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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]