Thus the smile that came across my face when watching the “Lean Leadership” interview we recently did with a cell leader from a Washington based manufacturing company.

This interview is part of a new series we’re offering to subscribers of the Gemba Academy School of Lean.

Anyhow, in this interview we learned how this company approaches things like 5S, the 7 Wastes, and visual management.

3 Cup Visual Control System

Specifically, regarding visual management, we learned how this company uses a simple “3 cup visual control system” to monitor the status of their flow lines.

• The green cup means the cell is functioning as planned
• The yellow cup signifies some potential issues are approaching
• The red cup means the cell is down and immediate support is needed

Simple. Inexpensive. Brilliant.

What do you think?

What do you think of this visual control system? Could this work in your company? How would you improve it?

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This survey appeals to me for a few reasons.  First, it’s all about lean and second this survey is SHORT!  You’ll be done in a few minutes.  Thanks in advance for your participation.

Take the Survey Now

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Should the area you’re working in shine as bright as the Texas sun? Should the floor be clean enough to eat off of? Or is “pretty clean” or “cleaner than it was” acceptable?

Clean to Inspect

The answer to the questions above can be summed up with one word – possibly.

But, you see, the key to this third step of 5S is not how sparkling clean the area is.

No, the key to this third step is to clean until you know why the mess is there to begin with. In other words, the true purpose of this step is to clean to inspect.

Why are you sweeping?

Here’s a way to practice. The next time you see someone sweeping or cleaning the floor politely ask them why they’re doing what they’re doing (sweeping or cleaning).

They’ll likely look at you funny while responding, “Cuz it’s dirty bro. Open your eyes.”

This is then your cue to ask why several times until you identify the root cause of the dirt or grime (e.g. dirty filters, machine malfunctioning, etc.) enabling you and your friend to think about a countermeasure.

What do you think?

What do you think? Do you agree with me? If not, why? If so, do you have any stories to share where you’ve done just this… namely identified a root cause that when addressed eliminated the need to shine or sweep altogether?

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Normally I delete these kinds of emails but for some reason I decided to give this one a quick read.

Click the image thumbnail to the left to read larger version of the email.

45 Inches and Sizers

The basic gist of the email was to remind passengers of the carry-on baggage size policy, namely that the total length + width + height of the carry-on must not exceed 45 inches. They even provide a decent little diagram demonstrating how to measure your bags.

The email goes on to explain how there are also baggage “sizers” available at curbs, check in counters, and security access points to help you check the size of your bag.

I won’t lie… I find these so-called “sizers” highly annoying and of questionable effectiveness but, honestly, I’m not sure of a better solution.

Over to You

So, I turn this challenge over to your brilliant minds. If you were in charge of American Airlines what system would you implement in order to ensure carry-on bags weren’t too large?

I’m thinking of a nice pokayoke (error proofing) device of some sort… but what it is I am not quite sure.

What do you think?

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“In fact, there is an important blind spot in the concept of economic lot size: the assumption that drastic reductions in setup time are impossible.  The economic lot size lost its entire reason for being when the SMED system was developed.”

Do you agree with him?  If so, why?  If not, why?

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And, recently, I’ve been thinking about how much having children helps me to sharpen my lean and six sigma practitioner “saw.”

Of course this isn’t to say that those without kids can’t also sharpen their lean and six sigma saws… but we parents just might have a bit of an advantage if we leverage this gift we’ve been given.

So, with this said, here are some of the ways my children help me to be better at what I do.

Commitment

Raising children takes a tremendous amount of commitment and self sacrifice. No matter what… we know at least one of our kids will be hopping on our bed by 6:00 AM each and every morning.

Likewise, anyone serious about lean or six sigma knows how important it is to stay committed to excellence. In fact, every day you should ask yourself… have I left this place better than it was when I walked in this morning?

Patience

Ah yes, patience. It goes without saying that my kids often get on my nerves and really try my patience. Especially as they learn to ‘test boundaries.’ But I know this is part of growing up so I do my best to persevere.

Likewise, continuous improvement often comes much slower than many expect or desire. In other words, patience is most definitely required!

Continuous Learning

My wife home-schools our children and I often marvel at how much my oldest (6 years old) daughter has learned.

She, if you’ll allow a proud Dad to boast for a moment, is reading at around a 3rd grade level and can work my iPhone better than most adults I know!

But the thing I am most in love with is how hungry all of my children are to learn. I pray they never lose this.

Likewise, all lean and six sigma practitioners must continue to learn. There are many ways to go about this such as reading books, or blogs, or online training that never ends.

Long-term Thinking

As parents my wife and I are constantly thinking long term with respect to our children. We are doing our very best to form their faith while teaching them to be good citizens.

Likewise, many business owners and senior executives would do well to focus on the long term and not on how to simply make Wall Street happy this week.

Why, Why, Why, Why, Why

If there is one lean principle most kids have mastered by the age of 3 or 4 it’s how to ask why over and over.

Sadly most parents – myself included from time to time – often grow tired of hearing so many questions day in and day out which often times beats this amazing gift right out of our most important assets (our kids).

So, it goes without saying that if we grown-ups all learned - or remembered - how we used to ask why over and over… well, the world might just be a better place.

Let’s Hear from More Parents

If you’re a parent or spend a lot of time around children… what have I missed? Are there other things you’ve learned from your little one’s about continuous improvement or life in general?

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I don’t need to think about things for days on end… and when in a crisis mode, or a situation that requires an immediate action, I have no problem stepping forward.

This quick decision making, I’d like to think, has served me well most of the time.

But, with this said, I’m pretty confident a more conservative approach to decision making would have probably been wise from time to time. This is why I am so happy to have two business partners who keep me in check!

What About You?

So, I’m curious. How do you go about making decisions?

Are you the type of person who quickly assesses the situation and ‘makes a call’ or are you the type of person who likes to take their time assessing the situation, weigh all the options, and then make the call?

Or do you fall somewhere in between? Or, perhaps, you stink at making decisions altogether and rely on others to make the call. Is this you?

I’d really like to hear your thoughts.

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During this 10 module course we go inside Ram Technologies, a custom foam fabricator located in Mukilteo, Washington in order to see, first hand, what each of the 7 wastes looks like – and more importantly – how to defeat them.

Sneak Peak - LSS Academy Readers Only!

I’m pretty excited to say that at the time of me writing this article this first preview video of the course is not available for free anywhere but LSS Academy. So please enjoy!

Please note: if you’re reading this article via email or RSS reader you may need to click through to the website to see the video.

To start the video simply click the arrow in the middle of the player. If you’re on a slow Internet connection please click the button in the top right hand side that says HD IS ON. This will launch a smaller video. Finally, to view the video in “full screen” click the button in the bottom right hand corner of the video player.

Always Expanding

With the release of this third course, we’re now up 32 different learning modules (presented in high definition video) inside the “School of Lean.”

Additionally, students can check their learning with our interactive - Flash based - quizzes, while downloading and using the PDF summary documents, lean calculators, and templates.

And, of course, the forums are there to post questions and learn from other like minded lean thinkers from around the world.

Finally, the best part of all is you can train everyone, and I do mean everyone, in your plant or facility with a single subscription to Gemba Academy.

The cost? $495 for 6 months or $97 per month.

Kind Words About Gemba Academy

Here is what a few folks are saying about their experiences with Gemba Academy.

“With the help of Gemba Academy’s training videos and quizzes, Elbit Systems of America will be able to formally train all of our employees on the different lean principles and have proof of understanding from the instant results of the online quizzes which can be printed out and filed. Gemba Academy also gives us a way to create lean “champions” for those individuals who take and pass all courses and modules.”

Rick Spires
Kaizen Promotion Office (KPO) Manager
Elbit Systems of America

–

“The Gemba Academy workshops are going extremely well and we’re seeing a great improvement very early, which is a good sign.”

Richard Dunn – Msc. Manufacturing Management
Managing Director
Drurys Engineering Ltd
United Kingdom

–

“Gemba Academy is the real workplace where experience is in a teacher student-situation. It is simply put and direct, easy to understand. I have asked my directors and two other workmates to join the Gemba Academy and this has enabled me to reassure top management that Lean Manufacturing is the answer to our organisation’s challenges.”

Alex Kubi
Bombolulu, Kenya

Learn more about Gemba Academy!

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As the saying goes, I wasn’t born in Texas, but I ran here as fast as I could. When I arrived, I found that the Lone Star State produces some fine beer, specifically, Shiner beer…

While I could go on all day about the merits of Shiner Hefeweizen compared to the original Shiner Bock, that’s not really the point of this photo.

What I want to discuss is how folks on large-scale construction jobs view the relationships between the prime contractors, secondary contractors, sub-contractors, and so on.

Typical Construction Industry Approach

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, the construction industry typically views sub-contractor relations like this photo… with each contractor dominating the one below it and being subservient to the one above it.

An old-school rigid, vertical hierarchy. This is based on standard construction practice, which typically involves a contractor doling out aspects of the work to sub-contractors. In this arrangement, the contractor is viewed as the customer and the sub-contractor is viewed as the provider of the product or service.

This is an external customer relationship, and it’s repeated over and over again at each level of the hierarchy, so you can have dozens of external customer relationships on a job site. How fun! A bunch of people showing “respect” for their boss man above them. Old school mentality.

The Lean Approach

From a Lean perspective, I would say a collaborative model would be more effective than a rigid vertical hierarchy.

If you’ve read Gemba Kaizen, then you know about the inverted pyramid that places management below the gemba (the place where the real work is done) in a support role. Essentially, the gemba is viewed as the internal customer of management, and I would say that prime contractors should view their sub-contractors as their internal customers.

They should support them, not threaten them with punitive actions. They should identify and solve problems, not pass the buck just because the contract says they can.

Your thoughts?

I’d be interested in learning if other traditional industries are as “old-school” in their relationships with vendors/suppliers. How would you rank your industry’s level of collaboration on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being a rigid, vertical arrangement and 10 being a progressive, Gemba Kaizen-like approach?

All I know is that until the construction industry embraces Lean thinking and begins working more collaboratively, we’ll be doomed to mindless obedience and endless frustration. Thank goodness we have beer.

About the author: Michael Lombard is a Lean advocate and project manager at Palm Harbor Homes, Inc., based in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex. He’s currently working on large-scale military construction projects, studying his master’s in project management at UT Dallas, and blogging about Lean construction management. You can view Michael’s profile here and e-mail him at mlombardjr at gmail dot com.

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There are two different ways your product can be “bad.”

It’s defective

First, said product can be defective. This is to say something is wrong with it. It doesn’t work like it’s supposed to. It doesn’t look like it’s supposed to. The customer, who pays you good money, ain’t gonna be happy with said product.

It has multiple defects

Second, the aforementioned defective product might have multiple defects. This is to say there are many things ‘wrong’ with the product. It has 103 different scratches all over it, 14 surface mount components are not soldered correctly, and the text on the label is incorrect in 3 different places.

Manage the defects

In summary, it only takes one defect to create a defective product. But a single defective product can have a zillion defects.

What does this me to you, maker of said product? You need to stop focusing on how many defective units you produce… instead you should be laser focused on the number of defects you’ve created the past month.

Do you agree? Is this how you manage your business?

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