A selection of highlighted blog posts from Lean bloggers from the month of December,
2012. You can also view the previous
monthly Lean Roundups here.
The
Big Gains? Not Without Transformation – Gregg Stocker explains that many
underestimate the effort required to succeed in transformation.
Customers
– John Hunter talks about the importance of customer focus but different
customers have different needs.
How
to involve the masses in the change? – Dragan Bosnjak says that involving
the masses in the change requires making small improvements daily.
The
Risk of Ignoring Muri – Natalie Sayer explains that a relentless focus on
muda and lack of focus on muri is not “respect for people”.
Am
I Ready? How to be an Effective Lean Event Facilitator - Alex Maldonado
shares some tips on how to improve facilitation of Lean events based on
experience.
Christmas
Wish: Meaningful Measurements – Matthew E. May advocates the use of a
meaningful set of measurements from customers point of view.
Designing
Perfect Process – John Smith admits while you may not get to the perfect
process there is no reason not to try, that is what improvement is all about.
Do
You Have a Lean Gas Tank? – Christian Paulsen reminds us that Lean examples
are all around us like that of our gas tank in our car.
User Gemba – John Hunter
talks about the importance of customer focus which is achieved from
understanding the actual experience in order to be a successful business.
Well
of Course No One Trusts Management – David Kasprzak says while this may be
true there is something you can do about it: seek understanding and reflect
before speaking if you want trust.
Too Happy Too Soon
– Bruce Hamilton tells the story of how he learned to never settle on an
improvement, you can always do better.
Still
Missing the Point of Lean – Glenn Whitfield refutes a recent article
claiming Lean is about waste elimination by explaining Lean is about Increasing
Value with Respect for People.
Fail
Forward to Success – Al Norval says failure is part of learning process and
the quicker we learn to uncover with PDCA process the faster we can find
success.
Success!
Sustaining Tiny Habits – Liz Guthridge says the path to success comes from
taking tiny steps and sustaining these new behaviors through continued
practice.
What
Before Why – Paul Levy reminds us that defining the problem helps us arrive
at the root cause much faster.
Why
Reorganizations Fail – Dan Markovitz explains that reorganizations are
often the knee-jerk to poorly defined problems resulting in poor solutions if all
you do is shuffle the boxes on the org chart.
"True
North" - Explicit or Intrinsic? – Mark Rosenthal explains the ideals
of “True North” from both an explicit place and intrinsic concept.
Srooge
or Fezziwig? – Bill Waddell defines respect for people by illustrating
leadership styles at two companies which portray the familiar Christmas Carol
characters of Fezziwig and Scrooge.
Ringi is the formal process of writing up
a proposal and getting it approved – Jeffery Liker explains the Japanese
concept of Ringi the formal approval process that is related to nemawashi.
5
Best Practices To Help Build Trust With Employees – Marci Reynolds says the
key to success is building trust with employees and shares 5 ways to do so.
Customer
Driven Management – Bill Waddell says right management structure and
processes for any company are a function of its customers, and how those
customers define value.
