How to Implement your Kaizen Event

Do you have trouble implementing or sustaining the initiatives after a Kaizen Event? In this Business901 podcast episode, I spent the bulk of the podcast on this subject with author Mark Hamel. Mark’s book, Kaizen Event Fieldbook: Foundation, Framework, and Standard Work for Effective Events spends a third of the book on discussing implementing and Read More …

put things off until the last responsible minute – Personal Kanban

One of the Personal Kanban tips that Jim Benson gave us in the Business901 Podcast: We basically create different projects, and those projects, aren’t atomized until the last possible minute. So we keep things in an aggregated form as long as we possibly can, which is a fancy way of saying that we procrastinate. But Read More …

Kanban made easy with Coveys 4Disciplines

Being on the Kanban path this week took me back to thinking about the 4 Disciplines of Execution by Franklin Covey. This training is one of the best workshops I have ever attended and overall some of the best training I have ever received. It is staggering some of the numbers that they quote such Read More …

What happens when the factory goes away?

The other day Seth Godin had a post titled , The factory in the center. He said: Old time factories had a linear layout, because there was just one steam engine driving one drive shaft. Every machine in the shop had to line up under the shaft (connected by a pulley) in order to get Read More …

Value Stream & Indirect Marketing

The Indirect Marketing depicted in the light blue section of the Value Stream Marketing layout incorporates a wide array of marketing tools. This can be similar to the top of someone’s marketing funnel but it also to the concept of flipping the funnel(see book below) and re-using your existing customer stream that you have in Read More …

Should work cells be used in Sales and Marketing

Cellular manufacturing is one of the most powerful lean tools. It will allow for smaller lot production, quality improvements, and shorter lead times and simplifies the implementation of pull. Typical manufacturing systems had the same machines all grouped together and as a result batch type manufacturing was developed. As manufacturers developed cellular systems, they found Read More …