Don’t Panic – When Bad Things Happen

Don’t Panic Although the situation I am about to describe was successfully resolved, I felt compelled to share this event with you. Times like this expose our vulnerabilities and reinforce the adage to “expect the unexpected”. The Situation Imagine the shock and surprise followed by the deep, sinking feeling that set in when an unexpected notice suddenly appeared on my […]

Goals Without Means Are Meaningless

The new year is upon us and, as is typical for this time of year, resolutions are one of the primary topics of conversation. With just over a week into the new year, it is very likely that the discussions of resolutions and goals have already begun to subside. Unfortunately, for the many who do make resolutions, very few ever […]

Sustainability or Meltdown?

For as many years as I have been blogging here on Lean Execution, I have been increasingly concerned with the sustainability of our economy, business, and government at all levels – locally, nationally, and globally. To this day, these same interests are all struggling to define and establish models that will allow them to recover, sustain, and flourish in the […]

Critical Process Triggers

Critical Triggers It is inevitable that failures will occur and it is only a matter of time before we are confronted with their effects.  Our concern regards our ability to anticipate and respond to failures when they occur.  How soon is too soon to respond to a change or shift in the process?  Do we shut down the process at […]

Remembering the Space Shuttle Challenger

Although this event happened twenty-five years ago today (28-Jan-1986), it seems like only yesterday.  This tragic event serves to remind us that humans can make mistakes and errors in judgment do occur.  In this case, history is our greatest teacher. Follow this link to CNN’s “Challenger disaster remembered“.  CNN was the only network covering this event as this would be […]

The Face of Manufacturing in 2011

Happy New Year! Another year begins with the confidence that the manufacturing sector will continue to recover from the crash of 2008-2009 that continued its unrelenting grip well into 2010.  There is little doubt that the face of industry in North America and around the world has changed but is it really on the rebound? I am of the opinion […]

OEE: The Means to an End – Differentiation Where It Matters Most

Does your organization focus on results or the means to achieve them?  Do you know when you’re having a good day?  Are your processes improving? The reality is that too many opportunities are missed by simply focusing on results alone.  As we have discussed in many of our posts on problem solving and continuous improvement, the actions you take now […]

Foundations of Failure

The problem with many of the problems we find ourselves having to contend with at any given time is that we learn of their existence after the fact (when the damage is done) or after discovering that the results we were looking for simply didn’t materialize.  As we learned from Michael A. Roberto’s book, “Know What You Don’t Know“, there […]

Lean Recalls – Compromising Safety?

Is there ever a time when risk outweighs the real fix?   As we are quickly learning from the latest news regarding Toyota’s proclaimed “savings” through limited safety recalls, the answer is “NO”.  The details of the story surrounding Toyota’s knowledge of the mounting safety concerns and the Toyota’s defense is very disturbing.  Toyota has responded by stating “Our first priority is the safety of […]

Lean Resources On Demand

On Demand As people we have grown accustomed to service on demand.  The internet, fast food, service stations, 24 hour convenience shopping, medical services, video on demand, and so much more are available almost instantly.  Of course much of this is made possible by the latest technologies and electronic gadgets that bring the world to our finger tips at the push […]