Blog

4 Steps for Small Daily Investments

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 12-15-09

What do you do when one of those little fires pops up? It’s not a big deal, it’s just a small problem. Put the fire out, move on to what’s next. After all there are many important projects to complete. But of course, before you get to them, another fire

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Sweat the Small Stuff..It May Save Your Life [guest post]

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 12-14-09

This is a guest blog post by Ankit Patel, CEO of The Lean Way Consulting. You can also follow his blog or find him on Twitter. Flying is the safest form of travel in the world and a safe takeoff and landing is arguably a true 6sigma process but accidents

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Taking Small Steps

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 12-11-09

One Small Step for Man Are you building plans for 2010? Strategic plans? Goals? Action plans? Even New Year’s Resolutions? Many of you are. You are told to think big, dream big, plan big. I’m couldn’t agree more. Until… you stall. You start thinking about the resources. You start thinking

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Are the Big Three the Lean Three?

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 12-10-09

Creativity103 Are you waiting for your annual GM and Chrysler report? I would assume as a shareholder that we’ll all get one. No? OK, I won’t wait by the mailbox (since technically we’re not shareholders). Fortunately there are plenty of people trying to offer an explanation of progress, or lack

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2 Quick Tips on Meetings

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 12-08-09

Everybody loves a good meeting. If you think I’m being sarcastic, then you’ve never been in a good meeting. A good meeting is energizing, productive, focused. But of course most of the meetings that organizations hold are frustrating, unproductive, and wasteful. Here are two quick tips. First, consider if you

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Follow Friday for Bloggers

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 12-04-09

If you follow me on Twitter then you know about Follow Friday, where people share who they are following. Since I look at everything through the lens of value, I always struggle to see people just pumping out lists of names. That’s why I only post, and only read the

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Solve your own darn problems

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 12-03-09

I was recently at a dinner meeting with a few people surrounding an event I was supporting, and at the table was both a young, aggressive, smart individual contributor from a large company and a 30+ year experienced general manager who knew his way around the flagpole. We got into

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Was Ayn Rand a lean thinker?

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 12-02-09

One of the most important principles in lean is respect for people. It is often glossed over as a nicety, given less rigor than things like just-in-time, and often misunderstood as abdication and softness. But respect for people is about leveraging the full talents of an individual and providing individuals

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Leading Lean: Learn to Improve; Improve to Learn

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 12-01-09

I have a new post published on Assembly Magazine. See the full article on that site. Continuing education is key to any lean deployment strategy…. Continue reading….

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Respecting the Customer: The Foundation for Just-in-Time

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 11-30-09

This is a guest post by Shawn Patterson from DTE Energy. You can learn more about Shawn from his LinkedIn profile, or as featured in Chapter 10 of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Lean. Probably the most powerful attribute of the Toyota Production System is the deeply ingrained principles underpinning all

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