Novayama LLC

“95 Thesis” on Kaizen Events and TPS

Once again I am going through old files. These are some notes I wrote back in 2005 that I thought might be interesting here. Looking back at what I was writing at the time, I think I was thinking about nailing these points to a church door somewhere in the company. That actually isn’t a …

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Don’t Tell Me Your Values. Listen to Them.

In the early morning of March 23, 2022 a leaked email with the subject “Why gas increase is good for hiring” surfaced on Reddit. (Click the hot link to see the actual post.) The email in question was sent by the Executive Director of Operations of Apple Central LLC, a major franchisee of Applebees restaurants. …

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Why Are You Asking Questions?

When someone brings a problem to a leader, it is typical for the leader to begin asking questions. The intent of those questions can make a world of difference. Diagnostic Questions In what I would contend is the more typical case, the questions are diagnostic. The leader’s intent is to get more information so that …

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Leading to Learn: Ask More, Tell Less

A few years ago I was working with a company that was ramping up a complex highly-automated production process. A group of technicians had an idea for an improvement. The nature of what they were trying to improve, or their idea is irrelevant here. They brought their idea to the plant manager, carefully explained it, …

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Takt Time: How Slow Can You Go?

A long, long time ago – in the days when computer programs were coded as holes in punch cards – I was in ROTC* in college. Twice a year we had a “PT” (Physical Training, I think) test that consisted of measured performance on five “events.” One of those events was a 2 mile run. …

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