Lean Roundup #38 – July, 2012

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

Emphasize Strategy Deployment, Not Selection – Pascal Dennis advocates putting energy in executing the strategy not just determining your strategy.

You Don't "Do Lean" – Paul Levy explains that Lean is more than a program it is about seeing and learning in the gemba.

"Blame & Shame" Is Shameful – Mark Graban says there's no place for blaming people, focus on the process to create a culture of improvement.

Canary In A Coal Mine Metrics – Jamie Flinchbaugh advocates the use of metrics for predicting bigger problems.

Why Do You Ask? – Mark Hamel explains the importance of open-ended questions and that they demonstrate the leader's respect for the mentee's ability to think.

The Management Myth – Bill Waddell says there is no one size fits all for managing and organizing a company and you can't clone others.

How To Approach Lean Production – Dragan Bosnjak explains how to approach Lean so that your superiors will buy in.

Success With Kaizen Requires Thinking Small – Gregg Stocker recommends small improvement everyday creates a routine of improvement that lasts.

Silos and Process Organizations – Michel Baudin explains it is better to organize around the process and not individual silos.

Toyota's Functional Organization – Art Smalley explains that Toyota in fact does organize around functional silos but because of their techniques like value streams they avoid typical pitfalls.

Lean Transportation Management: Creating Operational and Financial Stability - Robert Martichenko shares 5 guiding principles of Lean transportation management.

Beware Iniatives – Pascal Dennis warns about the endless initiatives and advocates strategy deployment as a more effective solution.

ASQ Influential Voices: Quality and Social Responsibility (& Lean) – Mark Graban explains that by doing the right things we will be stronger in the long run.

Value Stream Mapping and Lead Time – Evan Durant explains that lead time is a proxy for all those other process metrics in the value stream.

Beginning to Understand the Power of Coaching - Seeing the Connection to Respect for People – Connor Shea shares some lessons learned on the importance of coaching and the necessary skills to do so.

Remove Waste, Uncover Individual Human Beings – John Hunter writes about removing barriers across our organization which is at the heart of respect for people.

First, Identify the Value. – Dan Markovitz advocates to improve the effectiveness of your organization, start focusing on value, not on deliverables.

The Company Learns As Long As The CEO Learns At The Gemba By Supporting Kaizen – Michael Balle explains lean transformation is going to the gemba to get every one to agree on problems.

Self Development Leads to Developing Others – Jeffery Liker says developing organizations and leaders comes from developing problem solvers.

Involvement and Engagement of People at Their Processes Where The Work Is Being Done Must Be A Priority – Tracey Richardson explains respect to people from experience at Toyota and ways to get involvement and engagement.