Lean is Lazy

It seems kind of dusty in here. All sorts of cobwebs and stuff. Nothing like a new post to 5S a blog...

How does "Lean is Lazy" grab you? Is it true? We often get resistance to change when implementing a new idea or process, but in most cases (nearly all cases hopefully), we are making a process easier rather than harder. A friend of a friend used say, "Put the laziest man on the hardest job and he will find an easier way to do it." Is that lazy or working smarter?

Tent Revival

A week or two ago, an attendee at one of my sessions told me my training is like an old fashioned tent revival, and he could sit there all day.

Preachers at old fashioned tent revivals shared their sermons with passion and enthusiasm, but who says business meetings and training sessions have to be boring and uninspiring.

Passion and enthusiasm for your project will inspire your team members to be more involved.

Passion and enthusiasm in meetings may actually keep folks off of their blackberry or laptops and interested...

Commitment - The Chicken and the Pig

There is a story about commitment that I tell in my training classes. I'm not sure where it came from originally, but it is good.

A farmer decides to have breakfast. He decides he is going to have scrambled eggs and bacon. The chicken is involved in the process, but the pig is committed.

Developing commitment to your six sigma project or lean initiative is difficult. Too often everyone is with you until the real work starts. Then you find out they are involved rather than committed.

That is one of the big reasons we make sure to include the project champions and sponsors in our training. Six Sigma projects and Lean deployments have the biggest impact when everyone from the executives to the green belts at your company are committed, and it sure is easier to have committed green belts when the V.P. or Plant Manager is leading the way.

That Dog Don't Hunt

This one goes right along with bootleg data.

Let's say you are in the middle of your MSA (measurement system analysis), and you are using a database that holds your average build time for a circuit board, the combobulator (the opposite of the discombobulator). This database was developed years ago and is the primary source of information for plant layout and process setup decisions. Of course it is made up of a super secret formula that Joe came up with six months before he left, and it has little to no useful documentation.

Now you are bringing me results based on this database reporting system, and telling me that your gauge passes with a Likert scale score of three by using the database a listening post? That dog don't hunt.

Bootleg Data

Bootleg data. Another Finneyism. A few ways to tell you might have bootleg data:

• If you spend more time on the animations for your powerpoint than you do collecting your data, you probably have bootleg data
  
• If your R-squared number for your regression equation is 11.3%, you probably have bootleg data
• If you "knew" what the problem really was before you even started your project, and all data you have collected so far confirms it exactly without exception, then you didn't really have a project OR you probably have bootleg data
  
• If your boss "knew" what the problem really was before you even started your project, you probably have bootleg data
  
• If you skipped your MSA (measurement systems analysis), you don't even know if you have bootleg data or not

Another Finneyism

Goooooooood Mooooooooorning Claaaaaaaaaaas!!!

High energy. I don't want anyone in my training classes that is not paying attention. Share your enthusiasm in your own way with your six sigma or lean project team, and they will respond.

Finneyisms

We'll start the blog with some Finneysims...

"The team takes care of the team"

Put your teams' successes in lights and work out your project problems inside the team.