Elegance, Subtraction & Lean: The Shmula Interview
Over at Shmula.com, I had a great time being interviewed by my friend, former Toyota pro, and all-around brilliant guy, Pete Abilla. Pete’s blog has been quoted in HBR, Financial Times, and Clayton Christensen’s The Innovator’s DNA. He had some great questions for me. Enjoy! YOU CAN READ THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE.
Wading In The Value Stream
Karen Martin, author of Shingo prize-winning The Outstanding Organization, is out with a new book with coauthor Mike Osterling, on a key tool used by “lean” advocates: Value Stream Mapping. (That’s both the tool and the title of the book.) This book clarifies and simplifies something that stymies many people, myself included. For that reason […]
Lean v. Innovation…Wrong Question!
I get the question all the time, especially from organizations who have significant investment in some process improvement program — like a “lean six sigma” or “lean kaizen” (I hear the ghosts of Toyota engineers booing) initiative – and have picked all the low-hanging fruit clean, squeezed as much inefficiency from their work as is […]
Everybody Get Lean, Episode 1
I got a chuckle out of this video, sent to me by Ben Mallahan, the writer and director of a new web series called EVERYBODY GET LEAN. The series is a work place comedy about lean programs and everything that can go wrong when people go overboard. I love the shirtless 6S guy! Ben tells me […]
Put Your Lemons on the List (aka “Got Standards?”)
I was on my way to the market, shopping list in hand. “Honey, can you grab some lemons?” my wife called out as the door hit me on the bum. “Yep!” I shouted through the closed door. I hopped in my car, got to the store, whipped out my list, got everything on it, and […]
Ideas Are Not Innovations
(Note: This review first appeared on OPEN Forum.) Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits had three goals in mind when they set out to publish The Lean Entrepreneur: How to Create Products, Innovate with New Ventures, and Disrupt Markets. The first was to describe why our economy is primed for a new wave of entrepreneurship using new […]