"Within the Toyota Production System, a lack of ability to do kaizen becomes a critical flaw. Does this mean that if you do kaizen that is the Toyota Production System? In fact the reverse is true."

Taiichi Ohno explains that it is the type of kaizen that you do when the survival of your company depends on doing kaizen that is the most important kaizen. As the term kaizen becomes more popular, Ohno observes that people do kaizen that don't really need to be done. He calls this "omoitsuki kaizen" (or in English, "kaizen by inspiration" or "hit upon ...

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Should the FTC hold bloggers accountable for what they write?

Here is the link ( http://wp.me/p4HrB-Rr ) to today's Procurement Insights Post regarding the following news release:

"Independent bloggers who fail to disclose paid reviews or freebies can face up to $11,000 in fines from the Federal Trade Commission, according to revisions to the agency's "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising" published Monday.

This marks the first time that the Guides document has been updated since 1980."

What are your thoughts?

The Global Six Sigma & Business Improvement Awards, organized by WCBF, today announced Tom Farrell, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Dominion (http://www.dom.com), as the winner of its prestigious Six Sigma & Business Improvement CEO of the Year Award, sponsored by Minitab.

WCBF has also announced the shortlist of finalists for the 2009 Global Six Sigma & Business Improvement Awards program. A total of 43 entries from 34 organizations have been selected by the independent judging panel from 12 categories to go forward to the final stages of the judging process.

The finalists for the 2009 Global Six Sigma ...

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Searching for a job is time consuming. Finding a job that you will enjoy and stay with will likely take even longer. However, if you aren't currently working it is probably best if you approach your job search like you would your typical job, full time. A few hours a week won't get you very far in the job market so if you are serious about your job search plan on putting some quality time into your efforts.

If you do decide to put in 40 hours a week here is a suggestion on how you should break ...

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Recently I spent a day as a lean anthropologist, sitting in the back of the room and observing the behavior of senior managers during the monthly leadership team meeting of a large corporation. I hadn't done this in some years and it caused me to reflect again on how organizations do strange things, particularly in difficult times.

The first agenda item of this meeting was to review how the team was progressing on its lean journey, but I quickly noticed a lack of actionable detail in the team's mandate. They wanted to create a "world class" lean enterprise ...

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An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had once failed an entire class.

That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich , a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan". All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.

After the first test, the grades were averaged ...

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Some of the largest Lean Six Sigma Implementations Pitfalls I have seen are:

1. Unclear or uninspired burning platform - people need a reason to want to change, and leaders must make that reason clear and urgent, when that does not occur, then the air is let out of the tire.

2. Projects in the pipeline - too many projects occurring at the same time, can severely impact the organization, putting too much stress on IT resources during the improve phase or operational staff during periods of higher demand, etc... Project need to be balanced against a series of criteria to ensure ...

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Recently was asked a common question by hiring managers:

"How would you select the best candidate for your requirement?

With the current economic crisis, Companies are aggressively focused to continuously improve their operations in becoming Lean with a lot of cost reduction programs. The talents they prefer are mostly with Lean or Six Sigma background. If you would weigh the strength of the candidate, would you hire a person with his expertise is more on Lean or 6 Sigma? Why?

Most of the expert practitioners are certified or has an extensive project exposure on implementing Lean or 6 Sigma. How ...

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Many times, regardless of how well we plan, some things just fail. Maybe it's a webinar or a meeting presentation that was well prepared for, but suffered technical difficulty; maybe a savings plan losing nearly half of its value in today's recession. These challenging situations define our days, but our responses to them determine our future success.

While some curse and yell, others see failures as opportunities. Poet Maya Angelou writes, "I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he or she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage ...

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According to a recent survey by McKinsey & Co.¹ only 12 percent of the CEOs of large companies (i.e. revenues greater than $1B) and 17 percent of those of smaller companies view talent management as their single most pressing business concern. At the same time an IBM study ² reports that 80 percent of CEOs have set their primary objective as "revenue growth." To achieve that growth, 90 percent say they will need to transform their company to be more flexible and responsive-especially to meet new customer requirements. Half of those say they must execute the transformation in two ...

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The Global Six Sigma & Business Improvement Awards - www.tgssa.com - present you with a great opportunity to win recognition for the great work that you and your business excellence people are delivering to your healthcare organization, your patients and community.

"We are extremely excited to have received this recognition from WCBF for Best Emerging Business Improvement. I believe this terrific award recognizes that customers can depend on our ability to live our mission statement every day with on time delivery, lowest industry turn times, customer service of exceptional value, service and products of the highest quality.  Also, I'd like ...

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�??History is more or less bunk.�?? - Henry Ford

One cannot overlook the cross-fertilization of ideas and technology across industries. Factory visits are not a new invention. The Springfield Armory, attributed by historians as the birthplace of �??The American System of Manufacture�?? (early mass production of interchangeable parts), entertained visitors in the early 1800�??s. The US Government even suspended patent rights on armory methods for a time to improve adoption of these new methods.

By default much of the history about �??Lean�?? manufacturing has surrounded the auto industry, with Ford and Toyota listed as the major players in the development ...

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I will confess that spending an entire day in a seminar is not my favorite way to pass the time. Yet, I spend a fair amount of time trapped in seminars, waiting for someone to say something that's more than marginally interesting. This is pretty much what I thought I'd be doing when I was invited to spend the day at a lean manufacturing seminar that TI Group Automotive Systems (the former Bundy Corp. and Walbro Corp.) was holding for its employees. So I showed up early in the morning, hoping that I could get what I need ...

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What is 5s?

u      A Lean tool developed by the Japanese �?? Toyota Production System (TPS)

u      Foundation for continuous improvement �?? Must exist before improvement maturity can occur

u      5S Process creates an organized, clean and safe workplace

u      When 5s is achieve, then anyone can distinguish between normal and abnormal conditions at a glance

u      5S involves employee participation

Why Implement 5s?

u      Implementing 5S across the organization will

n       Install a continuous improvement mindset

n       Improve employee productivity and efficiency

n       Eliminate Non-Value Added activities

n       Create a robust foundation for Lean Six Sigma

What Are the 5s Steps ...

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A recent management study revealed that 46% of  employees leaving a company do so because they feel unappreciated; 61% said their bosses don't place much importance on them as people; and 88% said they don't receive acknowledgement for the work they do.

Whether you are an entrepreneur, manager, teacher, parent, coach or simply a friend, if you want to be successful with other people, you must master the art of appreciation.

I've never known anyone to complain about receiving too much positive feedback. Have you? In fact, just the opposite is true.

Keeping Score

When I first ...

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"Circumstances break men's bones; it has never been shown that they break men's optimism." - G. K. Chesterton          

I've been noticing (and I'm sure you have to), while many companies and individuals might be struggling right now, that there is also a group of companies and individuals flourishing. I've also noticed there are some common characteristics found in these companies and individuals who seem to be doing well during some of these uncertain times. Here are five characteristics that stand out:

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1. Waste of Over-Training
�??Build to demand�?? is the mantra for Lean production. Yet when it comes to training employees on Lean Six Sigma methods and tools, the standard is �??teach it all upfront just-in-case you need it�??. Most Black and Green Belt training curriculums are modeled on a college or university lecture-driven course of study condensed into week long classes. These certification courses teach a deep body of knowledge organized around the Six Sigma DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control) project management model.
This approach creates waste in a number ways. First is the waste of re-learning. As ...

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The first LeanConnections in July launched with a single article dedicated to "Respect for People." It was well received and sparked many thoughtful comments from our readers. Today, in the face of harrowing financial news and pressures on staff and leadership, many of the points addressed previously resurface in this issue where we tackle the dual challenges of retention and engagement of employees. Challenges which may be infinitely more important to address during this economic slowdown. Because if we truly believe that people are indeed our most important asset, the next 12-24 months or so are going to give us ...

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A Japanese company ( Toyota) and an American company (Ford Motors) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River.  Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.

On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.

The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat.  A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action.

Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people paddling and 1 person steering, while the American team had 7 people steering and 2 people paddling ...

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