To lean, or not to lean?
Should you start lean in a difficult period such as this? But shouldn’t I wait things out? Shouldn’t I take it slow? Or keep my head down? No. I think this is a great time for companies to be focused...
View ArticleDream Big, Act Small
Yesterday I was working with a team who was working on a very long-term kind of change. They were really stuck, spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to achieve the end state. That is a...
View ArticleProjects do not define a lean company
No organization can become lean just from running lean projects and events. One organization did over 14,000 lean projects and still failed as a company, because they relied entirely on those events....
View ArticleDon’t Do 5S
I know I’ll catch plenty of flak from the lean stalwarts out there. This will certainly go against conventional wisdom and common practice. But sometimes conventional wisdom is wrong. I don’t believe...
View ArticlePlan for Sustainability, Don’t Just Hope For It
Kaizen event, A3 projects, DMAIC projects – you name it, projects get done and results are generated. But… Are the results sustained? Too often the gains deteriorate over time. There are many reasons...
View ArticleYour own worst enemy
I witness lean change agents get in their own way all the time. I’m sure I do it too. This is a common example that really can hold back an entire organization on the journey. It is the response to an...
View ArticleLean Confusion? You can say that again
Recently Industry Week published an article called Lean Confusion. In it was the following data from their surveys: What really shocks me is that 25 percent of companies feel that their lean journey is...
View ArticleBeyond the Lean Initiative [Lessons from the Road]
Through my IndustryWeek column, Lessons from the Road, I’ve been exploring some of the issues associated with the ongoing maturing of a lean journey. In this installment, Beyond the Lean Initiative, I...
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