Flow Brings Problems to the Surface
"Sustaining continuous flow also serves to surface any problem that would inhibit that flow. In essence, the creation of flow forces the correction of problems, resulting in reduced waste. We…
Difficult…But VERY Important!
"…building a root-cause problem-solving culture in the midst of our daily firefighting is incredibly difficult. Let me say this again: Building a root-cause problem-solving culture is incredibly difficult!" Leading the…
Another Problem…and a New Email Sending Service
My apologies for the missing days of my Juicy Quotes Plus blog! In the middle of last week, my emails stopped being delivered to most of you who signed up…
Welcoming Problems?!
"A Lean thinker is interested in and in a way even welcomes (if not joyfully) the appearance of interruptions, anomalies, and problems in his or her process as opportunities to…
Solving Problems at the Source
"…Toyota learned long ago that solving problems at the source saves time and money downstream. By continually surfacing problems and fixing them as they occur, you eliminate waste, productivity soars,…
The Main Activity
"Toyota considers problem solving as the main activity for all levels of the organization." Toyota Culture by Jeffrey Liker & Michael Hoseus (McGraw Hill, 2008) Kindle Edition location 3507.
A Defect in My Own Process! Part 3: Countermeasure
(See posts from 6/19 and 6/20 describing the blog-post defect I caused and my first 2 steps of problem-solving) In this final part to my mini-problem-solving example, I'll describe what…
A Defect in My Own Process! Part 2
(See yesterday's post for Part 1 describing the defect I caused and my first steps of problem-solving) An important early step in problem-solving is "Go to Gemba." Gemba is the…
A Defect in My Own Process! Part 1
My topic this week is "Jidoka", which refers to the practice of designing a process to make defects visible. Ideally, the process stops when a defect occurs so that a…
Too Much Inventory Reduction Can Hurt
"Sustaining continuous flow also serves to surface any problem that would inhibit that flow. In essence, the creation of flow forces the correction of problems, resulting in reduced waste. We…