Lean Roundup #43 - December, 2012

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.