03/22/17 by Ankit Patel | lean |

In Lean manufacturing the top three concepts you need to know about are Muda (Waste), Mura (Flow), Muri (overburdening).   For why and how these three concepts became the focus of Lean Manufacturing read Is Lean Right for My Company.  Waste is defined as Transportation Inventory Motion   Waiting Over-production Over-processing Defects or the acronym TIM WOOD.  Flow…

08/19/14 by Ankit Patel | lean, lean business system |

Organizations have seven phases they cycle through and the first four phases are growth phases. Phase I New Venture Phase II Expansion Phase III Professionalization Phase IV Consolidation Phase V Diversification Phase VI Integration Phase VII Decline and Revitalization The reality is that you can use some form of Lean…

08/07/14 by Ankit Patel | continuous improvement, lean, lean business system, lean culture, lean manufacutring, Uncategorized |

Lean is a bit like ice cream and children.  Everyone thinks that theirs is the best.  Unlike ice cream or children there is no one “best” way to do Lean.  In-fact it will look like the complete opposite in some industries.  Because of this you end up with what it…

04/02/14 by Ankit Patel | lean, lean culture, lean fail, lean manufacutring, lean medical clinic, Strengths based Lean, Uncategorized |

“Going Lean” can be very exciting for a company because of the results it can produce.  An engaged workforce, reduced costs, faster delivery times, better quality, and a competitive advantage in the market place to name a few.  You hear companies like Toyota using it to compete in a very…

11/20/13 by Ankit Patel | lean, Strengths based Lean |

  Listen to the Conference Call on Getting People to See Opportunities for Improvement Part II  In the last post (Getting People to See Opportunities for Improvement Part I) we talked about the basic process of getting people to see opportunities. The framework is as follows: Big picture and emotional tie –…

10/04/13 by Ankit Patel | lean, Strengths based Lean |

I was on the radio the other day talking about strengths based Lean and how it can help revive manufacturing.    Full site for the radio show

12/02/11 by Ankit Patel | appreciative inquiry, behavior change, change management, lean, od, positive psychology |

Change is inevitable – except from a vending machine. -Robert C. Gallagher If you are involved in any kind of change management effort that is large typically it takes about 2-5 years to make the change sustainable(The Banks Report December 2005). A Lean implementation is no different and in this…

06/30/10 by Ankit Patel | emotional intelligence, how to start lean, lean |

  I came across an article that talks about how emotional intelligence is used in the implementation of lean. CIBA is specialty chemical company whose Italian office decided to go Lean. The main difference in their transformation that’s normally not done is the focus on the organizations emotional intelligence and…

05/17/10 by Ankit Patel | lean, lean culture, Nashville TN, Skyline Medical Center |

I saw this sign a few days ago and it caught my attention. The sign tells you how long the ER wait time is at Skyline Medical Center in Nashville TN (click on the link to see their current wait times on their website). The basic idea is that every…

11/04/09 by Ankit Patel | lean, lean manufacutring, the lean way consulting |

I was reading on how mayonnaise is judged and can you believe there are over 40 categories to measure how “good” a mayonnaise is! There are characteristic like color, shine, several dimensions of taste, etc. If you were trying to make the best mayonnaise possible would you try to get…