for Your Head

By Jon Miller - September 6th, 2006

Busy, busy days. It’s days like these that it becomes more important to avoid working harder, longer and instead take a precious moment out of your day to examine whether what you are doing is really adding value towards the ulti

Workflow Design: Horizontal Handling vs. Vertical Handling

By Jon Miller - September 4th, 2006

Here’s a follow up to a previous post of the one point lesson on operational availability vs. rate of operation. A reader pointed out that pictures and not just words would be helpful, so in answer to a related question about multi-p

That’s What I Call Cosmic Irony

By Jon Miller - August 22nd, 2006

What do you call it when a meeting of the Lean manufacturing leaders from around the globe gets cancelled at the last minute by the senior leadership of the organization, citing “business needs”? I call it cosmic irony. One of our

I Mean It. Be Dissatisfied in the Work You Do

By Jon Miller - August 12th, 2006

Reader Jeff made a good point in a comment on a recent blog post here. I suggested replacing “Take pride in the work you do” signs in the workplace with “Be dissatisfied in the work you do” signs, more appropria

Error Proof the Pokayoke to Build in Quality

By Jon Miller - July 26th, 2006

In order to have a just in time production system function properly you need to work towards zero defects and build in quality to every process. Otherwise the lack of extra buffer inventory will shut down the material flow when a defec

Getting in the Habit of Change

By Jon Miller - July 24th, 2006

People often say that sustaining the gains of kaizen and Lean manufacturing is the hardest thing. How well you sustain kaizen is really about how well you adapt to change. Kaizen and Lean manufacturing are not “one time and done&

Kaizen Secrets of the Toyota Mind

By Jon Miller - July 16th, 2006

There have been many books on the bestseller list with variations on the theme of “how to become a millionaire”. A fellow named T. Harv Eker rolled through Seattle a few years ago and gave a free seminar on the subject. It seemed l

Spending Money to Hinder Leadership

By Jon Miller - July 7th, 2006

I recently went to Japan with a group of directors from an aerospace company to see Toyota and other leaders of Lean. One of the results of the trip was that the director or engineering really saw the waste walls cause in the office an

Kaizen Consultant Asks: “Why is this Here?”

By Jon Miller - June 2nd, 2006

Last month I joined two kaizen consultants from our team to do an opportunity assessment at a tier one automotive company. It’s good to see kaizen and Lean manufacturing efforts increasing at automotive factories in the United St

Before Kaizen, Ask “If You Had Enough, Would You Know?”

By Jon Miller - May 29th, 2006

I visited the 35th annual Seattle Folklife Festival yesterday, enjoying a couple of hours with my family before diving into a very busy couple of weeks. There was great music, passable weather and more hippies than you can shake a stic

Going Back to School for Hoshin Kanri

By Jon Miller - May 18th, 2006

I’ve taught Hoshin Kanri half a dozen times to clients but I struggle to put it into practice at Gemba. You won’t be interested in hearing my excuses, and it’s my fault that we’ve had Hoshin Kanri annual plans i

Kaizen Means Thinking “Now Things are the Worst Ever”

By Jon Miller - January 6th, 2006

There has been a lot of discussion about “failing to become Lean” on blogs, in newsgroups and in books lately. Reading press releases and financial statements of many less-than-truly-Lean companies, they would like the anal

The Perils of Not Going “Genchi, Gembutsu” (On Site, With the Actual Things)

By Jon Miller - November 21st, 2005

I take a lot of people from many companies to Japan to see lean organizations, such as the Toyota Motor Corporation. One of the themes you see and hear in Toyota is the idea of Genchi (actual place) and Gembutsu (actual things). Toyota

In Defense of Mr. Rogers

By Jon Miller - November 13th, 2005

I’ve been enjoying Bill Waddell’s tough-and-straight postings lately on the Evolving Excellence blog. I had to stop and think awhile after reading last week’s posting titled Ohno, Shingo and Bobby Knight. I have a lot

Skill Matrix Enables Suggestion System

By Jon Miller - November 10th, 2005

We received a call from a kaizen facilitator who was concerned that their suggestion system was losing steam. We went to their Gemba to find out what was going wrong. This company was receiving plenty of suggestions. They had copies of

Client tells Gemba: “We’re Wasting Our Money by Paying You”

By Jon Miller - November 2nd, 2005

Earlier this week I had a chance to join one of our consultants on a follow up visit to one of our clients. We were there for a Lean transformation progress check and to make training and kaizen project plans for 2006. We reviewed thei

Lean Applied to Food Service

By Jon Miller - October 18th, 2005

I recently had lunch at Babe’s Chicken Dinner House in Roanoke, Texas. It was a surprising place to find Lean principles at work. They have a streamlined product offering with two items on the menu, fried chicken and chicken frie

Small Companies Playing With Big Company Rules

By Jon Miller - October 17th, 2005

This is something I’ve noticed with a few of the sites I’ve been visiting lately. They are all part of a huge global, well-respected company and yet the Lean implementation is not as robust as we would like to see it. A lot

Sitting Work vs. Standing Work in a Lean Manufacturing Workplace

By Jon Miller - September 27th, 2005

I recently spent 3 days standing on the shop floor while leading a training event for future kaizen facilitators. I spent probably 8.5 hours per day standing, 60 minutes sitting (lunch, breaks), and 30 minutes walking around the 100 sq

Work Content for Line Leads

By Jon Miller - August 28th, 2005

A line lead (or team leader) is defined as a leader of 5- 6 people in an area. There’s a lot of discussion on what a good line lead is. What is a good mix of work content for line leads? One school of thought is that the lead sho

Three Useful Phrases for Kaizen

By Jon Miller - August 8th, 2005

Finding myself in challenging discussions while coaching “change adverse” individuals from time to time, I try to make myself humble and ask “What would sensei do in this situation?” I cycle through the words an

Developing Team Leaders through Kaizen

By Jon Miller - August 1st, 2005

Many companies ask some variation of the question. “Why aren’t we seeing bottom line results after the kaizen event improvements?” There is more than one answer, but I recently came across a good illustration of one t

Notes from the Field: Implementation and Continuity Safety Nets

By Jon Miller - July 26th, 2005

Change is hard. What a cliche. But it has achieved its high rank in the pantheon of “cliche-dom” because its underlying reality is so very common. A fact multiplied many-fold during virtually any serious kaizen event. Cold

What About the 8th Waste?

By Jon Miller - July 14th, 2005

When learning to implement Lean manufacturing or Lean office principles one of the essentials is to develop a deep understanding of the 7 types of waste. Many people start working with the tools right away, value stream mapping or doin

Motivating Smart People to Learn about Lean

By Jon Miller - April 13th, 2005

Sometimes I’m forced to wonder why smart people fight good ideas. Sometimes I find answers. This was true recently when an engineer at one of our clients who was also the project manager for a factory layout redesign stubbornly r

Tips for Lean Managers

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