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Recent Posts: The Lean Thinker

That Broken Bolt is Speaking to You

The factory is running complex automated equipment. At the morning meeting today we heard “machine x was down for broken bolts.” Actually “again.” Background – the bolts in question resist pressure in molding equipment. The details of how the equipment works aren’t relevant here. This isn’t the first time I have heard of “broken bolts” …

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How Do You Know They Know?

TWI Job Instruction is built around a four step process titled “How to Instruct.” Steps 2 and 3 are the core of the process. Present the Operation Try Out Performance I want to discuss Step 3: Try Out Performance Teaching Back as Learning All too often I see “training” that looks like this: Bring the …

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If You Think “We Can’t Please Our Customers” You’ll Be Right

The center of the B Concourse at O’Hare Airport in Chicago is dominated by a Brachiosaur skeleton, part of the Field Museum exhibit for their store there. As a reminder for those of you over the age of 14, the Brachiosaurus was 70 feet long, 30 feet tall, weighed in at around 60 tons.* It …

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Ambitious Growth Plans? Your Customers Will Right-Size You

I’ll call the title of this post “Dave’s Observation.” He is reflecting his experience in varied industries that if a company grows beyond its ability to deliver quality product, on time, then order volume will drop until it reaches a point that performance returns. The business literature is full of examples of this – companies …

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If You Aren’t Being Heard, Then Listen

I was sitting in on a conversation between a Continuous Improvement Manager and the Operations Manager the other day. The Operations Manager was asking for help developing good leader standard work. The C.I. manager was responding that she had already developed it for the Value Stream Manager, the Supervisor. The Operations Manager said he thought …

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