Customer Value is the Primary Goal of #Lean – Never Forget It TAGS: cleanliness | consulting | continuous | cost savings | customer | improvement | lean | lean blitz | mia | national league of families | pow | pow-mia | processes | six sigma | start | value The National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia was initiated by an uprising of servicemen’s families during the Vietnam War who demanded that action be taken …Continue reading →

Baseball Opening Day 2013! What Are Our Business Processes? TAGS: atv | augusta greenjackets | business | concessions | facility | houston astros | lean blitz consulting | maintenance | major league baseball | mascot | opening day | processes | promotions | texas rangers | tickets Baseball Opening Day has arrived! Tonight the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers will throw out the first pitch of the 2013 MLB season. Banners will be unfurled, famous dignitaries will …Continue reading →

The High Cost of Penny Production TAGS: 26 | augusta | blitz | cent | chemistry | consulting | continuous | copper | costs | currency | georgia | improvement | lean | liz hill | mint | molten | nbc | nickel | operations | penny | process | processes | production | reduce | six sigma | sports | treasury | united states | value | zinc In recent years I’ve heard rumors that the production costs and materials of a penny are greater than the value of the penny itself. In high school chemistry I recall …Continue reading →

Lean is a Revenue Driver TAGS: american | asq | black belt | blower | briggs | certification | constrained | continuous improvement | customer | cycle time | defect | driver | eliminate | engineer | flywheel | lean | lean blitz consulting | lean is | machines | margin | operator | processes | project | quality | revenue | schedule | six sigma | society | standardization | stratton | thomson plastics | time studies | tonnage Lean is obviously a lot more than just elimination of waste activities in processes. It has the power to impact other areas of operations. One of the projects I managed …Continue reading →

2012 Summer Olympics: Wembley Stadium Stops Taking Visa Cards TAGS: 2012 | athletics | best | blitz | cache | card | cash | cashless | consulting | control | crash | credit | eric ries | failure | faulty | fiasco | football | games | goodwill | great britain | kingdom | lean | limit | london | marketing | minimum viable product | mobile phones | olympics | operations | options | payment | popular | process | processes | redundant | registers | shepherd's bush | Soccer | sponsors | sports | stadium | system | telegraph | transactions | united | united arab emirates | visa | wembley Wembley Stadium management elected to stop accepting Visa cards as payment for tickets and concessions after some faults in the system developed at the cash registers during a soccer game …Continue reading →

If You Don’t Have Standardized Processes You’re Wasting Money TAGS: best | blitz | concession stand | conditions | difference | labor | lean | manufacturing | margin | operations | practices | principle | process | processes | savings | six sigma | sports | standard | standardized | studies | time | toy | toyota | waste | wasteful | way | work That’s a very bold proclamation, but it’s true. It applies to every type of process – manufacturing toys, cooking burgers, coding medical charts, delivering mail, checking a customer out at …Continue reading →

Lean Oops: Soda Can Vending Machines TAGS: 5S | anomaly | blitz | can | coca-cola | defect | dented | diet coke | fanta | lean | operations | organizations | processes | purple | six sigma | sports | visual Some styles of drink vending machines don’t just use buttons with logos – they incorporate representations of the actual product being vended. In the above case, it’s not really a …Continue reading →

Baltimore Orioles Decision-Making Flowchart TAGS: adam | andy mcphail | baltimore | billy ripken | billy rowell | blitz | boog powell | boston red sox | brooks robinson | bud selig | cal | decision | funny | ichiro | jones | ken singleton | lean | markakis | matrix | matt hobgood | new york yankees | operations | orioles | peter angelos | player to be named later | processes | ptbnl | rick dempsey | ripken | roberts | sports | suzuki | tom davis | wieters Someone on Twitter shared this (I wish I could remember who) but this is a humorous look at how decisions are made with the Baltimore Orioles front office. True or …Continue reading →

Overproduction Example: Too Many Boxes! TAGS: beer | blitz | boxes | cleaning | concessions | customers | cycle time | forklift | hot dogs | inventory | lean | material handler | nachos | operations | operator | overprocessing | processes | productivity | safety | six sigma | sports | standardized work | supplier | thomson plastics | training As a refresher, the definition of the lean waste overproduction is the manufacture/assembly/production of more than what is needed at the time. An example of where overproduction can be a) …Continue reading →

Lean Tools: 5S, Standardize, and the Marching Hundred TAGS: 5S | audits | band | blitz | cell | cleanliness | colors | factory | finished goods | floor | hundred | images | indiana | inspections | lean | lock step | marching | operations | operator | organization | processes | safety | set in order | shapes | shine | signs | six sigma | sort | sports | standardize | straighten | sustain | university | user | visual We’ve covered the first three steps of 5S – sort (also here), set-in-order, and shine. The good news? Those three steps are everything you need to overhaul a work cell …Continue reading →

Lean Tools: 5S, Shine, and Billy Mays TAGS: 5S | as-seen-on-tv | basic | billy mays | blitz | board | clean | cleaners | colors | condition | ding king | dirt | discipline | dust | grease | grime | japanese | kaboom | lean | manager | oil | operations | operator | oxi-clean | paint | pepsi | pitchman | plexiglas | processes | set in order | shadow | shine | six sigma | sort | sports | straighten | supply | tool | white (This is a continuation of deeper dives into 5S – see posts about sort here and here, and a post about set-in-order here.) When you think of amazing, life-changing, all-in-one, …Continue reading →

Overprocessing Example: Protective Bags TAGS: bags | blitz | customer | end customer | flash | injection molding | knots | lean | muda | operations | overprocessing | plastic | processes | scrapes | scuffs | shipment | six sigma | sports | steps | thomson plastics | tickets | undo | wastes As a quick refresher, the lean waste overprocessing is the application of extra work, process steps, or effort than is required by the end customer. Sometimes “going the extra mile” …Continue reading →

Lean Tools: 5S, Set in Order, and Rosie the Robot TAGS: 5S | a place for everything | blitz | bucket | everything in its place | faulty | floor marking | indicators | jetsons | lean | lugnut | operations | processes | robot | rosie | set in order | shadowboards | six sigma | sort | spacely | sports | sprockets | tape | visual There is an episode of the Jetsons where George brings home a faulty lugnut from his place of employment, Spacely Sprockets. Because nuts and bolts are apparently like candy to …Continue reading →

Lean Tools: 5S, Sort, and Make the Clutter Stop! TAGS: 5S | blitz | cabinets | clubhouse | clutter | concessions | countertops | doors | freezer | hardware | lean | leanblitz | locker rooms | maintenance | operations | processes | refrigerator | shed | shelves | six sigma | sort | sports | stairwells | tools | workspace So we covered Sort in yesterday’s post but because it’s the first step in 5S we need to make sure we do it right and leave no stone unturned. We must …Continue reading →

Lean Tools: 5S and How Sort is Half the Battle TAGS: 1980's | 5S | accounting | asset tags | ballrooms | blitz | capital equipment | categories | catwalk | concourse | desks | finished goods | flexibility | frequency | g.i. joe | kitchen | knowing is half the battle | lean | liquid | maintenance | necessary | not necessary | office | operations | point of use storage | processes | raw materials | real american hero | recycle | safety | salvage | separate | set in order | shine | six sigma | sort | sports | stadium | standardize | suites | sustain | tag | tagging Remember those G.I. Joe cartoons from the 80’s where at the end of each episode one of the Joes would teach us a life lesson (about nutrition, honesty, school, etc.)? …Continue reading →