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Top 7 Behaviors to Change in 2010

By Jon Miller - January 2nd, 2010

Connected to the second step of writing resolutions for arbitrary dividing points in time, we need to address one of the biggest obstacles to success which all of us face: ourselves. The human mind is an incredibly powerful thing, the

How to Write an Arbitrary Dividing Point in Time Resolution

By Jon Miller - December 31st, 2009

I’ve never been a big believer in Arbitrary Dividing Point in Time Resolutions, or as some people call them, New Year’s Resolutions. Goal setting should be a constant output of the continuous improvement lifestyle, the resu

2009 Carnival of Lean Blogs

By Jon Miller - December 30th, 2009

It’s time for a quick look back on the year before we slam, lock and bar the door on 2009 and welcome 2010 and the opportunity to demonstrate our learning by not repeating our mistakes. I can’t wait. Carnival master John Hu

Ambiguous Visual Controls: Invisible Inventory Management

By Jon Miller - December 28th, 2009

It appears that our local Hello Kitty store is low on stock of invisible pens. I only see one invisible pen in this display (or rather, don’t see it). I would hate to have the job of the invisible pen warehouseman on cycle counti

The Correct Sequence for Implementing Lean Systems

By Jon Miller - December 26th, 2009

Looking through some of my notes from seminars, salons and study sessions I participated in during November and December, I came across an interesting string of characters: JID > JIT > TWI > SW > TQC? This was code to mysel

Are You a Million Method Man?

By Jon Miller - December 23rd, 2009

Are you a million method woman or man? Too many well-intentioned lean implementations are. The million method man has a tool or method to solve any problem they encounter. In the best of situations they are heroes and teachers who brin

Declutter with 5S in 20 Minutes Per Day?

By Jon Miller - December 23rd, 2009

In modern society there are many promises of something in “only 20 minutes per day” whether it is flat abdominals, riches or perfect happiness. In fact what many people miss is that it is “20 minutes per day FOREVER&#

How to Use Lean to Achieve Bottom Line Results

By Jon Miller - December 22nd, 2009

In an e-mail, blog reader Heather asked: How else can you use lean to achieve bottom line results besides a growth strategy? The growth strategy for delivering bottom line results through lean goes something this: lean improvements cre

The 18 Most Active LSS Academy Articles in 2009

By Ron Pereira - December 21st, 2009

I recently wrote about the most read LSS Academy articles in 2009. Now, in this post, I’d like to share with you the LSS Academy articles that garnered the most comments in 2009. As you’ll see some of these posts are quite

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

The Positive Tension Between SMART and Stretch Goals

By Jon Miller - December 14th, 2009

While helping a client through their hoshin kanri process last month one of the leaders in the company raised an interesting question about the selection and definition of breakthrough objectives as part of the hoshin plan. Breakthroug

What deux yeux have teux deux?

By Ron Pereira - December 14th, 2009

I recently came across an elegant and minimalist online “to do” tracking tool called Teux Deux. Now, to be sure, I am a fan of the hand written to do list… but since I travel a lot I also like to maintain an online li

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

The Path, the Traveler and the Destination

By Jon Miller - December 8th, 2009

The path, the way, the road, the tao, el camino: the course of the traveler has many names. Each evokes a sense of possibility, anticipation and wonder. What lies ahead? What is the destination? What will one find along the way? Robert

The Advantages of A1 Thinking Over A3 Thinking

By Jon Miller - December 2nd, 2009

What is popularly called A3 thinking is the practical problem solving process which summarizes the PDCA cycle on one page. Those of us who have memories of TQC will recognize it as nearly identical to the QC storyline concept. Many QC

Review of The Lean Manager by Michael Balle and Freddy Balle

By Jon Miller - December 1st, 2009

The Lean Manager by Michael Balle and Freddy Balle is the second “lean business novel” by these authors. This novel relates the story of a factory in France threatened with closure and relocation of its business to Poland.

Management Improvement Carnival #83

By Jon Miller - November 30th, 2009

We are honored to guest host Management Improvement Carnival #83. John “The Curious Cat” Hunter has collected interesting blog articles in over 80 previous carnivals. If you missed Carnival #82 be sure to visit the choices

Cardinal Virtues and Leadership Series: Justice

By Ron Pereira - November 30th, 2009

The other day my 5 year old daughter said… OK, to be more accurate she whined, “She [referring to her 7 year old sister] got candy… why don’t I?” Ah yes, my children often remind me of how important fairness and justice are.

How to Build the Road Warrior’s Stand Up Desk

By Jon Miller - November 29th, 2009

Where there is a will there is a way. I learned that lesson again. Yesterday I was complaining to myself about being unproductive, chalking it up to a 1:40am flight, the weather, and the uncomfortable chair at the desk in my hotel room

Cross Training in a One Piece Flow Cell

By Jon Miller - November 28th, 2009

I am working through the backlog of Ask Gemba questions. Bas asked: In a one piece flow cell that is fully loaded with customer demand, how can new people be trained, without creating significant flow problems? Operators are moving wit

How to Stop and Fix in a Stationary Process

By Jon Miller - November 24th, 2009

Graham asked: My background is high volume automotive production like Ford. I am now involved with static build production of HVAC units. How do I best apply stop the line methods with static builds? ie no line to stop. Thanks for the

Looking for Evidence of PDCA

By Jon Miller - November 21st, 2009

Lately I’ve been more mindful about looking for evidence of PDCA. The Plan, Do, Check, Act cycle is the essence of continuous improvement and about half of what makes a lean management system possible. The other part has somethin

No Excuses, Respect for People and Finishing Strong

By Jon Miller - November 19th, 2009

We often make excuses about why we can’t do something, whether it’s solve a problem, improve our situation or just get things done. My friend Róbert shared an inspiring video of a speech by Nick Vujicic. Nick is a man with

Made Up Lean Enterprise Statistics

By Jon Miller - November 17th, 2009

For a group of people who claim to practice management by fact and question the as-given condition, we in the lean community have a troubling habit of citing and accepting made up lean enterprise statistics. In fact I would say that at

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