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Promises Made…
Lean implementations have a long history of: Promises madePromises broken Why? One major reason:Practitioners misunderstand the principles behind the tools. So they make promises the system was never designed to keep. Take Kanban. A common belief is that Kanban always reduces inventory. It doesn’t. Kanban limits WIP.What happens next depends on the system it’s applied…
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Another CI initiative… another miss.
Not because people didn’t try.Because they worked on the wrong problem. Too many organizations double down on 5S and standard work while scheduling continues to flood the system with work. The result? WIP spikes.Lead times stretch.Chaos Yes, some resources get faster.But the 95% of time where the product is just waiting, moving, or sitting? Untouched.…
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Gemba Jogger
Most process problems are diagnosed from conference rooms. The problem? Processes don’t live in conference rooms. They live where the work is. This is why practices like Management by Walking Around or Gemba Walks endure. There’s no substitute for seeing the work firsthand. When leaders go to the floor, a few good things happen: •…
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The Buc-ee’s Effect
Why do people happily stop at Buc-ee’s on a 9-hour drive? Because the stop feels like a win! Lean says: Produce strictly to demand. Operators hear:“Stop… right when you’re finally in a groove.” Frequent changeovers look brilliant in a value stream map. On the floor?They feel like slamming the brakes every 45 minutes. And here’s…
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3 Years?
Why Do Some Lean Programs Take 3 Years…To Do What Only Takes Others 6 Months? Many organizations don’t fail at Continuous Improvement because of culture. They fail because of sequencing. They first attack:• Standard Work• 5S• Visual controls While the big cycle time drivers sit untouched:• System constraints• WIP Different approaches to Lean principles: One…
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Lean Office Gone Wrong
Lean Office has been reduced to office cosplay. 5S the desks.Rearrange the cubicles.Label the supply closet. Meanwhile, information waits. Decisions stall. Work queues grow. Office work is an information system, not a physical one. Real Lean Office redesigns how information moves—not how furniture is arranged. If your Lean Office effort started with furniture instead of…
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Uncomfortable Truth About Lean
If your Lean system only works when… • Executives voluntarily give up power and incentives that reward classical management• Middle managers adopt new KPIs while reporting to leaders who don’t believe in old KPIs• Frontline employees do more work now for benefits that might show up later• Success requires perfect adherence, perfect sequencing, and zero…
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New Year’s Wish
For every industry practitioner who longs for efficiency, may all your production flow like wine in the new year and beyond! BUT just in case it doesn’t, you can always go here: https://amzn.to/2IIbmc6 and https://bit.ly/3RykWxn #lean #continuousimprovement #operationalexcellence #business #management #leadership #quantumlean
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The ABCs of OPEX – Is your process a punishment?
Frequently, continuous improvement (CI) efforts promise a workforce long-term gains in exchange for upfront sacrifice. Some concessions asked from employees may include: • Data collection • Extra housekeeping and cleanup • Meetings • Extra reporting • Loss of control over work area Anyone versed in common sense probably knows that doing things this way is…
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Value lies in scarcity….Lean implies abundance…What gives?
One of Abraham Lincoln’s famous quotes was “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” It was an eloquent way of saying that that an idea will fail if it is internally divided and lacks unity. By trying to reconcile opposing ideas, traditional lean systems suffer this critical defect. For one, traditional Lean’s big idea is…
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Quantum Lean 