Paul Akers Q&A On Incentives & Rewards for Kaizen March 29, 2012
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in personal productivity, workforce.Tags: kaizen, personal productivity, workforce
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Mark Graban hosts a reader question with respect to Paul Akers company FastCap using incentives or rewards to employees in exchange for their ideas. Mark reports that Paul does not use incentives because he wondered whether or not the money or the genuine commitment to improving the company mattered more.
Check out Mark’s post with Paul’s thoughts here.
Kaizen Events vs. Daily Continuous Improvement January 30, 2012
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in kaizen.Tags: kaizen
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Al Norval, writing over at Lean Pathways, deconstructs the myth that kaizen is only about improvement “events”. Mr. Norval explains that kaizen is a daily thing, and should embrace the scientific method, which causes people to question and see where things went wrong in an orderly and methodical way.
Check out Mr. Norval’s post.
The 5th Myth About the “Respect for People” Principle January 30, 2012
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in kaizen, workforce.Tags: kaizen, workforce
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Adding to Jamie Flinchbaugh’s post about “Respect for People” myths, Jon Miller adds one of his own at Gemba Panta Rei: removing the “eighth waste” means utilizing creative ideas for kaizen. Good ideas must be separated from the bad, and focus must also be on the good that people can do for others. It isn’t just about the ideas.
Check out Mr. Miller’s blog post here.
Kaizen for Kids December 18, 2011
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in 5S & Visual Management, kaizen.Tags: 5S & Visual Management, kaizen
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In a lighthearted post that also makes a point, Mark Graban talks about kaizen in schools. Taking the initiative to make small improvements in your life can have an overall powerful, positive change. Mark also provides a video about visual improvement being implemented in a simple school classroom.
Watch the video and read Mark’s thoughts here.
“Lack of Time” for Kaizen is a Problem Statement, not an Excuse November 17, 2011
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in kaizen.Tags: kaizen
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Mark Graban does not accept lack of time as an excuse for not properly engaging in Kaizen. Rather, he believes it is a problem that itself must be tackled –and can be tackled using PDSA. It begins with asking what can be done to free up time for kaizen. Identify time and activities that are the most wasteful, and address them.
Check out the post here.
7 Ways to Keep Kaizen Going after Years of Progress January 22, 2011
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in kaizen.Tags: kaizen
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Jon Miller, writing over at Gemba Panta Rei, notes that it can often be difficult to keep momentum going after a few years of successful Kaizen results. As a remedy, Mr. Miller offers a number of suggestions about how to keep Kaizen going. For example, thinking bigger and setting audacious targets will continually provide new objectives. Another way to keep things from becoming mundane is to ask everyone, to continually seek to engage every individual, because sometimes others (like janitors or landscapers) see things that everyone else misses.
Check out Mr. Miller’s blog post here.
The “Lean Group” Syndrome January 10, 2011
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in kaizen, lean, workforce.Tags: kaizen, leadership, lean, workforce
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A conversation Ron Pereira had with a relative recently about the lean process revealed how lean groups can often move into areas, dictate changes, and leave. Because of the authoritarian tactics, the employees on the ground never get to actively engage in kaizen. Committing to lean is as much developing people as it is what they do, Mr. Pereira reminds us. And as far as developing what they do? The workers themselves – the experts – should be involved in coming up with ideas and implementing them.
Check out Mr. Pereira’s article here.
In Defense of Kaizen Events September 24, 2010
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in Lean Thinking, Lean Tools & Techniques.Tags: kaizen, Lean Thinking
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Mike Wroblewski has heard a lot recently about Kaizen events –and a growing number of comments have been negative. For example, he has heard that the results of the events are not sustainable, and that the events are a quick and easy way for consultants to make a buck. While he acknowledges that the circumstances may make these comments true, he goes on to state that Lean isn’t just about Kaizen events. Companies must move beyond Kaizen the way growing babies move beyond milk.
Check out Mr. Wroblewski’s creative analysis here.
How to Kaizen June 18, 2010
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in kaizen, Lean Tools & Techniques.Tags: kaizen, Lean Tools & Techniques
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It isn’t important how you Kaizen, writes Mike Wroblewski. Rather, it is important that you kaizen. Mr. Wroblewski, in his Got Boondoggle post offers supportive and motivational sage words to counter the messy and bumpy road that improvement entails.
Check out his post here.
The Fast Track to Performance Breakthroughs: Testing Improvement Ideas in Advance February 9, 2009
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in Creativity & Innovation, Lean Thinking.Tags: Creativity & Innovation, kaizen, Lean Thinking
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There’s no shortage of ideas for improving productivity and quality. Everyone from top consulting firms to executives and their frontline employees generates such ideas in abundance. Unfortunately, only about one quarter of those ideas ultimately work. In a study of over 14,000 performance improvement projects, multi-variate testing methods found that only about 25% of the ideas for improvement succeeded, no matter their source. About 50% of the ideas made no difference, and the remaining 25% actually hurt performance.These results confirm something most people have long known — good ideas can come from anywhere — and they point to something that we’ve often failed to do — test ideas in advance to determine which ones will work.
This article validates the importance of prototyping and “try-storming”.
