In the KaiZone Friday Favorites, I present my top ten favorite articles from the last week (give or take a few days) in the world of Lean – and beyond. With leading content from the world’s foremost improvement authors and future Lean leaders, I do the research so you don’t have to!
10. When Standard Work is Not the Answer by Joe Crist. “Standard work can provide the framework for sustainment and stability for a process in the elimination of undesirable outcomes (defects). The hypothesis is simple; if the standard work is followed, then the defect will not occur. However, it is critical to recognize the difference between a standard work creation or revision problem and a standard work deployment problem.”
9. Kaizen Methodologies: The Meaning of Kaizen by Benjamin Thompson. “The Japanese word ‘kaizen’ simply means “good change”, with no inherent meaning of either ‘continuous’ or ‘philosophy’ in Japanese dictionaries or in everyday use. The word refers to any improvement, one-time or continuous, large or small, in the same sense as the English word ‘improvement’.”
8. Even Knowledge Workers Get Dis-Engaged by Al Norval. “Many of the same workplace issues of yesterday can remain in place today. Repetitive tasks without the ability to change and improve the work can lead to a dis-engaged workplace as much today as it did 50 or 100 years ago. Empowerment to make change, remove waste and improve the way work is done gives people some control over their immediate work environment. The result – an engaged workforce constantly seeking a better way.”
7. Performance Metrics: Don’t Lag Behind by Dan Littlefield. “Think back to your school days: do you remember waiting for your report card to come so that you could find out how you did in a tough class? Not only did you receive a standard performance measurement at the end of the course, but typically you would receive occasional milestone measurements, perhaps at the course mid-point, as well as scores on individual assignments. Because of the constant feedback, rarely was I not at least directionally aware of my performance throughout the course.”
6. Leadership Team Development by Jacklyn Whitaker. “From our lean training, we understand the importance of respecting humanity. We understand that traditional thinking dictates to hire brilliant people to try to fix broken processes while lean thinking prescribes to empower regular people to improve upon brilliant processes. The difficult task isn’t recognizing the right approach, but rather being effective in putting it to practice.”
5. Why No “Respect for People?” by Bob Emiliani. “Hierarchies may be unavoidable in most cases, but the “I’m better than you” trap that leaders fall victim to, whether self-imposed or the view of others, is avoidable. If they can do that, then continuous improvement comes alive with the entire enterprise, top-to-bottom, with the spin-off benefit of reducing people’s stress and creating a healthier work environment both mentally and physically.”
4. Hanging up My Cape by Josh Howell. “Managers and front line workers hustle to work around problems resulting from poorly designed work systems (if it is justifiable to use the words “design” and “system”) and with such pride! We all like to be the hero, I suppose. I certainly did. Knowing what I know now, however, having experienced what I’ve experienced, this scene breaks my heart. Because there really is a better way!”
3. Blame: Human Error is Going to Happen Even If We’re Being Careful by Mark Graban. “Human error is GOING to happen, because we are fallible. That’s why we need good systems, tools, and processes and we can’t just ask people to “be more careful” and we can’t just blame them after an error occurs.”
2. Leveled Production: Why Do It? by Ian Glenday. “Batch logic is based on the principle “economies of scale.” The logic is focused on the machines. There is nothing wrong with economies of scale as long as you meet one criteria: you have very few products. As the product portfolio increases it becomes difficult to have long runs without unacceptable increases in finished goods inventories. Most companies have seen an explosion in their product portfolios in the last 20 years. What we need is a different focus that will improve efficiency while having shorter runs with more change-overs.”
And this week’s Friday Favorite goes to . . .
1. What is Enterprise Lean and How Do We Get There? by Jeffrey Liker. “Since Plan-Do-Check-Act is the process needed to carry out sustainable improvement at all levels, it requires skilled practitioners at all levels—from the C-suite to the working level.”
Do you have an article that you’d like to share with The KaiZone community? Post it in the comments section below. Have a great weekend, friends!
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