Lean Roundup #4

September, 2009

Lean Out Your Communications – Liz Guthridge gives 5 tips on how to be customer-centric in our communications.

It is Time for Hoshin - Lean Sigma Supply Chain covers Hoshin planning with examples of x-matrix and A3 team charter.

Three Risks of Implementing Lean without Policy Deployment – Jon Miller talks about the PDCA cycle for continuous alignment through policy deployment when starting Lean.

Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen – Brian Buck encourages your teams to make problems visible so they can begin to solve issues with these tips.

MICUs Go Lean: Result = Happiness – Paul Levy shares some 5s improvements in a hospital with videos showing the transformation.

It's Not About the Board!- Lee Fried reminds us that our visual boards only make information visible and that they still requirement interaction and direction from leaders.

You Gotta Be Original – Bill Waddell talks about the Lean journey being an unclear journey with a unique path not a copied plan.

Use 5 Sequential Whys, Not 5 Random Ones – Mark Graban teaches us the importance of using a systematic series of questioning why to find the root cause.

How to be Lean in a Batch Production Industry – Jon Miller gives examples of several lean techniques to improve an organization in a batch production industry reminding us that Lean is more than single piece flow.

The Coffee Kaizen – Rick Foreman tells a story from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to Lean about everyone being responsible for Lean and what that means.

How do we learn? – Joe Ely shares a view on learning with a perspective rather than going from point to point, the learner comes round to the same things, but at progressively deeper, and more complex levels.

Levels of Empowerment – Lean Sigma Supply Chain displays a pictorial showing different level of empowerment between employees and management from Hierarchical Authority to Fully Empowered.

Production Planning – Connor Shea talks about the importance of production planning and what it means to look ahead so you can prevent fires instead of putting them out.

The Purpose of Lean Tools – Mike Wroblewski reminds us that Lean is about making problems visible and then engaging those to solve them.

Companies Freezing Training Budgets are Going Backwards – Karen Wilhelm talks about the importance of continuing to learn even during tough economic times.

Deciding When To Dig – Jamie Flinchbaugh shares the importance of criteria-based decisions when problem solving to learn when to stop fire fighting.