Red is the new green
Only last week did a customer for the first time talk about my logo, and he had it figured out. He recognised what it meant. In proper lean cultures, where KPI’s are set properly, you have a safe environment for…
Mark
Lean is about waste, not about growth
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…
Simple is always better
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.…
How to prevent failing with good KPI’s
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…
6 mistakes setting commercial KPIs for your team
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…
Stop digging
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…
You don’t need luck
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…
Improvement is not optional
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…
A fool with a tool… is still a fool
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…
The power of going to genba
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…