There is no reason to let the lack of measurements get in the way of starting improving activities. I was reading an eWeek essay by Peter Coffee, Counting the Ways, that got me thinking about the 6σ approach to improvement. That approach is basically data-driven. Without measurements there are no improvements. Coffee said,

"Most businesses have no idea what they spend on unproductive hours."

And we know unproductive hours — waste — exists everywhere. What can you do? Start with the Last Planner System®.

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Read one to three more pages each day.

My day is busy. Waaay too busy. Yet I make time to read. I didn't always read. In fact, before college I didn't read anything. Once I got out of college I remember saying, "Thank God I don't have to read anymore." It was 12 - 15 years later that I took up reading again. It was in spurts. We had started our family — three boys — they were and continue to be a handful. Sometimes I would read a novel. Other times I'd just read a few news magazines. Eventually, I got in the habit of reading at least one book each month. I'm glad I did. I now read much more than that. (more…)

It's been almost two years since Tom Peters claimed kaizen was dangerous. Now Silk and Spinach takes up the opposition, Kaizen Considered Harmful.

"Kaizen frees the hands of the innovator. And to think that sloppy processes can support rapid innovation is dangerous advice, Tom."

As Norman Bodek says, "Kaizen is a numbers game." The companies that embrace continuous improvement will eventually rise to the top.

Each year Industry Week (IW) profiles the best manufacturers. The recent years's lists have been dominated by firms employing lean approaches. Batesville Caskets is one of those firms, A Daily Routine of Continuous Improvement. In addition to their build just what is ordered and their commitment to continuous flow manufacturing, Batesville has become a benchmark company for many different manufacturers based on their commitment to kaizen. (more…)

Replacing just one incandescent bulb with a compact fluorescent lightbulb (CFL) will make a big difference, especially if everyone did that.  It would reduce carbon emissions equivalent to taking 1.3 million cars off the road, or not burning 29,900 railcars of coal.¹  The impact on the environment is unbelievable.  You can't make a better economic investment for your home.  Replacing one bulb is estimated to save you $66 over the lifetime of the CFL.  I replaced three bulbs with CFLs last year.²  I'll replace another six this month.  I hope you join me.

1. See Fast Company How Many Lightbulbs Does It Take to Change the World? One. And You're Looking at It [back]
2. Will Wal-Mart Change the World Selling CFLs? Let’s Wonder… [back]

I'm not in the habit of writing chapter-by-chapter reviews of books. This series on the book Small Change, by Susan & Larry Terkel is an experiment for me. I've been trying out the small change approach in a few areas of my life. I wrote about making a habit of appreciating and acknowledging others. It's a habit that I want for myself.

There are many habits I want for myself. In Chapter 2 the authors propose a set of behaviors (more…)

Kaizen is Toyota's winning strategy for competing throughout the world. Small changes everyday by everyone keeps the automaker on its toes while stepping on those of their competitors. Susan and Larry Terkel claim, "Small changes are consistent with human nature and evolution." Their book Small Change offers a straight-forward approach to adopting small changes and the kaizen way in your life. In this first of six postings that follow the chapters of their book, I'll highlight the Terkel's approach. (more…)

In 1991 Norman Bodek published the book 40 Years, 20 Million Ideas: The Toyota Suggestion System, Productivity Press. During the 40 year period Toyota got more the 100 adopted ideas/person/year. (The book is no longer in print, although there are used copies available through Amazon.) 15 years later, Norman is touting a simple kaizen approach. He calls it Quick and Easy Kaizen (QnEK). In 2001, he co-authored a book with Bunji Tozawa, The Idea Generator: Quick and Easy Kaizen, PCS Press. Having spent 2 days with Norman visiting Toyota's Georgetown, KY plant, QnEK came up over and over. We've been using it with our clients. You should too.

The QnEK approach can be introduced using this simple form: (more…)

Kaizen efforts can put customer satisfaction at risk when people fail to understand what it is that the customer assesses as value. In this month's CRM Magazine, Lior Arussy urges us to Meet Expectations before Trying to Exceed Them. He says that a company's restrictive procedures are often at the source of not meeting expectations.

"The first order of business in meeting customers' expectations is to identify those conflicting procedures and remove them."

"Why do you say that?" is a more important question.

He couples this with four questions to identify where policy is getting in the way of goals:

1. "Are these the procedures of a customer-centric company?
2. "Are they designed to protect and delight customers, or to protect and delight CEOs?

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I had the pleasure of working with Norman Bodek a few weeks ago. I asked him to give a keynote speech for a client conference. During his talk he referenced that Japanese companies look for a minimum of two adopted improvements per person per month — 24 adopted improvements originated by each employee each year. The benchmark for U.S. firms that paid attention to this used to be 2 per person per year. (I'm not sure what it is now.) Based on Norman's comments, my client set a target for each person to be the originator of two improvements each month.

Help them get their improvements adopted while encouraging them to improve again on what they have already done.

Turning targets into benchmarks comes down to execution. This level of improvement is achievable, however it takes work. There are many factors that go into success. I'll mention two in this posting. I'll come back to the other factors in future postings.

Kaizen is a Team Sport

I've noticed a predisposition in the U.S. to individual goals, measurements, and rewards. Targets like 2 per person per month can be interpreted as a threshold for satisfactory performance for each person. It doesn't work that way. (more…)

A group of like-minded lean practitioners noticed that kaizen was generally not being practiced in the project setting. We've set out to change that and we invite you to help us do that. We called ourselves the Gang-of -Seven¹. Our first project was a week-long co-blogging series where we explored project kaizen. You can read those postings along with some additional postings of others on this site.

1. Hal Macomber: Reforming Project Management
   Norman Bodek: Kaikaku
   Joe Ely: Learning about Lean
   Jon Miller: Panta Rei
   Bill Waddell: Evolving Excellence
   Chuck Frey Innovation Weblog
   Mark Graban: Lean Manufacturing Blog [back]