Lean Roundup #10 – March, 2010

Selected highlights from the Lean Blog Community from the month of March, 2010. 

7 Tips to Build Good (Lean) Behavior – Jeff Hajek shares 7 ways to create positive lean behaviors on any team. 

Don't Write Work Instructions! – Bryan at TWI uses a 5W1H (5 why's and 1 how) analysis to question writing work instructions. 

Top 14 Ways to Reduce Changeovers – Mike Wroblewski discusses 14 ways that you can reduce equipment changeovers in your process. 

Returning to America - More Stories – Kevin Meyer highlights an article on the reasons why companies are bringing manufacturing back to the US.  

Time Observations - 10 Common Mistakes – Mark Hamel talks about 10 mistakes to avoid when taking time observations. 

Turning a New Leaf – Alex Maldonado explains 8 key personal behaviors to consider changing or improving on in the form of the acronym DOWNTIME. 

Counter Measures: Bringing Balance to the Process – JC Gatlin explains 8 steps in creating counter measures for problems to address the root cause. 

Rate of Improvement – Lee Fried talks about how the rate of improvement increases as the culture changes. 

Making the Invisible Visible – Michael Sinocchi shares Carlos Venegas', a reader, thoughts on the tactics used and difficulties faced when mapping electronic value streams. 

Lean Leaders, Circa 2020 – Michael Lombard makes some predictions of what Lean Leaders will be like in 10 years in a fun way. 

Top Ten Reasons You Should Be Doing S&OP – John Westerveld gives 10 reasons that your organization should do Sales and Operations Planning. 

Developing Great People – Paul Cary shares several best practices as a guide to developing employees that are more committed, engaged and motivated. 

Naysayers vs Just Negative – Kevin Meyer talks about the difference, albeit sometimes a fine line, between being a naysayer and simply being negative.   

Is Change Management the Missing Link? – Gregg Stocker writes about the importance of change management to be success with strategic initiatives. 

Diagnosing Current Reality as 1 2 3 – Jamie Flinchbaugh shares 3 steps to diagnosing your current reality which must include direct observation. 

How Checklists Help Me With My Podcasts – Mark Graban explains the importance of using checklists with an actual current example. 

The Myth of  Productivity Cost Savings – Glenn Whitfield explores some myths of productivity from the March Madness Tournament's so called unproductive wages. 

Hurry Up and Wait- Are You Motivating Your Employees Incorrectly? – Ankit Patel looks a company's employee performance measures and questions if they serve the purpose. 

The Willie Sutton Rule of Lean – Bill Waddell explains the importance of good sound information on your costs if you want to reduce your costs, ie. "go where the money is." 

Why Do We Spend So Much Time Putting Out Fires? – Dan Markovitz talks about leader standard work as means to prevent fire fighting mentality. 

What is a Bottleneck? - Dragan Bosnjak explains what a bottleneck is and how to recognize it.