Let me try a more provocative title this week. Many people have heard about lean, about manufacturing processes being optimised. When it comes to implementations beyond the shop floor in more transactional or commercial areas, people tend to have a…
For a large organisation to be effective, it must be simple. Jack Welch – former CEO of General Electric Doing something in a simple way is better than doing it in a complex way. Makes sense right? It’s too obvious.…
Or how to prevent going down the trap known as ‘Goodhart’s Law’. How we know it: When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure What he actually said: Any observed statistical regularity will tend to…
KPIs are meant to give direction, represent priorities and drive behaviour. In many companies however, KPIs are used to micromanage their teams and reports are used for windowdressing or wallpaper. Here are six mistakes you can make as a Lean…
If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. not sure: The beauty about Lean Business is that in many cases, it’s just common sense, but rigorously applied. The ideas aren’t necessary groundbreaking, the biggest part is just about…
Luck Is What Happens When Preparation Meets Opportunity Seneca – Roman philosopher I’m quite a fan of (among others) the roman writer/philosopher Seneca. His letters to his friend Lucillus can be very inspiring, even today. One of the famous quotes…
Progress cannot be generated when we are satisfied with existing situations. Ohno Taiichi (大野耐一, Ōno Taiichi) What Mr Ohno describes in this quote is a core belief of Lean. It’s about the fundament of Kaizen, the idea that things can always be…
Might be weird to say for someone like me that promotes the use of a certain set of tools. But I’m 100% sure that only using a set of tools won’t make you smarter. Or win. Or make you successful…
Genba (現場, also romanized as gemba) is a Japanese term meaning “the actual place”…. In business, genba refers to the place where value is created; in manufacturing the genbais the factory floor. source: Japanese police also talk about a crime scene as genba. So why would you go there? And…
One of the big misconceptions around the concept ‘process’ is that it is scary, cumbersome, leads to more work and flat-out boring. Process is seen as the enemy of creativity, of innovation and even as the nemesis of fun at…