What happens when an organization decides not to change and keeps the status quo? It is easy to look back on the history of organizations or products that have come and gone. The main trend we see is….if you don’t improve or change, you most likely will be forgotten. There are many complicated reasons why some organization's fail and so there is on…

When you look back on some of history's most influential and effective leaders, what made them so great? They were selfless, loved the people they were leading, and had a strong desire to empower those around them to become better people. When you look back on some of the worst leaders from history, what made them so horrible? They are exact opposi…

In the short term, layoffs seem logical and look great on paper, however, in the long term, these organizations will be trading short-term safety over long-term profitability. There are all kinds of reasons why companies should and should not do layoffs, including strategies to avoid layoffs. We will talk about some strategies to avoid layoffs, but…

Motivational interviewing helps tap into our intrinsic motivation to create the desire within ourselves to change. Typically when people are told or forced to do something, most likely, we will be met with resistance. So, instead of telling someone what to do, giving them information, providing a road map, directing, warning, instructing, or laying…

Resistance to change can be one of the most significant barriers that lean, six sigma, and continuous improvement come up against. The law of resistance to change could very well be the most challenging part of our path as we navigate along our continuous improvement journey. A statement that we all have heard or have said ourselves is, “people don…

This week we will be discussing what standard work is, what it is not and how standard work will automatically help us increase the quality of our products and services. We will also have an arm wrestle about Taiichi Ohno’s quote when he said, “without standards, there can be no kaizen.” But what came first, the chicken or the egg? Does standardizi…

In manufacturing, we live or die on tolerances. The tradition in American and other Western countries is we are so focused on the specification limits, while Japanese companies focus on uniformity and reducing variation around the target value. In other words, Western countries make a part and say, is it within specification? Or it is right on the …

For this week’s episode of the Continuous Improvement Journey podcast, we will be talking about how the methodology of Training Within Industry was created during the 1940s as part of the World War II production effectiveness effort. One of the great outcomes of Training Within Industry was it drastically cut down the time required for new workers …

Have you ever had something that was made out of cheap plastic and broke easily or the design of something was so complicated that it was easier to throw it away and buy a whole new assembly to save you the time and headaches from trying to fix it? We will be discussing 6 ways to help reduce these headaches to help us when designing parts to make t…

Of all the improvements or focus we may have in our organization or supply chain, the most important keystone in everything that we do is what our internal and external customer loyalty is and the relationship we have between the leaders of the organization and those two categories of customers. Our internal and external customers are not lifeless …

Are our suppliers or vendors considered our friends or enemy? And do we select vendors on price alone? The answers to these questions will determine the fate of our organization for how effective we are in providing our goods or services to our customers. We need to unceasingly expand the scope of our continuous improvement initiatives outside of j…

Who do you think would win if we had an arm wrestle between lean manufacturing based Just in time Inventory and Inventory Optimization using statistical principles? Whoever wins, the main challenge for those who work with or are impacted by the effectiveness of our supply chains is figuring out how in the world we can match our inventory supply to …

Many of us are familiar with the concept of work in process, and some feel that any work in process lying around is of the devil. This thinking is partly true. We need a certain amount of work in process to overcome the natural variation in the system with standard work in process or critical work in process levels. For episode 7 this week on the C…

For episode 6 of Continuous Improvement Journey’s podcast, we will discuss the law of operational and process wastes, which is a continuation of exploring each of the 13 Laws of System Optimization we have discussed so far in the previous 3 episodes. In the lean community, you hear all kinds of talk about removing waste, eliminating waste, lowering…

For episode 5, we will dive deeper into the Law of Variation, which is the most important and maybe the least understood law when running an organization. Not only can the law of variation help us understand and resolve our past. It can significantly help guide our organization along our continuous improvement journey and help solidify our future b…

For episode 4 of Continuous Improvement Journey’s podcast, we will pick up where we left off in part one of episode 3 where we explored a high-level view of the Laws of System Optimization. We will continue part 2 in covering laws 4 through 13. I hope that these 13 laws will become additional tools to refine and take us to the next level from our t…

For episode 3 of Continuous Improvement Journey’s podcast, we will explore a high-level view of the Laws of System Optimization. I hope that these 13 laws will become additional tools to refine and take us to the next level from our traditional lean manufacturing training. Episode 3 will act as Part 1 of an introduction of the Laws of System Optimi…

Is there a limit to when 5S is taken too far? Is 5S the first required step for every lean transformation? How does 5S increase the effectiveness of the entire organization and not just the shop floor? For episode number 2 of Continuous Improvement Journey’s podcast, we will be exploring the topic...“When 5S Goes Too Far.” The lean tool of 5S is a …

Why do so many companies struggle to find long-term success when implementing lean and six sigma? Let's explore the results from a casual research study performed by Continuous Improvement Journey that found the top 5 reasons or side effects to avoid when implementing lean or six sigma into an organization. Free workbook guide to identify the #1 pl…