Are You Winning?

Are you winning? Simple metrics to keep your team on track … and smiling.

Standardized Work Combination Table

Standardized work is often perceived as a rigid series of “never to be changed” process steps. This misperception is likely why one of the most powerful lean tools is also the least used. Standardized work represents the current best practice, and lean practitioners recognize there is always an opportunity to improve. There’s always a better way and more than one […]

Micro Lean in 2020

Lean thinking affects all facets of an organization. Every person, activity, product, service, process, system, or method represent an opportunity for continuous improvement. If the devil is in the details, then lean thinking extends to understanding and improving the “little things” we do every day, not just as teams, but as individuals too. Lean thinking embraced at a personal level […]

Lean Programming – 5S for Code

I enjoy coding and learned many programming languages over the years. As diverse as these languages are, there is one trait that is consistent among them all: every instruction matters. The principles of Lean, defined as “the pursuit of perfection to achieve excellence through the continual elimination of waste,” can also be applied to programming. The seven forms of waste […]

Lean – Have it Your Way

It’s easy to determine whether the leadership of a company truly embraces lean thinking.  One of the more frustrating “tells” is the insistence of leadership to precisely follow the path others have taken. The underlying notion of achieving the same or similar results may be appealing but it does not address why the specific path or methodology was chosen by […]

Lean Is NOT A Legacy

Lean can be summarily defined as “The pursuit of perfection (value) through the relentless elimination of waste.”  Understanding what this actually looks like in the real world is an entirely different matter. The 8 wastes (technically 7) and the tools to continually strive to eliminate them are well documented.  Why is it then that companies still find themselves struggling to […]

Simply the best – Logitech’s Craft Keyboard

I pre-ordered Logitech’s Craft Keyboard several weeks ago and it just arrived – a week earlier than expected!  The Craft Keyboard is compatible with Logitech’s FLOW technology and is a perfect companion to my MX Master 2S mouse. I use computers extensively in my line of work and I’m always looking for the ultimate keyboard experience.  I was also looking […]

Lean Code – Part 2

Our article on “Lean Code” strongly suggests that the principles of lean can also be applied to the realm of software development, applications, and more specifically, programming. Python has evolved to become a very popular and powerful programming language.  However, as mentioned in “Lean Code“, the performance of your application or program is as dependent on the skills of the […]

Learning From Mistakes

An event occurred this afternoon that required an immediate resolution. When asked whether we were going to pursue the root cause, I could only respond with this question: What’s the point of making mistakes if we’re not going to learn from them? This is likely the shortest post I ever published here, however, I think the simplicity of the message […]