Tennessee Baseball – Nation’s Fastest Field Cleanup TAGS: 5S | baseball | cleanup | college | consulting | field | fun | kaizen | lean | lean blitz | operations | six sigma | sports | standardized work | tennessee | thinking The University of Tennessee baseball team claims to have the nation’s fastest pregame field cleanup. Before home games the players sprint out to handle cleanup tasks at the end of …Continue reading →

Is the NFL Concussion Settlement Enough? TAGS: 5S | als | apple | concussion | consulting | continuous improvement | head | ipad | iphone | junior seau | lawyers | lean | lean blitz | lou gehrigs disease | nfl | operations | pittsburgh steelers | process | proposed | san diego chargers | settlement | sports | suicide | trauma | troy polamalu One of the biggest elephant-in-the-room topics related to sports AND safety is concussions and other forms of brain damage caused by playing football. There’s so much new information, so much …Continue reading →

What Professional Wrestling Can Teach Us About Performance Optimization TAGS: 5S | andre the giant | brock lesnar | celtic | colonial life arena | columbia | consulting | damien sandow | lean | lean blitz | optimization | performance | practice | professional wrestling | safety | scripted | setup | sheamus | smackdown | south carolina | standardized work | training | warrior | world wrestling entertainment | wwe Recently I attended a professional wrestling event for the first time ever – WWE Smackdown at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, South Carolina. I am not a wrestling fan by …Continue reading →

Basketball Is A Big Game Of Competitive #5S TAGS: 5S | baseline | basketball | bobby knight | broken backboard | championship | consulting | darryl dawkins | free throw | lean | lean blitz | michael jordan | players | set in order | shaquille o'neal | shine | sort | sports | standardize | straighten | sustain | technical foul If you’ll recall, 5S is a workspace organizational tool that maintains a standard level of cleanliness, material availability, and consistency between workspace users. The 5S tools are: – Sort: Keeping …Continue reading →

What The Gym Can Teach Us About Lean TAGS: 5S | activity | arnold | beef | beyond lean | consulting | dumbbells | error-proof | fat | gold's gym | gym | indicators | labels | lean | lean blitz | matt wrye | michael jordan | muscle | policy | Schwarzenegger | set in order | sports | visual | waste Lean muscle. Lean meat. Lean production. Surely they have a lot in common, yes? I get asked all the time what it means to be Lean. It astounds me that …Continue reading →

Use of #Lean in Home Theater Installations TAGS: 5S | big screen | cabinet | clutter | coax | components | consulting | continuous improvement | defects | directv | dish | home | installation | installer | internet | inventory | kanban | lean | lean blitz | network | rack | satellite | scheduling | six sigma | stereo | system | television | theater | theatre | transportation | van | variation | wires During a summer in my younger years I was a tag-along for a company that would install home theater systems. We would install big screen televisions on walls, stereos and …Continue reading →

What Your #Mother Can Teach You About #Lean TAGS: 5S | behavior | chad | clean | consulting | family | lean | lean blitz | management | may | mother's day | organize | quality | reward | safety | time studies | tools | visual | walters Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out in the world – if it wasn’t for your mother, you wouldn’t be here to read this. It’s an understatement that my …Continue reading →

Lean or Sushi?? TAGS: 5S | ankimo | error-proofing | gemba | genchi cenbutsu | hanedashi | heijunka | hoisin | hokkigai | hoshin kanri | japan | kaikaku | kaizen | kanban | kani kamaboko | kazunoko | kim chee | koi | lean | lean blitz consulting | lean or sushi | mekajiki | mizusumashi | muda | muri | nagara | nama tako | nigiri | octopus | poka-yoke | quiz | saltwater carp | seiketsu | sumitomo | sushi | suzuki | tempura | unagi | yokoten Lean terms regularly applied in Japan don’t always get translated into English when the concepts are used in the United States. Reasons for this include lacking a concise literal translation …Continue reading →

Punxsutawney Phil and Measuring the Wrong Things TAGS: 5S | causation | combine | consulting | continuous improvement | correlation | day | draft | groundhog | indicators | lean blitz | manti te'o | measure | nfl | operations | overprocessing | pennsylvania | process | punxsutawney phil | react | scouting | six sigma | sports | standardized work | tom brady | visual   Every February 2nd Americans gear up for the grand indicator of how much longer winter will be with us – by checking in with a groundhog in Pennsylvania about …Continue reading →

Some Lean Thoughts From the Road TAGS: 5S | airblade | airlines | aisle | american | atlanta | augusta | baggage | bathroom | blitz | board | business | carry on | chicken wrap | class | consulting | continuous improvement | delta | dyson | el paso | fees | food | georgia | hotel | iron | ironing board | kaizen | lean | luggage | military | mountain | new jersey | newark | operations | pilot precise | process | santa fe | set in order | sink | soap | sports | straighten | texas | ticketing | transparency | window | zone Having spent significant time on the road the last month or so, I’ve come across many more opportunities for Kaizen or places where Lean thinking is applied well. ~~~~~~~ Airport …Continue reading →

The Filth and Disgusting Health Behaviors at Wrigley Field TAGS: 5S | baseball | big league stew | blitz | blog | chicago cubs | cleaning | concessions | consulting | disdain | disgusting | documentation | espn | everywhere | facilities | fan | feces | field | filth | filthy | five whys | gross | hands | health | indiana | inspector | issues | lean | maintenance | major league baseball | management | opening day | operating | operations | playbook | procedures | process | root cause analysis | set in order | shine | sort | sports | stadium | standardize | standards | strategy | sun-times | sustain | tpm | training | ufe | ufe.com | upkeep | urine | visual | wash | with leather | wrigley | yahoo sports I came across this little op-ed piece on ESPN.com’s Playbook about Wrigley Field being the grossest sports stadium in the four major North American sports leagues, sharing a little bit …Continue reading →

Lean is Safety TAGS: 5S | accident | acknowledge | address | anomaly | behavior | businessdictionary.com | continuous improvement | danger | environment | ergonomics | excess | harm | identify | inventory | leak | lean | lean blitz consulting | loss | motion | muda | mura | muri | overproduction | personnel | property | risk | safety | set in order | shine | slippery when wet | sort | standardization | standardize | straighten | strain | sustain | threat | transportation | unsafe | wastes | water | work First, let’s understand the concept of safety. Safety is defined as “relative freedom from danger, risk, or threat of harm, injury, or loss to personnel and/or property, whether caused deliberately or by accident” as per BusinessDictionary.com. So being in a safe situation …Continue reading →

Entries from the Lean Memes Contest TAGS: 5 whys | 5S | aliya mustafina | allie brosh | approach | asian father | bad | batman | but we've always done it this way | catch careers | cheezburger | christina kach | consulting | contest | continuous improvement | cousin | creepy little girl | dating site | detect | eel | employee | execution | first world problems | five whys | fonzie | graban | gymnast | half | happy cat | high expectations | hyperbole | improvement | jidoka | kaizen event | key | koala | lame joke | lame pun raccoon | lean | lean blitz | leanblog | leanmemes | manufacturing lines | mark | meme | memegenerator | memes | moa | moar | murderer | olympics | operations | overly attached girlfriend | pdca | pdsa | phone | plan do check act | plan do study adjust | point of use storage | poka-yoke | priest | priorities | process | quickmeme | root cause analysis | safety | set in order | seven | shine | shotgun approach | signal | six sigma | sort | soviet russia | suggestion box | utility belt | value stream management Lean consultant, author, and notable public speaker Mark Graban of LeanBlog.org has started a web collection of Lean-related memes at Lean Memes. He’s hosting a contest for his readers to …Continue reading →

Spike TV’s Bar Rescue and Optimizing Restaurants and Nightclub Operations TAGS: 5S | act | bar rescue | business | check | cleaning | consulting | do | effort | food | genchi genbutsu | implementation | improvement | jon taffer | kaizen | kanban | lean blitz | lean tools | operations | pdca | plan | process | set in order | shine | six sigma | sort | spike tv | sports | staff | stress test | transformation Happy Labor Day! Between baseball games, grilling out, running, and kicking off the college football season I was introduced to a show on Spike TV called Bar Rescue, and I’m …Continue reading →

What Endurance Running Can Teach Us About Lean TAGS: 5k | 5S | act | audit | bright | check | continuous improvement | control | couch | cycle time | dayton ohio | discipline | distance | do | endurance | excess | flashlight | goals | high school | inventory | lean | lean blitz consulting | lofty | maintaine | motion | motivate | motivation | operations | osha | pdca | plan | process | progress | race | run | running | s.m.a.r.t. goal | safe | safety | soreness | sports | sprint | success | susie stein | system | template | training | troy ohio | up and running | visual indicator | waste reduction | weight loss | win | wins Many moons ago, I was a distance runner. I ran cross country in high school my junior and senior years, each race being a 5K. After starting out as a …Continue reading →