Recently the co-authors, Womack and Jones in response to feedback asking for examples in other sectors and questions about how to understand supply chain costs more accurately, have added five essays to the book for this new edition. These essays demonstrate how real companies have taken on the challenge of improving their extended value streams working in collaboration with their suppliers and customers.

The new essays for the book are:

• Spreading value-stream thinking from manufacturers to final customers through service providers—extending the wiper example.
• Applying extended value-stream thinking to retail—a look at the Tesco story.
• Learning to use value-stream thinking collaboratively with suppliers and customers.
• Product costing in value-stream analysis.
• Seeing and configuring the global value stream.

The one particular essay that stood out to me was Learning to use value-stream thinking collaboratively with suppliers and customers. The objective of this effort was to garner their suppliers and customer in a true collaborative effort to create value. It was the first time any of these five companies had ever viewed a shared value stream. They started with a few modest objectives for improvement. However, it turned into much more than an improvement effort but rather a deeper type of organizational relationship. The reason they cited was that they learned how to communicate with each other. You can view the experience: Video of Matthew Lovejoy’s presentation on the Acme Alliance story.

This story exemplifies the power of collaboration and what can be developed from it. Collaboration in a Value Stream Mapping exercise can be a difficult process. You open your doors to all the skeletons you have in the closet for both vendors and customers to see. Most people are surprised by the reactions. It is typically not one of disgust or insecurity but rather a helping hand is extended and many times consideration that certain requirements may not even be needed.

The spirit of this venture serves a valuable insight that co-producing, co-creation and open innovation is not as far-fetched as it may seem. A single Value Stream Mapping process led to four years of increasing engagement. I wonder what would happen is they shorten that iteration a bit?

P.S. If your 1^st edition of the book looks like mine, it’s time for the 2^nd edition anyway.

Related Information:
Six Sources of Influence in Change
The Difficulty of Mastery = The Difficulty of Lean
Start with Journey Mapping vs Value Stream Mapping
Value Stream Mapping

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• Operator – 95% their time might be devoted to completing leader standard work
• Team Leaders – 80%
• Department Supervisors – 50%
• Value Stream Managers – 25%
• Executives – 10%

These numbers will differ according to the environment and whether it is production, office or development work but Leader Standard Work should be consciously designed to be layered from bottom up. The act is what produces results, not the thinking. There should even be a degree of redundancy between the layers to ensure accountability. This is where I believe that the problem starts developing.

Tracey Richardson wrote a blog post, You want a tangible action for your leaders trying to do Lean? Try this! GTS “squared” where she states that one of the fallacies of problem solving is the inability of Leaders to “Go See”. I find that true outside of the factory as well. Leaders seldom do the 10% or 25% of Standard Work required. They even will sit down in a meeting and go over the subordinate’s standard work and instruct him on how to improve without ever observing the process. Even more importantly that shared accountability through redundancy is seldom instituted.

In Lean Sales and Marketing, Standard Work will have a difficult time achieving 95%. In fact, most “front-line” Sales and Marketing workers will have responsibilities that clearly cannot be defined as Standard Work. Leader Standard Work may often only border around 50 to 80% or lower. I think immediately of the conversation I had with Joseph Michelli on Zappos company culture. Joseph’s latest book, The Zappos Experience: 5 Principles to Inspire, Engage, and WOW discusses the relationship of employee and customer experience as demonstrated in my blog post, Is Zappos the Next Toyota?. Lean Sales and Marketing is first and foremost about the Customer Experience.

As we progress up through leaders, supervisors, etc., the percentage of Leader Standard Work should not drastically be reduced as it does in a manufacturing environment. It is the Servant Leadership role that must surface. Empowering the front line staff with the necessary resources to enable their actions to deliver an outstanding customer experience becomes Leadership’s primary function. The Leader Standard Work may actually become more standard as we move away from the main influencer and/or disruptor – the Customer.

Related Information:
Can the Lean Knowledge Worker cope with Leader Standard Work?
Lean Sales and Marketing works because of Leader Standard Work
Does the Customer Experience mimic the Employee Experience?
When Efficiencies and Innovation no longer work, is Customer Centricity the answer?
Job-Centric Innovation is Rethinking Customer Needs

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Since Lean is so intrinsically tied to standard work, many believe Lean cannot apply to their “Knowledge Based” occupation. In fact, it is often resisted in these circles.

When met with resistance, I have found that typically there is a good reason why. As I review most Leader Standard Work for knowledge workers, I still find them heavily laden with specific instructions and very results based focus. In Sales and Marketing (I am considering Sales and Marketing to be knowledge work) , you will see instructions such as make 25 calls, send out 15 e-mails, 3 blog posts a week, etc. On the other hand, I do see slack time allowed under the disguise of daily or weekly Kaizen. So Leader Standard Work can apply to Sales and Marketing, or can it?

Leader Standard Work will fizzle out quickly in the Sales and Marketing arena if you simply try to practice Leader Standard Work through Lean Training, coupled with your experience and try to become more proficient through iteration after iteration. It doesn’t work that way. In fact, it may take years, certainly months, to acquire the skills needed. What stops you is that you not only have to learn new skills but these skills and learning are not stagnant. They are in constant turmoil; developing, adapting and evolving while obsoleting the existing structure.

Many companies may fall short as a result of not creating the internal collaboration structure needed for learning. The organization must develop as a whole and this can only be accomplished by developing their personnel by providing the necessary resources and opportunities. We also need to promote individual differences. Instead of teaching the way to do some things, we may need to step back and determine the key points that are required, as Simon Sinek says the “Why” while leaving the how alone (Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action).

What will drive Leader Standard Work in Lean Sales and Marketing is the “Why” more so than the “How”. The “Why” provides the clear strategic intent which will provide the fuel for Leader Standard Work. This analogy is wonderfully described in David Mann’s Book Creating a Lean Culture: Tools to Sustain Lean Conversions, Second Edition where he uses the automotive analogy to describe the four principles of the Lean Management System:

1. Leader Standard Work – Engine
2. Daily Accountability Process – Gas Pedal and Steering Wheel
3. Visual Controls – Transmission
4. Discipline – Fuel

When developing your Leader Standard work for Lean Sales and Marketing address these three items;

1. Clarification – Minimum standard is explicit
2. Commitment – Level of commitment is expected from the individual
3. Connection – A path for support through conversation is provided.

Can your Leader Standard Work pass the 3 C Test?

Related Information:
Lean Sales and Marketing works because of Leader Standard Work
Inspiring Innovation thru Standard Work
It’s the Who, not the Why @simonsinek

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The Team Leader’s Standard Work might including adding new call scripts  into a follow-up campaign for a certain webinar or trade show. The team leader also heads a brief daily stand-up meeting with the team which is part of the regular agenda to ensure that appropriate action has been taken or initiated. The Team Coordinator should attend but not head the meeting.

The Team Coordinator might then work with the team to go over playback of scripts for training. He may bring in additional trainers as part of a weekly program to improve delivery. The TC ensures that  program has been coordinated with other actions in the marketing communication department.

The Marketing Communication department sends follow-up emails, auto-responders and/or direct mail.

The Value Stream Manager might allocate budget for calling program and meet once a week to check progress and to lead a regularly-scheduled meeting with the TC, TL and MC to discuss the problems or opportunities.

It is this way that standard work is layered to ensure focus on the processes that produce the results. It is one of the most challenging aspect of the transition from a traditional results-only culture to a lean results-and-process-focused culture.

A quote from Dr. Michael Balle, “Lean is not a revolution; it is solve one thing and prove one thing.” Leader Standard work is the foundation of Lean Sales and Marketing and the fundamental process that replaces the "Silver Bullet" found in most typical marketing jargon.

What are your thoughts? Is your marketing efforts based on standard work?

Systems2win(who I work with) has an excellent description on the website, Leader Standard Work tool.and a new video out (below) that explains Standard Work.

Related Information:
Blog Carnival Annual Roundup: 2011: The 99 Percent Solution
Six Sources of Influence in Change
The Difficulty of Mastery = The Difficulty of Lean
Even Seinfeld used Standard Work

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Tracey also was the 2010 recipient of the Business901 Podcast of the Year! The podcast discussed A3 problem Solving.

Tracey likes to discuss the culture before jumping into problem solving but she takes a look at culture from a different perspective than others. It just about comes across as an attitude (in a very polite way) and there is type of swagger about the whole thing. Why not? When you become #1 in the world such as Toyota did and you are #1 methodology in the world which Lean probably is, why not have that swagger to your discussion? It is not pompous, it is an attitude that what you are doing works! She doesn’t write enough in my opinion because of her commitments as a trainer but her blog is one you should follow, you do not want to miss a word she says. You can also find her answering questions on the Lean Enterprise’s A3 Dojo Website.

What does the word “Lean” mean to you or your Company?

As I travel around the U.S. working with various companies that make a variety of different products, I realize a common denominator throughout them. How do they define the word “lean”, as well as the word “culture”? What I have realized is very interesting!

When I first started consulting I felt it was all about the “tools”, and that’s what companies seem to want, so of course, that’s what they got. As I have matured as an instructor/consultant I, like many, I have led and learned at the same time. In my experience at Toyota, especially back when we were led by the Japanese and their questioning approach; we all as new leaders were being led but at the same time leading others, so it was bringing about the “respect for people” and developing the workforce as a team. I can’t ever recall in my time at Toyota (Toyota Motor Manufacturing KY – TMMK 1988-1998), that we ever labeled what we were doing in a specific word like “Lean”, nor did we really think about our daily actions as a “culture”. It was just in the atmosphere. It wasn’t until I left Toyota to teach others, that those words started to surface. Somehow we felt the need to give it a name, and as I’ve experience the last 13 years as a consultant, I feel that can have somewhat of a hindering effect…..

Pathway to creating a “Lean Culture”

As I travel around to various clients they are always asking me, “How do you implement or create a culture like Toyota has”? I tell them that’s a very loaded question :). There are so many aspects of creating that culture it’s hard to give a short answer or even “wave a magic wand” to say… “Here is what you should do!!”. I wish I was that good . How I see it, you really need to differentiate the People side of Lean versus the Tool side. The People side will always be the most difficult aspect of the discipline needed to create this thing called Culture. The tools are just what they are, mostly countermeasures to change some discrepancy in our process. For the tools to be successful, People must understand their involvement or the purpose behind the tools. As I have stated in previous blog posts you must explain from the company perspective the WHAT, HOW and the WHY of any change or expectation within a persons work….

Tracey’s website: http://teachingleaninc.com and email: tracey@teachingleaninc.com

Related Information:
Blog Carnival Annual Roundup 2011: Graham Hill at CustomerThink
Blog Carnival Annual Roundup: 2011: The 99 Percent Solution
LabWorks Opens in the Lean Marketing Lab
The importance of PDCA in Marketing

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For several years now, I have been developing concepts and practicing Lean Marketing in conjunction with Six Sigma, and the Theory of Constraints. Lean was always the guiding light but it was not till I started to get involved in Service-Dominant Logic, Service Design and Design Thinking that my thoughts crystallized. In fact, it strengthened and reinforced my Lean Thinking. Lean has developed as the architecture in software over disciplines such as Agile, Scrum and Kanban. Lean has similarly developed as my architecture for sales and marketing. Graham Hill did not start me down this path but he has certainly reinforced my thinking with his comments and articles he presents. I remember few doors that have been open such a vast amount of knowledge and learned experiences than Graham did when he used 3 tweets to say:

Marketing in highly competitive markets is about exploring new propositions on the innovation fitness landscape. The environment determines where to start and complex marketing environments need EDCA. Complicated ones often start with PDCA ½.” EDCA = Explore, PDCA = Plan, SDCA = Standardize. Marketing Operations is all about moving along the EDCA>PDCA>SDCA pathway.

Another comment of Graham’s that reinforced my journey into Design Thinking and Service Design:

I was taught and used Toyota’s approach to lean, to improve all aspects of Toyota’s and its dealers’ customer-facing business. Toyota doesn’t see lean as a collection of tools (unlike many so-called lean experts), but rather as an organizational philosophy to engage the whole organization in creating more value together with customers. Toyota’s approach to lean is much closer to design thinking than you may think.

You can read the entire explanation on this blog post, Asking the right questions about Lean?

The real value that you derive from following Graham is his cutting edge thoughts and practices that he exhibits in his Customer Insider blog, such as:

Seven Simple Steps Towards Better Collaboration: In an earlier post on CustomerThink I described Ten Principles that Drive Effective Collaboration. And why just implementing collaboration technology would not improve collaboration. Worse, how it would make you into an ‘Expensive Old Organization’; with all the costs of the new technology, but none of the desired benefits. If simply implementing new technology isn’t the way to increase collaboration, what is? Fortunately getting started with collaboration is much easier than you might think. In fact, you are probably doing some of it already.

What’s Your Platform for Value Co-Creation?: A couple of years back I wrote a speculative blog post at CustomerThink entitled How Customer Co-Creation is the Future of Business. In many ways my prediction was right, Customer Co-Creation IS the future of business, but not exactly in the way I had imagined.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has been with us for over 20 years. It is built around using customer analytics to improve marketing, sales and service touchpoints. And it works very well. Or at least it does for companies. But it doesn’t offer much of any value to their customers. And as a result, its effectiveness has started to fall.

Customer Experience Management (CExM) was created about 10 years ago as an antidote to the blatant one-sidedness of CRM. It still uses the same customer analytics, but it applies the insights generated to improve all the…

Social CRM: What’s Right, What’s Wrong, What’s Next? Inside Scoop with Graham Hill: CustomerThink Founder/CEO Bob Thompson interviewed Graham Hill in a discussion about Social CRM.

P.S. In the world of Social Media, I can think of few people that have a more engaged following especially from an individual that uses it to serve his purpose (not meant in a selfish manner) in lieu of having a social media presence. You can tweet him @grahamhill.

Related Information:
Carnival page on the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog
Blog Carnival Annual Roundup: 2011: The 99 Percent Solution
The Common Thread of Design Thinking, Service Design and Lean Marketing
Value can no longer be defined as What a Customer will pay for!

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1. Identify Crucial Moments (Identify Value)
2. Create Vital Behaviors (Map Value Stream)
3. Engage All Six Sources of Influence (Create Flow – Enable Pull)
4. Turn Bad Days into Good Data (Seek Perfection – PDCA)

I stopped short of discussing the six sources of influence and have included them here:

1. Personal Motivation
2. Personal Ability
3. Social Motivation
4. Social Ability
5. Structural Motivation
6. Structural Ability

I am going to use a different perspective on these influences looking at it from a perspective of an organization trying to change and using Lean and my own thoughts to orchestrate the change.

Organizational Motivation will never persist without the change being tied to the marketplace. Dan Jones recently wrote in the blogpost, How can Lean Survive that “The best chance for lean to survive a change in top management is if it is seen to be delivering significant results, not just point improvements in key processes but bottom-line results for the organization as a whole, which would be reversed if support for lean disappeared. I disagree with the statements that you just have to accept that it is going to work and not expect results. Results are the motivating factors.

Organizational Ability requires learning new skills if you are going to change. If change is difficult we will take the path of least resistance. Mastering a new set of tools is never easy and that is why Lean is so powerful. Lean is based on standards, knowing how the process should work because if it’s clear, then when we see a variation from the process we can react immediately. This allows us to choose one problem from the other and just solve them one by one. This is incredibly powerful because with lean systems we rely on increasing our competency, increasing our training without having to take people off line, without having to get to classrooms, but by building it into the way we work.

Social Motivation and Social Ability go hand in hand. Employees, Suppliers, and even Customers would rather you not change. They want to deal with the known. Even voters will vote for someone that they know and disagree with over the unknown. You have to re-define the norm for example through Value Stream Mapping or an A3. You have to get those around you on board with the new ideal or without you will fall victim to those old tired out ways that have become ineffective. Surround yourself with willing partners that will push you to this new ideal. This is sometimes where a consultant can play a role.

Structural Motivation can be difficult in organizations since external goals are difficult to recognize. We can see internal improvements sometimes immediately. But these internal improvements may not result in the needle being moved in the marketplace. An effective motivator may be the fear of loss. Can you tie lost market opportunities to your change efforts? Can you demonstrate even the smallest of wins? If you can, it will significantly increase the odds of success.

Structural Ability small changes in your environment have a surprising effect on your choices. This is where Lean plays such a huge role in change. Lean is not rigorous. It uses visualization and it’s a readymade tool set that reduces the resistance to change. What Lean does require though is rigorous use to be successful.

Lean is a change tool but it is not a cure all. Dr. Balle said in an interview with me, “Lean is not a revolution; it is find one problem and solve one problem.” I wish you the best on your journey of change!

Related Information:
Inspiring Innovation thru Standard Work
Value can no longer be defined as What a Customer will pay for!
The importance of PDCA in Marketing
Even Seinfeld used Standard Work

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When I ask this question of many “Lean” people they have a tendency to answer the question based on why companies are not successful. I never intended to ask this question to beat up on the companies trying to implement Lean. They have a tough enough job. Many will point to leadership saying that they are at fault. Truth be known, they are responsible. That is why we call them leaders. But if I am a leader and something is only having a 1% success rate, why am I going to go down that path? Why would I contemplate Lean?

The fact is that Lean, Six Sigma, TQM and many methodologies work. The fact is most weight-loss programs work. The problem is most people; most organizations don’t master them to make them successful. As Dan Pink said, “Mastery is hard.” Hence, less than 1% of companies are successful with Lean or even something as simple as a weight loss program. You can find plenty of advice; you can read books, go to seminars and enroll in programs. I am not against professional advice mind you; they have experience and knowledge that you may not have in your organization. But this is where your plan may break down. Look at all your diet plans for example, why do they stop working? It’s you, not the plan.

What does work is the same thing for both people and organizations. It is the scientific process of trial and error. You don’t get it right at first, you have to break habits, personal habits as an individual and company cultures as an organization. Successful companies do it a little bit at a time. In Lean, we call this scientific method PDCA. We plan, do it, check the results and adjust. It is a purposeful experimentation.

To me, this is the excitement of Lean, is this empowering aspect that is not easy. You teach people, rather than solve people’s problems for them. And in doing so, they learn how to make better decisions which leads to better performance.

Dr. Michael Balle stated in an interview with me, “Lean gives you an ideal; it’s a commitment to an ideal.” More importantly, you must understand your own organization, the culture that exist and the culture that your customers expect and are willing to derive value from. You have to make the process your own. You have to rid yourself of Lean or other business processes. Dr. Liker’s statement is exactly correct because successful companies that started down a Lean path are not Lean anymore, only the unsuccessful ones are. If you are successful at implementing Lean, it is simply not Lean. It’s yours.

Related Information:
Developing a winning Culture the Zappos way!
Servant Leadership in the Toyota Culture
What will your workplace be like in 2020?
The importance of PDCA in Marketing

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This is a transcription of the podcast:

The Podcast…

Download Podcast: Click and choose options: Coplien on Agile or go to the Business901 iTunes Store.

Cope is a speaker and author whose works range from programming and architecture to ethnography and organizational design. He is a founder of the Software Pattern discipline and of organizational patterns, which in turn were one of the foundations of Scrum. Though he writes for a technical audience, his works focus on the human element of product development. His latest work, “Lean Architecture” is as much about how architecture helps make software usable, as it is about software maintainability on the technical side.

Other books:
Organizational Patterns of Agile Software Development
Advanced C++ Programming Styles and Idioms

Related Posts:
The differences in Lean and Agile
Understand Scrum, Understand Implementing PDCA
Should you Manage your Organization with Agile Techniques?
PDCA Cycle introduction to Lean Marketing

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Quote from the article:

“Through Lean Six Sigma, soldiers and leaders will learn how to properly manage time and resources while delivering a top quality product the first time,” said Chief Warrant Officer Jackie Vuorinen, the TF-Resolute safety officer. “This is a program all soldiers can use to save Army resources while providing higher quality products.”

Tim appeared on the Business901 podcast, Are right brain thinkers better leaders? Tim is a University of Kentucky Certified Lean Master, a Goldratt Institute Theory of Constraint Supply Chain Expert, an ASQ-Certified Six Sigma Black Belt, and a Licensed Social Worker with a SECRET clearance and his website, BusinessLeadership.com is a popular venue for leading edge thinking.

Thanks Tim for passing this on and wish you and everyone else at Kandahar Airfield a safe and Happy Holiday!

Related Information:
Using Right Brain Thinking in Business
Left Brain vs Right Brain = Management vs. Marketing
Be Productive, Be Visual, Part 2
Start your Visual Thinking Process with Mind Mapping

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• Scales to any size organization and aligns easily to varying needs
• Shortens traditional execution time from adoption to results
• Optimizes the utilization of resources required to accomplish the desired goals
• Breaks organizational constraints and maximizes organizational efficiency
• Sustains the gains and defines a path to self-sufficiency
• Achieves a global impact through strategy alignment and focused project selection
• Shows how to integrate Constraints Management with Lean and Six Sigma to create a “best of breed” approach
• Explains how hospitals can deploy or re-energize their performance improvement program specifically for what’s most important for their particular organization

Download Podcast: Click and choose options: TOCHealthcare or go to the Business901 iTunes Store.

About Novaces: A management consulting firm that provides performance management, continuous process improvement (CPI), and project management services to both public and private sector organizations. NOVACES helps its clients build capabilities in today’s most effective methodologies to achieve breakthrough operational and financial results.

Related Information:
Lean Six Sigma for Government
Lean Six Sigma will increase effectiveness of Stimulus spending
The Hell with the Economic Stimulus Package – I’ll Lead
Balancing Internal and External Lean Six Sigma Consulting Roles
Leading the Way in Iowa Quality Training

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Don is always entertaining and has such a way with explaining statistics that he makes himself difficult to argue with. This time he took on Dr. Edward Deming and for most of us it would seem to be an overwhelming task. Deming – loyalist should understand that Don makes his case outside of manufacturing. He questions if precise optimization is toxic in product development or knowledge work. Such as:

• Is preventing problems always better than correcting them?
• Should we really try to eliminate as much variability as possible?
• Does responding to normal variation make performance worse?
• Did Deming understand Kanban?
• Is 3 Sigma upper and lower control limits correct for you?

In this presentation, Don Reinertsen discusses the limitations of Deming’s ideas and how to go beyond them.

Don Reinertsen – Is It Time to Rethink Deming? from AGILEMinds on Vimeo.

I would consider myself a Deming Loyalist. However, I do agree with Don on many of his points. It is the evolution of Lean that is being discussed. As we apply Lean outside of manufacturing many of the basic assumptions that we tie to Deming and Lean may not be valid. Following the principles of John Boyd’s, OODA Loop for a better prescription may open the doors for Lean to prosper outside of traditional process thinking.

An example of this is The Lean Startup where if you review the first writings of Eric Ries you will see the influence of not Deming but The OODA Loop and Don Reinertsen.  When you look at the my outline for Lean Sales and Marketing, it follows a similar pattern. It concentrate on the Demand side of the business which requires and encourages variation. It requires placing economic value as part of statistical control. It requires us to look at Lean with a fresh set of eyes!

You gotta like a guy that stirs the pot. Thanks Don!

Related Information:
Why the Lean SALES PDCA Cycle was Created!
Deming was just simply wrong about variation…
Why won’t Lean commit to the Demand Chain the way it committed to the Supply chain?
Lean Marketing: Sales Quotas lead to Waste
Understanding Variation: The Key to Managing Chaos
Creating Flow with Don Reinertsen
Why should 50% of your marketing fail?

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It turns out that Debbie is an artist, and she uses Excel as her primary drawing software (now that’s odd!). The figure below shows an example. The image on the left was scanned from a catalog. The image on the right was created by Debbie, using Excel’s drawing tools. The drawing consists of hundreds of individual shapes, combined together.

According to Debbie, “Most of my drawings do not take longer than two hours or four hours max to get the outlines done and the fill colors put in. I often use photographs that I’ve scanned and inserted into Excel, then I use the drawing tools to change the photographs into drawings. As you have already noticed I’ve become quite proficient at drawing on Excel, so it doesn’t take me as much time as it did when I first started, now that I’ve figured out all the tricks.

I have a tendency to use other more “graphic” software packages in lieu of Excel but I am amazed at the simplicity of using Excel once you start. Why should I care? Most of the tools of Lean are visual in nature. In fact, one of the sayings that have been very common in Lean is “If you’re not visual, you’re not Lean.” However, in Lean and with any continuous improvement methodology metrics are important. So, if you want to be successful you cannot divorce the visual aspect and the metrics. Excel offers the marriage between the two.  Listen to the advantages described by Dean Ziegler of Systems2win:

Can you become proficient in only 30 minutes? Watch these Systems2win videos to learn how:
Types of Drawing Objects
How to Select Objects
How to use Excel as a drawing tool

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You need leadership and a mindset or cultural shift in a Lean Transformation but I support the thinking that most of us use tools to learn and sustain improvement efforts. If we are unable to use the tools, we can’t implement. I use the analogy that a carpenter becomes a carpenter by becoming proficient with a hammer. You become proficient with Lean by using Value stream Mapping, Standard Work and the others.

I stray away from some of the traditional tools of Lean as a result of my work in sales and marketing. Spending the time in the booth discussing the breadth (there are over 150 templates) of Lean foundational tools that Systems2win supplies was for me a refresher course. It re-cemented the practical applications of Lean to standard work (no pun attended). Lean is firmly rooted in accomplishing work. It is not about creating elaborate control structures. It is simply about learning by doing and how better to accomplish that but through the use of the tools.

After coming home, I looked through a few of the Systesm2win templates on YouTube to strengthen that learning. I have included the Introduction to Value Stream Mapping.

I found that taking a Value Stream Mapping project off of a board and documenting it on software besides the obvious attributes of archiving and sharing, it creates, distributes and reinforces the knowledge of the process and the use of the mapping process for other projects.   

Related Information
Data Driven Problem Solving Program
Lean or Six Sigma which fork in the road do you take?
Continuous Improvement Sales and Marketing Toolset

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