Research states that “46% of all improvement initiatives fail because of lack of leadership.”1 Having too many Level One Leaders will kill your Lean transformation. Here is how to identify them! Much has already been written on Lean Leadership. Jim Womack and John Shook at the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI) describe the evolution of leadership …
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 week is a little different, I share the mic …
Inside Secrets on Supplying a Fortune 100 Company Read More »
As I mentioned in the original Industry 4.0 blog, nine key enablers support Industry 4.0 or Smart Manufacturing. I list the nine key enablers below. This blog post will introduce augmented reality. Key enablers of Smart Manufacturing include: Cyber Security/Blockchain Cloud Computing IIoT- Industrial Internet of Things Big Data System Integration Autonomous Robots-Cobots Additive Manufacturing- …
In the previous blog, I talked about setting up our pull chains for the parts that support the top 80% of the products you sell to customers. We calculated the quantities we need to keep at each location within the pull chain. In this blog, let’s talk about how we will signal when we are …
How to Increase Cash Flow without Laying Off Employees Part 4 Read More »
What if you are the employee assigned to guide your companies Lean journey but you have little experience? Here is how you can increase your confidence. 1. Have Confidence in your Lean Abilities In our minds, we believe that we have to know everything there is to know about Lean before we can confidently deliver results. We overcomplicate …
How to Increase Your Confidence as a Lean Coordinator Read More »
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 week is a little different, I share the mic …
As I mentioned in the original Industry 4.0 blog, nine key enablers support Industry 4.0 or Smart Manufacturing. The nine key enablers are listed below. In this blog, I want to talk about how cobots will enable you to expand your operations. Cyber Security/Blockchain Cloud Computing IIoT- Industrial Internet of Things Big Data System Integration …
In the previous blog, we talked about setting up our pull chain for the parts that support the top 80% of the products you sell to customers. We discussed understanding the pull chain for each type of part that goes into your finished product. Next, we need to consider the customer demand for the products …
How to Increase Cash Flow Without Laying Off Employees Part 3 Read More »
Do your daily activities and meetings add value as they should be? Do your employees routinely miss your meetings? Analysis shows that out of each day, employees conduct Non-Value-Added activity up to an average of 280 minutes per day. That is 4.6 hours a day. NVA Meetings (reactive)- 80 minutes NVA Phone calls- 30 minutes …
For many middle-market organizations, they want to speed up their Lean Transformation as quickly as possible, but they don’t have experienced Lean professionals on their staff. A great way to speed up a new Lean coordinator’s learning is to encourage them to join Mastermind groups. I led Mastermind groups in the late nineties consisting of …
Mastermind Groups Can Speed Up your Lean Results Read More »