When Is Automation The Right Answer?
When is the right time to automate? One of my clients asked us to look at automation for their receiving dock. They were short on labor and saw a machine that could reduce the transportation time on their dock. We have a terrific integration partner for these types of requests so we had them take […]
Thinking About The Role of Technology
Spring has sprung! The year is in full swing now. As a fan of change, I truly enjoy the change of seasons and all the natural splendor. I’m lucky to experience the sun and fun of summer, the relaxing cool days of fall, the blustery winter, and the rebirth of spring. I do feel a […]
Don’t Bias Your Discovery!
I will close out this series of articles covering the process of discovery by touching on some of the less tangible considerations of performing a solid discovery. The context, the environment, and your own assumptions and bias will affect the reliability of the information that you gather. To be confident that you are collecting useful […]
Visualize the Discovery
So far in my discussion on the process of discovery I have focused on methods of collection. Specifically, process observation, interviewing people, and performing frequent waste walks. Discovery goes further than collection. We have to visualize the information that has been discovered and we have to communicate it. The most powerful tool for this purpose […]
Quantifying the Discovery
We can agree that in the process of discovery observation is not enough. To make characterizations about a process we need hard data. Observation can be a form of data, but it is qualitative and open to subjective bias. Quantified data creates a much more powerful understanding of process performance. When I was first […]
Waste Walks In Action
This article will focus on waste walks as a part of the discovery process. I suspect most of my readers know what a waste walk is, but I would still like to start by providing my own definition. The rest of this article will focus on how waste walks differ from other forms of discovery […]
Interviewing to Discover the Current State
A great deal of knowledge can be gained through observation. But observation alone does not tell you everything. In the process of discovery we have to employ a multitude of methods to fully understand the current state of the operation. Individual and group interviews are also an important part of the discovery process. There […]
Observing the Details
When I teach Lean I like to tell the commonly shared story of Taichii Ohno instructing his young engineers on how to observe a process. He would draw a circle on the floor and instruct an engineer to stand in the circle and watch the process. He would leave and come back in a few […]
Exploring the Process of Discovery
Maybe you have noticed, or at least I hope you have noticed that with my newsletters I try to come up with good themes that are useful to my readers and write multiple articles around that theme. Many of you have mentioned to me at one time or another that you find these articles useful, […]
Habits and Routines to Sustain Improvements
As we have explored over the last few months, it is one thing to create an improvement and a whole other thing to sustain improvement. Sustaining improvement requires clarity in roles from top management through middle management. It requires many structures and techniques. It requires a culture that backs this up and supports the organization’s […]