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At 10 AM on Tuesday, we will talk about our improvement plans from our value stream mapping sessions. At 3 PM on Wednesday, we’ll meet on our latest strategic initiative. Thursday afternoon whenever we can find time, we’ll talk about the problems taken from our problem board.   Friday morning

  I have used Aesop’s Fables before, and here are some lessons from The Bee and Jupiter. A Queen bee from Hymettus flew up to Olympus with some fresh honey from the hive as a present to Jupiter, who was pleased with the gift that he promised to give her

Recently I had a problem with Delta. Delta treats me pretty well, in part because of my extensive travel to our clients, but this day had me annoyed. It was a small thing that turned into a bigger thing. I had an outbound flight in the morning, and a return

I have a new post published on Blogging Innovation. See the full article on that site.   by Jamie Flinchbaugh Innovation is obviously a major attribute in the competitiveness of a company (or a government, or a school, or an individual). There are many ways to achieve innovation, and no

In my work as co-founder of the Lean Learning Center, we focus primarily on our clients and their challenges. I’m generally not that aware of what our competition is doing. As a result, I am sometimes very surprised by some of the stories I hear from our clients about other

Not many people want to be the victim of micro-management. And most managers don’t espouse operating that way. But not all micro-management is created equal. As organizations pursue lean effort,s I see a tension between making problems visible and micro-management. Many organizations are very sensitive to anything that feels like

I have a new post published on Assembly Magazine. See the full article on that site. I have written “Leading Lean” for ASSEMBLY for over 5 years. This marks my 55th and final contribution. I still have plenty to say, but it’s time for me to move on from this

Guest Post: Shawn Patterson is the Senior Director of Corporate Services at DTE Energy where he is responsible for the Supply Chain, Fleet, Facilities, and Continuous Improvement organizations. Shawn has held numerous positions in multiple industries and is passionate about influencing lean transformations in organizations. In light of recent financial

  Everyone wants to copy the best. That’s why companies such as Toyota and General Electric have been popular sources of benchmarking. That’s why Chrysler was so highly benchmarked when we were the most profitable car company. In the lean community, I have observed a common practice of filtering ideas

“Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.” These words by Vince Lombardi encompass a great deal of the lean mindset. Mark Graban at LeanBlog.org recently wrote about this quote, and so I was reminded of an article I wrote almost 10 years ago. The