Articles by: Ankit Patel
12/30/09 by Ankit Patel | lean wiki, wiki wednesday | No Comments »
Wiki Wednesday is where we have 1 topic and several thoughts on the topic from Lean practitioners.
Today’s topic is courtesy of Tim McMahon:
“What are the defining characteristics of a Lean company?”
Here are some thoughts to get you started:
-Learning organization
-Solutions come from the people who work the area
-PCDA (plan do check act) is clearly in action
-Everything is visual and visual controls are apparent
Please add your thoughts in in the comments section. For more wikiing please contribute to http://leanway.wikidot.com/
12/29/09 by Ankit Patel | divergent vs convergent | No Comments »
Have you ever wondered why the smartest kids in school aren’t always the most successful in life? One of the reasons is that test in school are convergent test and test in life are typically divergent.
Convergent tests are test that look for a specific answer to a question. Example: What can you do with a brick? A)Build a house B)Cook with it C) Use it as a plate. Most people would say A. We are taught to converge on a single answer to a single question.
Divergent tests are test just ask what is possible. There are multiple answers and the questions are more open ended. Example: What are all the possible uses for a brick? Possible answers: Build a house, use it as a table leg, use it as edging for a garden, make art out of it, etc.
What does any of this have to do with Lean or business? Too many times we look for a single answer when we need to be asking what are the possibilities. Asking divergent questions will lead you down roads you may not have thought of previously. I use this tool when doing design work. I will force the team to make 7 alternative designs. 3-5 designs will have specific requirements that force people to think about solutions outside their comfort zone. The other designs will be free thought and something that might be unrealistic and silly. The point is that you are warming up your thinking muscles and if your workforce is thinking then you have a competitive advantage that you’re competition can’t duplicate.
Do you ask convergent questions or divergent questions? What are some good divergent questions? How do you see using this concept?
p.s. the Lean wiki site http://leanway.wikidot.com is a divergent wiki. We look for different opinion on open ended questions. Please add your thoughts.
12/28/09 by Ankit Patel | factoid | No Comments »
Since Friday was probably a holiday for most people I’m leaving up the factoid for one more day.
Only 17.8% of companies say continuous improvement programs led to major increases in productivity*
*2007 IndustryWeek/Manufacturing Performance Institute Census of Manufacturers
Why do you think the number is so low? What do you think can be done to change the number? Please leave thoughts on the comments section.
Thank you Tim for you comments to Friday’s post:
That is an interesting fact. I think this is partly in how you define major increase in productivity and partly from Lean. Lean improvements are not a quick fix type of improvement. Improvements in effeciency build on each other to accumulate to large parductivity gains over time.
Tim McMahon
A Lean Journey
http://leanjourneytruenorth.blogspot.com
12/25/09 by Ankit Patel | continous improvement, factoid | No Comments »
Merry Christmas!
Only 17.8% of companies say continuous improvement programs led to major increases in productivity
Why do you think the number is so low? What do you think can be done to change the number? Please leave thoughts on the comments section.
12/24/09 by Ankit Patel | lean wiki, what is lean | No Comments »
Yesterday’s topic:
In 100 words or less What is lean?
And WOW! thank you all that participated:
Dragan
Tim McMahon
Jamie Flinchbaugh
Danie Vermeulen
Bob Marshall
QualityAmo
@leanstekel (via twitter)
Mick Parsons
The wiki is going to be a divergent wiki. A convergent wiki is looking for 1 “correct” response to a question. A divergent wiki just asks give me all the answers you can think of for the question.
Responses:
1)Lean is:
* philosophy
* respect
* thinking
* culture
* improvement
* flow
* vision
* true north
* teaching
* listening
* observing
* learning
2)Lean is creating and implementing processes throughout the entire organization that are highly responsive and flexible to customer demand. Lean paves the way for delivery high quality products and services, at the right location, at the right time, all in a cost effective and profitable manner. This is only made possible by believing people are the cornerstone. You must engage all human resources and provide knowledge. “Thinking People System”.
3)Lean is Doing More with Less..but I emphasize the “doing more” rather than the “with less.
4)Lean is NOT:
– it’s not just another set of tools to apply randomly
– it CANNOT be copied
– it’s not something a bunch of specialists with specialist skills can do for you or to you
– it is not a short-term silver bullet fix / project
– it is not a cost-saving / headcount reduction tactic.
– the list goes on …
5)Lean is getting people to where they can’t ask any more questions…
6)lean manufacturing means to organize everything to improve our system.
7)set a standard, enable detection of deviations, react, involve and improve the standard
8)Respect for people, adding value for the customer while reducing waste, making your product/process flow, and changing your culture
9)Simplicity
If you have any thoughts or additions please post them in the comments section.
12/23/09 by Ankit Patel | lean in 100 words or less, wiki wednesday | No Comments »
Wiki Wednesday is where I will post a topic and I would like everyone to add to the the discussion on the comments section. I will post the results the following day (Thinking Thursday) and we will vote on what stays and what dosen’t. Think of it as Wikipedia for lean.
Today’s topic:
In 100 words or less What is lean?
Please post all thoughts (good or bad) on the comments section.
12/22/09 by Ankit Patel | pacing | No Comments »
I heard this statement in my Crossfit training and my first reaction when I heard this I thought no way! How can going smooth be faster than just going all out for as long as I can? It’s the same reason that when an army marches they all march together and they don’t sprint to a destination. It’s also the same reason why the tortoise beat the hare.
When you go at sub-maximal effort you are in a comfort zone and can get work done correctly and accurately. You are less prone to mistakes and you don’t get as tired. Don’t forget that if you take this thinking into a company you aren’t causing issues upstream or down stream if you all operate as a team and work smoothly instead of as fast as you can.
The perfect example I can think of is from my days back at Dell. We had a kitting area, build area, burn (software install) area, boxing area, and shipping area. Each section would run as fast as they could for as long as they could and there would be hundreds of computers between station to absorb the variation of the outputs. If you ordered just one computer it took around 4-5 hours to get through the factory. If you built the computer yourself it would have taken roughly 2 hours to build with the software install.
Dell changed it’s mindset and actually “went lean” and got rid of the buffers and made the process continuous where you kitted, built, burned, boxed, and shipped off of one line. The time went to about 1.5 hours. Orders size of 8 computers used to take 12 hours or more but now took about 4 hours. By pacing the lines, emphasizing pace over production Dell was able to get more efficiency out of their system.
Which are you and your company, the tortoise or the hare? How do you go from being a tortoise to being a hare?
12/21/09 by Ankit Patel | customer focus | No Comments »
I was at a Burger King a few years ago and I asked them for a Whopper without the meat (at the time I was a vegetarian). The cashier’s first impression was a look of shock and disgust. After she was over her shock she then proceeded to tell me that the Veggie Whopper would cost me about $1.00 more than a regular Whopper! I told the woman that charging more for less is ridicules and that I thought I could get it “my way!” After that she found a way to give it to me for the same price as the regular Whopper.
Every time a company says that the customer is #1 I always ask “really?” It reminds of of the guy that always talks about how good he is at sports but won’t ever play you in a pick up game with out making excuses. It’s all fluff and no substance; you have to have a big game if you’re going to talk a big game.
If the customer is really important to the company then you can prove it easily. Your customer should be happy, your process are all designed around maximizing value to the customer, and your supply chain should be adapt to meet the customers’ needs quickly and efficiently.
I know Dr. Deming wasn’t a big fan of slogans and I have to agree with him. What are some other ways to really make the customer #1?
12/18/09 by Ankit Patel | factoid | No Comments »
Did you know only 1 in 5 employees will go the extra mile for their job?
What do you think are some of the ways you can change that? Please post ideas to the comments section.
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