Mike Rother and John Shook taught us how to create a highly visual roadmap using a value stream mapping process in their popular book, Learning to See. Their website, lean.org, describes value-stream map as a paper-and-pencil representation of every process in the material and information flow, along with key data. World Class organizations use […]
Lessons from the NFL: Calling Plays in Your Operation
November 8, 2019 By Leave a Comment
Unlocking the value in your operation requires a specific work design that maximizes the utilization of resources. One of the key resources is labor. Much like the positions on a football field, each person in the operation needs a special role and their efforts coordinated to produce the best outcome. There are two reasons […]
An Ounce of Stability is Worth a Pound of Ideal
October 25, 2019 By Leave a Comment
World class organizations value stability. Reliable equipment, processes, and people comprise the foundation which allows them to reach for the ideal. The Toyota Production System “House” visualizes the ideal state as the lowest cost, highest quality, and short lead-time, but at the foundation is stability. Reliable Equipment, Processes, People, and Material Reliability allows an […]
Hope is Not a Strategy
September 20, 2019 By Leave a Comment
“Some” is not a number and “soon” is not a deadline. The best operations understand that the value in creating a strategy, setting a target, and committing to a deadline comes from the work put into the prediction. The value is the hypothesis. The beautiful thing about the scientific method is that it always […]
