I heard Alex Rodriguez on a podcast with Gary Vaynerchuck yesterday and he made a great point about the current times. He said that Joe Torre would tell him during a rain delay that the players that went to the back and ate burgers during the rain delay wouldn’t perform as well after the delay …
Five steps to Take Now to Prepare for the Future Read More »
As the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us, companies can pivot quickly and produce entirely different products in a short period of time. The need for ventilators, n95 face masks, and other personal protective gear has made companies pivot quickly. Are you adopting Industry 4.0 quickly enough? Even organizations as large as General Motors (GM) have …
Last week I talked about developing a future state Value Stream Map. After you have developed what you want the organization to look like in the future, now comes the hard work of moving toward that future state. That calls for developing your Lean Game Plan. I believe there is a simple way to ensure …
Have you worked in an organization where no one seems to take any personal responsibility for meeting their deliverables, deadlines, or project results? As a top performer, how does that make you feel? Let’s talk about how we can develop a culture of personal responsibility and drive results! 1. Understand the Aim of the organization …
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Level Three Leadership – Production: Making Things Happen Separates Real Leaders For the past few weeks, this blog has been reviewing “The Five Levels of Leadership” by John Maxwell and how those levels relate to lean leadership. This week’s blog will discuss Level three leadership: Production. The 5 Levels are like a staircase – all …
One of the key elements on my American Lean Weekday podcast is the weekly interviews that I conduct with companies on their Lean Journey. These companies are from various industries and are all different sizes. I have interviewed leaders from family-owned businesses to multi-national organizations. This podcast can be found here. In this important episode …
Learn what this Essential Business is Doing to Keep Employees Safe Read More »
As I mentioned in the original Industry 4.0 blog, nine key enablers support Industry 4.0 or Smart Manufacturing. As a reminder, the nine key enablers are listed below. Additive manufacturing will be a key enabler and is being deployed quite often right now. Some of the key enablers of Smart Manufacturing include: Cyber Security/Blockchain Cloud …
If you have read my book the Lean Game Plan, you know that I talk about Value Stream Mapping as an enabler to help your organization understand where you should focus your improvement efforts. This blog will cover how to develop a future state value stream map. If you have never completed a Value Stream …
When part of a team focused on making improvements, many opportunities arise when you have to make good decisions. Where are we going to put this equipment? How many should we design the line for? Who needs to be in this event? There are many opportunities to make decisions during a three, four, or five …
Level Two Leadership – Permission – You Can’t Lead People Until You Like People John Maxwell, in his book “The 5 Levels of Leadership” writes that this leadership level is about the human relationships that the leader has built up around him. Making the shift from Level 1 leadership -Position to Level 2 leadership- Permission …