Happy Independence Day

The 4th of July is an extremely patriotic holiday where we celebrate the independence of our country, the United States of America. People celebrate with family and friend gatherings, barbecues, parties, games, food, fun, festivals, parades, musical events and fireworks. It is important not to forget the true meaning of the day.

Variously known as the Fourth of July and Independence Day, July 4th has been a federal holiday in the United States since 1941, but the tradition of Independence Day celebrations goes back to the 18th century and the American Revolution (1775-83). In June 1776, representatives of the 13 colonies then fighting in the revolutionary struggle weighed a resolution that would declare their independence from Great Britain. On July 2nd, the Continental Congress voted in favor of independence, and two days later its delegates adopted the Declaration of Independence, a historic document drafted by Thomas Jefferson. From 1776 until the present day, July 4th has been celebrated as the birth of American independence, with typical festivities ranging from fireworks, parades and concerts to more casual family gatherings and barbecues.

Lean Manufacturing is a business method that extends employees independence.  It provides more employees with the tools, methods and authority to make decisions. It creates teams to measure progress and devise new techniques. This leads to higher employee motivation and productivity
as workers are asked to come up with solutions to problems as opposed to having to work with flawed procedures. There is much to be said for greater worker independence in the execution of a lean philosophy. We may not have a day to celebrate like the US but the message is no less important.


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Lean Quote: Freedom, A Chance To Be Better

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better." — Albert Camus

Lean manufacturing provides your workforce the freedom that they need to own and maximize their productivity. In a Lean production plant, the "freedom to control one's work" replaces the "mind numbing stress" of mass production. Armed with the skills they need to control their environment workers have the opportunity to think actively even proactively to solve workplace problems.

Lean is more than the traditional metrics of improved efficiency, reduced costs and increased throughput. The people-centric approach to the application of Lean creates a better future, driven by empowered individuals working in teams, committed to continuous improvement. It is this culture of responsible freedom and trust that allows employees and their organization to realize the positive benefits of Lean and achieve a successful outcome.

The real power of Lean manufacturing is to fully engage our heads and hearts to create habits that result in achievement and fulfillment. This is accomplished by creating an inspirational environment in which people are encouraged to embrace, implement, and live Lean concepts. Lasting results are driven by the spirit of honesty, integrity, responsiveness, freedom, and creativity, built on a platform of committed relationships.



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Lean Thinking and Its Application to Safety

My friend and fellow blogger Dragan Bosnjak, an Italian Lean Practitioner, has published a new work in English.  It is called Lean & Safety and it is a translation of his Italian ebook Security Lean. This ebook talks about lean thinking and its application to work related safety. 

Entrepreneurs think that injuries happen, that they are inevitable. They are take as facts and entrepreneurs think about managing them only to limit economic loss for their company. That’s why they update all their OSHA compliance documents, they ask workers to sign on forms for participating in the training courses (so they can defend themselves in front of the law…), even though these courses are generic, made in conference room, and never describe real work situations and conditions that workers meet every day. And rarely they cause a real improvement of safety conditions inside the company.

They never think however, that practically all injuries can be avoided. How is that possible? Through a serious prevention management using lean thinking principles.You’ll find fundamentals to set safety culture inside your organization.

This ebook seeks to find answers to the following, continually recurring questions:

Why injuries happen?
How can we prevent them?
How can we manage prevention?

Lean and Safety is 57 pages long, and it reads in a couple of hours.  It consists on three chapters: 1) why injuries happen and how Lean can gain you time for safety and uncover waste 2) using Lean to prevent injuries by observing behaviors and problem solving and 3) the importance of leadership and it's influence on the organization' culture.

I think you will find the information in Dragan's book very valuable for creating a safe behavior culture based on Lean principles.  For a small fee you can purchase your very own ebook today on his sales page.


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Improvement Kata Handbook

Recently, I reviewed Mike Rother's Toyota Kata book.  In doing so I came across the Toyota Kata website.  The site is dedicate to the practice of mastering the improvement kata as explained in his book.  

This website has a number of great resources at your disposal but probably the most notable is the Improvement Kata Handbook.  This is a great companion to the Toyota Kata book and can be used train and develop improvement kata thinking and acting in your company.

Improvement Kata Training Materials

View more presentations from Mike Rother

Mike Rother suggests a 3 step process to get started with improvement kata:

I would encourage you to thoroughly review this site and take advantage of this training material. I am sure you will find this information very informative and valuable along your journey. Keep learning, practicing, and sharing.



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The Role of a Lean Leader

My Friend Matt Wrye recently wrote about his role as an internal Lean consultant. He talked about the struggle some management places on Lean leaders between just doing it and influencing change. This got me thinking about my own experience, why this struggle occurs, and what the true role of a Lean leader should be.

Like Matt, I too have found myself in both types of roles. I believe this struggle with how the role is defined has a lot to do with the level of knowledge by management. So let me clarify by knowledge I mean true understand of Lean thinking as a business or management process that goes beyond improvement tools to capture employee development and engagement. I say management because it is often not just one person but a collection of managers that share a similar thinking and approach.

The level of involvement in Lean by the management team often shapes the role of the Lean leader. In my experience the less knowledgeable the management about REAL Lean (Bob Emiliani’s term) the more they think of it as a set of tools the more they want you to just do it. These are the managers that are usually hands-off with Lean and want to see the short term gains to demonstrate they are improving the process. They are focused on the results and outcomes and not the means by which we achieve them. This task oriented approach to management unfortunately is only sustainable while the doer is doing.

However those managers who truly know Lean understand the benefit comes from developing people to think and improve their own process the more they define the role as influencing or coaching. As Mike Rother said in Toyota Kata management must focus on how solutions are developed. Develop, via practice with coaching, the capability in people to develop new solutions. In this view the Lean leader can have the biggest impact coaching or influencing the process of improvement to capture the ingenuity of those in the organization.

In my experience being a coach is the most important aspect of a Lean leader. They are not the ones to come in and do it for you. They are the ones to show you how to do it with confidence so that you will be able to do it for yourself. A Lean leader must be relentless in teaching and expecting learning through actual practice.

The best analogy of a Lean leader that I have heard is related to agriculture. The Lean leader is a farmer not a hunter. Farmers take the long view, and win in the long term. Hunters take the short view, get early gains but ultimately die out. Farmers are shepherds and Lean leaders should do the same.



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Lean Quote: Leadership Requires Persistence

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"If you live long enough, you'll make mistakes. But if you learn from them, you'll be a better person. It's how you handle adversity, not how it affects you. The main thing is never quit, never quit, never quit." — Bill Clinton

Persistence means not giving up when faced with a challenge. It is the ability to stick with a difficult task and cope with frustration.

Nowhere is the importance of persistence more relevant than in leadership
Effective leaders never give up because something runs into obstacles, faces challenges or is difficult. They evaluate the idea or program, and if they feel it is important, they take every possible step to bring it to fruition. This may be difficult because they will face the naysayers who tell them to give up or forget about it, and that is often demotivating.

Achieving any great goal cannot be done overnight. It takes hard work. There will undoubtedly be obstacles that must be overcome. Someone must hold the vision and inspire others by rolling up his or her sleeves and working to make progress. Someone must lead.

Persistence is often related to positive attitude. Someone without strong beliefs or lacking confidence will generally stop fighting for ideals. True leaders realize that it is only by fighting for, and not giving up on ideals, that they can ever be a true effective leader.

What may separate leaders among others, is their persistence to do the right things - even if these are not what they want, even if they don't feel like doing it and even if all seems to be against them.

Persistence to do the right things - will not be that easy. It will require your inner will power. Mere brute force will not do it for you - it will be a game of the mind. The stronger your resolve, the more you will persist - and the more your chances of success.

I think above all us, leadership requires persistence.



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Lean. There's an App for That.

In this new age of hand held technology you frequently hear "There's an app for that" in reference to some task you are trying to do.  Well, I suppose Lean thinking shouldn't be any different.  The Lean Enterprise Institute introduced an app as another way to stay connected with them.  With this free app, you can easily access the latest news and information about LEI and the lean community, including books, workshop calendars, blogs, tweets, webinar audio, videos, photos, and more.

 

One thing I like about this app is the community feel LEI tries to create with this app.  This is not surprising since LEI is about creating value and building a strong Lean community. They have a fan wall that allows you to post a comment, you can leave comments about books and other posts, and you interact with other users of the app.  Doing this and more on the app earns you points.  The top 10 points earners are highlighted on the app.

This app has been out for sometime on the iPhone platform but I am an Android guy and this app is newly released on Android.  If you are looking a Lean app for your smartphone or tablet I would recommend that you check out this app.  I believe you will find value in it.


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