Lean Roundup #34 – March, 2012

A selection of highlighted blog posts from Lean bloggers from the month of March, 2012.  You can also view the previous monthly Lean Roundups here.

Masaak Imai  Remembers Taiichi Ohno – Masaak Imai, founder of Kaizen Institute, remembers the life and wisdom of Taiichi Ohno on what would be his 100^th birthday.

A lean Leader Strengthens the Business By Developing People Through Coaching Process Improvements at the Gemba – Jeff Liker answers the question of what distinguishes a Lean leader by comparing to a traditional leader.

One Size Never Fits All – Bill Waddell talks about the next emerging frontier in lean is sales and marketing.

No Problem Is A Problem – Al Norval writes about the importance of creating an environment where it's OK to surface problems.

Managing Supply Chain Risk: What Drives Risk? - Milosz Majta explains 2 factors significantly impacting risk in today's supply chain: increasing supply chain complexity and decreasing access to information.

Lean, Bias, Impartiality and Justness – Jon Miller says the lean journey is the pursuit of systems ever more free of bias, impartial and just.

Hoshin Kanri – Dragan Bosnjak explains the concept and tool used for alignment and development of people.

Put On Your Listening Ears – Liz Guthridge shares some tips to help you improve your listening skills.

Visual Management: What's In It For Me? – Pete Abilla explains and shares the benefits of visual management.

Lean Leaders Make People Before They Make Parts – Michael Balle explains Lean leadership and the importance of developing people.

Respect For People, Shingo Edition – Dan Markovitz writes about the methodology Shigeo Shingo used to impart the philosophy of respect for people.

Experience The Pain To Drive Organizational Gain – Marci Reynolds advocates making key managers experience your organization's problems so they can drive change.

Manager vs Leader – Chrisy Burnett explains the differences between management focused and leadership focused leaders and what a role model is.

Respect For People Is Not Respect For Person, Just Ask Clint Eastwood – David Kasperzak advocates that respect is about teamwork and developing people not individuals.

  

What Is Your Line of Sight To Company Business Indicators? Tracey Richardson looks at a sequence of questions that can align us to that true north and ensure we are adding value.

What's the Single Biggest Obstacle to Continuous Improvement? – Pascal Dennis answers this common question by saying a lack of persistence.

Muda, Muri, and Mura: The Animated Adventures – Brad Schultz explains Muda, Muri, and Mura with an analogy of an animated cartoon.

Lean Listening – Mark Hamel builds on the 5 senses in terms of Lean and then focuses on listening strategies.

Everything Else I Know-About Lean... I Learned In 8th Grade Science -  Robert Martichenko, the author of Everything I Know about Lean I Learned in First Grade, follows up the story with how he came up with this new addition.