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Active Lean Implementation at GE Manufacturing Plant

This was a cool find for me today.  It shows a GE plant in Kentucky seeking to improve efficiency through lean practices. It starts with mapping it out with an  enormous Ishikawa diagram, or fishbone chart, then moves onto a 1/4 scale mockup of the plant using homemade models, then to a full-scale mockup of how the layout footprint will look with actual life-size mockup machines, belts,…

Mike Wilson | August 27, 2012 | Lean | Continuous Improvement, Lean Manufacturing

Change Your Ways To Success

Being successful isn’t an easy task, that’s why most people are not successful. After reading Josh Linkner’s article “You Lost It: 7 Ways to Get Your Mojo Back,” on Forbes, I thought it might make for an interesting blog post. In the article, Linkner offers 7 ways to change up how you are currently doing things in order to bring some peace and increased productivity to a…

Mike Wilson | August 17, 2012 | Safety Solutions | Lean Manufacturing

Leaders Lead! 3 Tips to Improve Your Leadership Abilities

Richard Lorenzen, in his Forbes article, “The Art Of Leadership: Become A More Effective Leader In 3 Steps,” outlines three things that make an exceptional leader. As a businessman and boss, I often read articles and books about how to be a better leader, but I think Lorensen boils it down to its most basic in the post; he states that it is critical for all leaders…

Mike Wilson | August 6, 2012 | Lean | Continuous Improvement, Lean Manufacturing, Workplace Leadership

Lean and kaizen are not meant to eliminate people — they’re meant for improvement

Ever dream about reaching an efficiency of 95%?!  Think that is a crazy goal for your company?  It’s not!  That is what lean and kaizen help you achieve. It can also help you get rid of employees. Well, that’s how an article in  Business Today titled “How Toyota Uses Kaizen for Efficiency”  would have you think. The article reports the following: Toyota benchmarks itself on efficiency. It…

Mike Wilson | July 26, 2012 | Kaizen, Lean | Kaizen, Lean Manufacturing

Proof in the Pudding : Lean Can be a Great Risk Worth Taking

Proving that there is an absolutely great payoff for bringing leaner thinking on-board his reader’s company, “Lean Blog” writer, Mark Graban, discussed lean (more specifically, continuous improvement), the PDCA process, and the need for going to the gemba in his blog post, titled “Lean Effort Pays Big” in a Colorado Springs Hospital.  Via info from Memorial Health System (MHS) staffer, Justin Lewis, Graban noted that Lewis’ employer…

Mike Wilson | July 24, 2012 | Lean | Gemba, Lean Manufacturing

10 Tips You Should Remember when Solving Problems

I have a business within the visual safety and industrial consulting markets, and we have a lot of everyday challenges that arise, from customer service to transportation scheduling, and, as the company leader, I am expected to make things right. Well, everyone makes mistakes, and some problems are harder to solve than others.  Sometimes, I need to look outside myself for some advice to give me some…

Mike Wilson | July 20, 2012 | Safety Solutions | Lean Manufacturing

Does the kanban system promote efficiency or errors?

The Kanban system promotes efficiency.  It is not an especially complicated system.  Sometimes, though, we must go back to the most basic basics.  So let’s review the principles of the Kanban system.  Nipon Ekanaronqpun describes Kanban this way in his article What Is The Kanban System for Lean Manufacturing?: The word ‘Kanban’ comes from a Japanese word which means ‘card’. The Kanban system, as it is known,…

Mike Wilson | July 14, 2012 | Kanban | Kanban, Lean Manufacturing

Kaizen Events: How Vital Are They to Lean Manufacturing?

Understanding Kaizen and Continuous Improvement Kaizen, often described as “change for the better,” is a core idea behind continuous improvement and Kaizen events. The concept plays an important role in Lean manufacturing and other process-focused environments. To understand kaizen more clearly, James A. Bruce explains in his article What Is Kaizen? The term represents an ongoing effort to improve processes, solve problems, and eliminate waste. What Kaizen…

Mike Wilson | July 13, 2012 | Kaizen, Lean | Kaizen, Lean Manufacturing

Lean Misconceptions

Misconceptions in lean manufacturing are easy to make, but they are dangerous!  And anyone can misinterpret and misrepresent things.  Mark Graban provides a striking example of a misconception in his blog post Should Have a Question Mark: Inc’s “The Leanest Startup?” : “Inc. Magazine didn’t have the question mark in the headline, but I think it should be there. Much as the WSJ often just gets it…

Mike Wilson | July 12, 2012 | Lean | 5S, Lean Manufacturing

When Strict Rules Don’t Work in Lean Manufacturing

Have you heard the story about the lifeguard in Florida who was fired because he saved a swimmer’s life?!  Mark Graban writes an interesting post on his Lean Blog about the incident. In his post Lifeguard Saves Swimmer, Gets Fired, Graban compares the shocking response to the lifeguard’s laudable action to possible consequences of overly strict rules in the Lean work place: A lifeguard, Tomas Lopez, was…

Mike Wilson | July 12, 2012 | Lean | Continuous Improvement, Lean Manufacturing