Six Sources of Influence in Change

From my blog post, The Difficulty of Mastery = The Difficulty of Lean, I started discussing the book, Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success . I found the work paralleling Lean in many of its approaches and put Lean practices in parenthesis. Their strategy is based on four simple steps: Identify Crucial Moments Read More …

If less than 1% of companies are successful with Lean

I have seen numerous times where Dr. Jeffrey Liker prominent author of the Toyota Way Series has claimed that less than 1% of companies are successful with Lean. I am not sure what criteria he bases this number on exactly but if he is even close why are we doing it? If you have studied Read More …

Lean and Six Sigma training for deployed Soldiers

Just received a copy of an article,  Resolute’ brigade provides Lean Six Sigma training to deployed Soldiers from Tim Fowler, a CPS Professional Services contractor assigned to Task Force Resolute at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan. Tim is teaching a group of U.S. Forces about Lean and Six Sigma. They are applying this training  immediately through improving Read More …

Standard Work in Sales & Marketing

Make no mistake about it; EXECUTION is what we are looking for from standard work. If you execute, you can do anything. When a company has a clear mission, and people know how their individual mission fits into the big picture, everyone paddles in the same direction. —Stephen Cooper The biggest influence on my ability Read More …

Proficient Drawing w Excel in 30 minutes!

Using Microsoft Excel as a drawing tool is a surprise to most of us. When we think of using Excel, we think of creating a spreadsheet and maybe if we are adventurous creating a graph. But there is a hidden power contained in Excel, the ability to draw. One of my most popular blog post Read More …

Sustain a Lean Culture, use Lean Tools

I worked the Systems2win booth this week at the AME Conference in Dallas, TX. I enjoy the opportunity tremendously as I get to spend a great deal of time with hundreds of Lean Practitioners in a variety of positions and industries. Discussing the Systems2win word and excel continuous improvement templates offers me the opportunity to Read More …