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What A Load Of CobblersCobblers catch up: Toe to toe with the O'sOut of the loop with the week's news at Sixfields, can't be arsed to keep up or just like to listen to a Cobblers natter? WALOC have got you covered.Tom Reed, Brendan Walsh, James Averill and Keith Buckby get together to chew the fat on a breathless week at Sixfields.Brendan fills us in on his stag do in Hamburg, HSV and the joys of a proper kebab.We discuss the 3-0 win over Harrogate and the virtues of the 4-2-1-3 formation.There's talk...
2022-04-221h 06
American Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesTips to Develop a Culture of GratitudeStaying with the theme of gratitude for this Thanksgiving week, I want to share some tips to develop a culture of gratitude. If you weren’t aware, there are science-based benefits of being grateful. Productivity increases, job satisfaction increases, as does your mental and physical well-being. Here are some actions to consider.1. It starts at the topAny successful business or cultural transformation starts at the top. The same is true when trying to develop a culture of gratitude. When leaders in the company recognize minor acts that would otherwise go unnoticed, others in the organiza...
2020-11-2404 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesToyota GM Shares what Makes Toyota GreatOne of the great honors I get to do weekly is interview companies on their lean journeys. This week I was fortunate enough to spend time with Jason Hartkemeyer, a General Manager at Toyota Boshoku which makes seats and interior pieces for the automotive industry.Some of the key points from our discussion: Toyota Boshoku is the original Toyota. The founder Sakichi Toyoda began by making automated weaving looms. In the early 1900's his sons visited Europe and convinced their father to begin producing automobiles. Jason mentioned he traveled to Japan and saw the original loom that...
2020-09-1815 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesUsing a DOWNTIME chart to Identify WasteToyota identified seven wastes as they developed the Toyota Production System from 1948 to 1975. As the production system was integrated into Western culture the eighth waste- Not Listening to People’s Ideas was adopted. Let’s focus on using a DOWNTIME chart to identify waste.When put into the correct order, the eight wastes spell out DOWNTIME. This mnemonic helps you remember what the eight wastes are in business. Briefly, here are the eight wastes:1. Defects2. Overproduction3. Waiting4. Not Listening to People’s Ideas5. Transportation6. Inventory7. Motion
2020-09-1604 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesFour Tips for Supporting and Engaging Remote EmployeesWith many of your employees working from home, it’s hard to maintain your company culture and ensure your employees are being supported. Culture is everything in an organization. It’s what allows good companies to become great while average companies stay average. I want to provide some tips for supporting and engaging remote employees so that your company culture can become great.Tip 1- Reach outNow is not the time to disappear. Just like you, many leaders are learning on the fly how to navigate the WFM situation. Like raising a child, there are no ow...
2020-09-1504 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesDon’t be a Micromanager- 3 Tips to HelpThese are unprecedented times. My guess is many of your employees are working from home full time or at least part of the time. As a manager, the temptation might be to check in with your employees to make sure they are getting their tasks accomplished. Doing this too often, offering constant feedback, or stepping in to do the work is a sign you are micromanaging. What kind of culture does that produce?For one, it sends the message you don’t trust your employees to do their job. Imagine how you would feel if your boss, who con...
2020-09-1403 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case Studies5G and Blockchain- Partners for the FutureApple announced that it will release 5G phones this fall. That sounds exciting but remember 5G speeds use a different technology called millimeter wave technology. This is a shorter wavelength but doesn’t travel as far.The estimate I heard for Manhattan alone, instead of building 100 antennas for 4GLE you have to build 5,000 to 20,000 5G antennas. That is a lot of infrastructure!This puts Apple and every other handset manufacturer at the mercy of companies such as Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile. Given the amount of infrastructure required, it will take a while before true 5G arr...
2020-09-1004 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesDon't Let Technology Ruin your CultureThese are unprecedented times. My guess is many of your employees are working from home full time, or at least part of the time. To maintain physical distancing, many companies have adopted Zoom or other technology solutions to support their business. Doing that is like running with scissors- too much technology can ruin your culture. There were benefits to the “old” way of doing things, or you wouldn’t have done them.Zoom might solve a communication problem, but it won’t do much to support camaraderie. Asana might work to help you manage tasks, but your work devolves...
2020-09-0804 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesReplay- The Importance of a Management System to Support Servant LeadersServant leadership is often associated with successful Lean innovations. While many organizations think implementing Lean is deploying a known set of tools, it is truly about changing your organization’s culture. One way to change your culture is to develop and support servant leaders.Robert Greenleaf is known as coining the phrase “servant leadership” in 1970. Like Toyota, he developed some frameworks that can apply to different organizations but not be directly copied.Key discoveries that Robert Greenleaf identified are that “servant leadership is a lifelong journey that includes self-discovery, a desire to serve others and a commitmen...
2020-09-0705 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesSmall Manufacturers InstituteThis week I get to interview David Goodreau the President of the Small Manufacturers Institute and he shares their mission and passion for helping small manufacturers.David helps design and implement programs that make manufacturers more profitable and give people a career. His 40-year work history is as a machinist, manager, entrepreneur, and a builder/collaborator of non-profits that service industry and communities. The Small Manufacturers Institute (SMI) is his current focus, building an expandable workforce strategy that solves skilled labor problems through the management of a framework of local stakeholder networks.A life of...
2020-09-0411 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesBig Data and your ERP SystemYou’ve made an enormous investment in your ERP system. It holds all of your company data in one nice software suite. You have your part masters, BOM’s, routings, set-up times, part numbers, suppliers, customers, and accounting information all set up in nice SQL tables.Now you’re concerned because like the great consultant scam that was Y2K you are hearing about Industry 4.0, Big data, etc. and you are concerned about your ERP system- which most likely you purchased because of Y2K. Maybe you are suffering from FOMO.Let’s discuss the ways your E...
2020-09-0305 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesHow to Maintain Company Culture from HomeLet’s face it, these are unprecedented times. My guess is many of your employees are working from home full time or at least part of the time. Twitter told their entire staff they can work from home forever! Many tech companies have told their employees they can work from home until the end of the year. How can you maintain company culture from home? Here are some tips that will help.Tip 1 - Manage check-insIt’s tempting to schedule daily check-ins with your staff. Did you do this before the pandemic? If not, it sends th...
2020-09-0104 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesHow to be More InfluentialI get asked by potential leaders, “How can I be more influential?” They want to increase their influence, become the go-to person so they can learn the skills for increased leadership roles. To move to the next level, you must think and act differently. Here are four tips on how to be more influential in the workplace.Tip 1. Ask better questionsAsking better questions will allow you to understand things better. When you are working within a group, understand what the goals are of the meeting. Is it to make a decision? Is it to gather info...
2020-08-3104 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesRobot Wars- Cobots Vs. RobotsGiven the desire to keep employees physically distanced, companies are investigating robots and cobots. So much so, the market is expected to grow from $981M to $8B by 2026. For those of you keeping score at home, that is 42% growth every year. Which one should you consider? Let’s look at cobots vs. robots.RobotsIndustrial robots have been in consistent use since the seventies. Typically, they are large heavy-duty equipment that can handle heavy loads and move quickly. I’m sure everyone has seen a picture or video of a car moving down the assembly line, a r...
2020-08-2705 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesHow to Complete an A3 Project CharterLast week I talked about identifying kaizen events that will impact your KPI's. That's a great start. Hopefully, you have a Lean Game Plan for the quarter and are ready to get going. While the excitement in your organization is high, before your first event it is important that you complete a project charter or A3. Here are some tips for completing an A3.1. Event Description and ObjectivesWhat are you trying to improve? In the project charters that I use, there is a section for defining the area and objectives for the kaizen event. This h...
2020-08-2605 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesDo You Have a Culture of Innovation? - Part FiveDo you have a culture of innovation? Let’s talk about it and find out. In the book Intrapreneuring in Action, the authors developed 19 traits of companies that have a culture of innovation. This is part five of a five-part series.I’ve begun this entire intrapreneur series because some companies have to pivot because of COVID19, and I want to add value to their journey. Some companies are more prepared to pivot to new products and services than others.These are four more items to test and see if you have a culture of innovati...
2020-08-2504 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesHow to Deal with Frustrating PeopleThere will be times in your leadership career when you have to deal with frustrating people. That isn’t a character trait, but it does happen from time to time. People can be frustrating in certain situations. Here are four tips on how to deal with frustrating people.Tip 1 - Realize they’re struggling just like youIt’s easy when you are busy as a leader or urging your team to meet a tight deadline to forget that your employees might be struggling just like you. Only for different reasons. You’re struggling to get tasks acc...
2020-08-2404 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesLean Efforts Pay off - Gaining Boeing as a CustomerOne of the key elements on my American Lean Weekday podcast is the weekly interviews that I conduct with companies using Lean principles to improve. These companies are from various industries and are all different sizes. I have interviewed leaders from family-owned businesses to multi-national organizations. This podcast can be found here. It is episode 136 on the American Lean Weekday podcastKV Engineering is a family-owned machine shop located in Santa Ana, California and primarily supports the Aerospace and Defense industry. Established in 1984 starting with one manual mill in a garage, they have grown into a 22,000 square foot...
2020-08-2106 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesFour Ways to Improve Cybersecurity in ManufacturingCybersecurity is often overlooked in many industry settings. Not entirely, but it doesn’t get the attention or budgeting that new equipment, cobots, and other tools get. They are easier to justify by improved throughput, increased efficiencies, etc. Cybersecurity doesn’t add directly to the bottom line, yet if you are the recipient of a cyberattack that stops equipment or causes harm to employees, that is bad. Very bad. Here are four ways to improve cybersecurity in manufacturing companies.1. Take Inventory Before you increase your cybersecurity efforts, it’s important to understand what you have. Take an inve...
2020-08-2004 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesHow to Match Your Kaizen's to KPIsAs you develop your Lean Game Plan, you’ll identify KPI’s–Key Performance Indicators that you want to affect with your Lean improvements. Often you need to go several layers deep before you get to the actual kaizen event. This blog will explain how to match your kaizen's to KPIs successfully.Let’s use the picture above as an example. The overall goal for this company is to increase cash flow. We can increase cash flow in several ways, but one of the easiest ways is to reduce the amount of inventory kept on hand. Our main KPI is t...
2020-08-1904 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesDo You Have a Culture of Innovation Part 4Do you have a culture of innovation? Let’s talk about it and find out. In the book Intrapreneuring in Action, the authors developed 19 traits of companies that have a culture of innovation. This is part four of a five-part series.I’ve begun this entire intrapreneur series because some companies have to pivot because of COVID19, and I want to add value to their journey. Some companies are more prepared to pivot to new products and services than others.These are four more items to test and see if you have a culture of innovati...
2020-08-1804 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesHow to have more Fun as a LeaderFun isn’t something you have, it is something you generate. It is easy to get caught up in the day-to-day activities and daily grind which can remove all pretense of fun from being a leader. Being a leader should be fun! You’ve been asked to guide other human beings! Here are four tips on how to have more fun as a leader.Tip 1 – Decide to have funInstead of going through the motions- which doesn’t make you a very inspiring leader- decide to have fun with your team. When you are with them, be pres...
2020-08-1703 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesBigge Crane Uses Simple Solutions to Reduce Lead TimeThis week I interview Larry Reece former Lean manager at Bigge Crane located in Oakland California. They rent and sell all types of crane equipment for the construction industry.Key Takeaways: Bigge Crane began their Lean journey in the maintenance area. This area focuses upon repairing rental cranes returned from the field.They wanted to focus on lead time. "Equipment doesn't make money if it is sitting in the yard."Bigge Crane started with Value Stream Mapping and Lean training. "Many people knew their process, but not how everything fit together. Value stream mapping was key for us...
2020-08-1409 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesFive Ways Blockchain will Impact LogisticsBitcoin is in the $11,500 range as I write this on August 12, 2020. This is not quite its high, but the value has increased from $9000 recently. I bring this up because when people think of blockchain, they think of bitcoin. Blockchain technology is so much more and is changing the way logistics will operate. Here are some examples of how blockchain is changing logistics.TransparencyThe purpose of using blockchain is so that everyone across the supply chain has transparency to what has occurred as products move through the chain.Consumers are more interested in the...
2020-08-1304 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesUsing Visual Instruction Sheets to Improve QualityA great way to increase your quality quickly is to develop and deploy Visual Instruction Sheets. Many people, myself included, learn best visually.Let’s make it simple for them to learn how to assemble your product by using Visual Instruction Sheets. Here is what you will gain by using this tool.Benefit 1 – Supports how most people learnIt surprised me when I researched how many people learn visually. The estimate is about 65% of the population. That is a very high percentage of your workforce.Visual Instruction Sheets are simplified drawings. I have se...
2020-08-1204 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesDo you have a Culture of Innovation- Part 3Do you have a culture of innovation? Let’s talk about it and find out. In the book Intrapreneuring in Action, the authors developed 19 traits of companies that have a culture of innovation. This is part three of a five-part series.I’ve begun this entire intrapreneur series because some companies have to pivot because of COVID19, and I want to add value to their journey. Some companies are more prepared to pivot to new products and services than others.These are four more items to test and see if you have a culture of innovati...
2020-08-1104 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesHow to Avoid Disappointment as a LeaderWhen you are a leader of people, you might have times when you are disappointed with the outcome of an event. Maybe a sales presentation didn’t go well. Someone on the team might have missed a key deadline for a deliverable. Here are four tips on how to avoid disappointment as a leader.Tip 1 - Disappointment is make-believeBelieve that everything turned out as it should have given the constraints. Perhaps you didn’t allow your team enough practice time for that big presentation. Maybe you weren’t clear with the expectations for the deliverable...
2020-08-1004 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesSingles will Drive your Lean Gains- W Machine Uses Small Wins to Drive Employee EngagementIt's baseball season. At least for now in the COVID19 era. While we all think we need to hit home runs on the Lean journey- you don't. Hear how W Machine Works used small wins to drive their employee engagement!This week on American Lean Weekday, I interview W Machine works who have been on a continuous improvement journey since 2005.One of the key elements on my American Lean Weekday podcast is the weekly interviews that I conduct with companies on their Lean Journey. These companies are from various industries and are all different sizes. I hav...
2020-08-0706 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesEvaluating Augmented Reality for Your BusinessAugmented reality (AR) is becoming more prevalent in the workplace by the day. Is it a fit for your business? Let’s look at some steps you should consider when evaluating augmented reality for your business.AR has a dramatic impact on the way information is collected and shared. Imagine if you can show an entire catalog to your customers in 3D?I recently used a patio furniture website where you took a picture of the area you are considering, then added their furniture to it. I was able to see how it looked in the ar...
2020-08-0604 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesUsing Certification MatricesIt has been interesting for me to see that we have a coin shortage right now. Years ago (2000), I was part of an internal Lean team working with the US Mint locations. We headquartered from the Denver Mint. Our goal was to implement Lean concepts at all Mint locations- Denver, San Francisco, West Point, and Philadelphia.The new state quarters were being introduced and demand was going through the roof. The mint was producing about 600 quarters a minute from each stamping press. That was a lot of quarters.The Lean transformation was new to the Mint...
2020-08-0505 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesDo You Have a Culture of Innovation?-Part 2Do you have a culture of innovation? Let’s talk about it and find out. In the book Intrapreneuring in Action, the authors developed 19 traits of companies that have a culture of innovation. This will be part one of a five-part series.I’ve begun this entire intrapreneur series because some companies have to pivot because of COVID19, and I want to add value to their journey. Some companies are more prepared to pivot to new products and services than others.These are items to test and see if you have a culture of innovation.1...
2020-08-0404 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesThree Tips to Overcome FearWhen you are a leader of people, sometimes you have fears. Maybe you were fearful that a presentation wouldn’t go as planned. Remember the time when you feared speaking in front of your employees? Recall how worried you were that your boss wouldn’t recognize your team's efforts to complete a major project on time. We’ve all had fears and here are some tips to overcome fear!First, let’s understand where fear comes from. We aren’t in a world where every decision could cause life or death. We aren’t being chased by wild animals who w...
2020-08-0304 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesContract Manufacturer Sees Huge Savings from first KaizenOne of the key elements on my American Lean Weekday podcast is the weekly interviews that I conduct with companies on their Lean Journey. These companies are from various industries and are all different sizes. I have interviewed leaders from family-owned businesses to multi-national organizations. This week I speak with a contract manufacturer in Longmont, Colorado.NeoTech in Longmont, Colorado is a contract manufacturer that primarily supports the Aerospace and Defense industry. NeoTech is the combination of Natel, EPIC Technologies added in 2013, and OnCore Manufacturing which was purchased in 2015.Locations include California, Nevada, Ohio, Colorado, Illi...
2020-07-3108 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesDo You Have a Culture of Innovation?-Part OneDo you have a culture of innovation? Let’s talk about it an find out. In the book Intrapreneuring in Action, the authors developed 19 traits of companies that have a culture of innovation. This will be part one of a five-part series.I’ve begun this entire intrapreneur series because some companies have to pivot because of COVID19, and I want to add value to their journey. Some companies are more prepared to pivot to new products and services than others.It isn’t about company size, it’s about the culture that exists. Even creaky old GM...
2020-07-2804 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesFour Tips for Becoming a Role ModelFor anyone successful in leading people, they learned it somewhere. Chances are, they had a role model they could follow. Here are four ways to become a role model.I heard a leader on a podcast mention that when they moved up through the ranks; it is because someone reached back and pulled them up. This was a person who is the VP of HR at Fedex. He had someone act as a role model for him.He mentioned how important it is that when you are in a leadership role, to reach back and pull...
2020-07-2703 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesUpskill for Industry 4.0 with MSSCIndustry 4.0 is being accelerated by what is happening during the pandemic. If you or any of your employees would like to learn about the growing need, learn about what MSSC has to offer! Upskill for industry 4.0.CPT 4.0 is a nationally portable, industry-led program that prepares and certifies individuals for career pathways in advanced manufacturing. This online training program delivers the 21st Century, in-demand skills that today’s employers need for over 6 million frontline production jobs.CPT 4.0 is delivered and customized locally through 1,500 MSSC Centers with a network of over 2,300 Authorized Instructors at colleges,secon...
2020-07-2412 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesA Simple Way to Schedule Leader Standard WorkA few weeks ago, I spent a series of blogs talking about how you can deploy a tiered method to sustain the gains you make within your Lean transformation. One of the layers is Leader Standard Work (LSW). Companies make the scheduling of LSW more complicated than it needs to be. Here are simple tips you can use to schedule your leader standard work audits. This can also be used for 6S audits if you wish or anything else that you want to regularly audit.1. Set up the days of the weekAs you can see f...
2020-07-2204 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesFive Ways to Increase ConfidenceAs a leader in your organization, you must have confidence. That doesn’t mean that you have to be cocky, aloof, and arrogant. No, it means you have to have confidence that when you are called upon to decide, you will decide and move on. Here are five tips to increase confidence.1. Have itMake the decision when you begin your day that you will act with confidence no matter what happens. You don’t need to tell your staff or your family that you’re working to increase your confidence. You don’t need a big psycholog...
2020-07-2004 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesUnited Airlines Maintenance Crew Embraces LeanOne of the key elements on my American Lean Weekday podcast is the weekly interviews that I conduct with companies on their Lean Journey. These companies are from various industries and are all sizes. I have interviewed leaders from family-owned businesses to multi-national organizations. You can find the podcast here. It is episode one hundred and seven of the American Lean Weekday podcast.United Airlines has been on their Lean journey since at least 2004. This is an interview with a retired United mechanic who shares his experience with all of us. Larry Reece was in the or...
2020-07-1708 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case Studies5G will Support Factory Automation and Economic Impact of 1.5 Trillion by 20235G will support factory automation and 5G speeds are being adopted more quickly every year. As I have mentioned before in this Industry 4.0 blog, 5G speeds will provide the backbone for automated factories and that is becoming more of a reality every day.Imagine a factory where, depending upon what we order, the machines move into new configurations to build custom products. Another scenario is that AGV’s could deliver parts do individual workstations and robots or cobots would assemble custom items.Black and Decker Stanley is opening a factory of the future in Hartford, Conn...
2020-07-1604 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesFour Benefits of a Project CharterI often get push-back from client organizations that don’t want to fill out a project charter before conducting a Rapid Improvement Event. “We know the area we are working in, why do we need a charter?” I hope you have never said that, or heard that from others in your company, but in case you have, here is why a project charter is important.1. It keeps you boundedI’ve been in the middle of an RIE- usually, a 6S event, when the manager comes out to ask if we can’t 6S the area next to...
2020-07-1503 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesHow Senior Leaders can Support IntrapreneursMaybe your organization has to pivot in areas since the COVID19 pandemic. One way to increase the speed of pivoting is to unleash your internal intrapreneurs. As they drive change, offer fresh opportunities and improvements, they will run into barriers. Here are some ways senior leaders can support intrapreneurs.1. Increase the discomfort in keeping the status quoAs a senior leader, it is your job to remove barriers. You are in control of how quickly change can take hold in your organization. Send a simple message that you will not live with the status quo any lo...
2020-07-1404 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesHow Successful Leaders ThinkWe all know leaders we view as more successful than others. Maybe they get more accomplished with their team. They might have more camaraderie amongst their team members. Maybe they give their team more freedom. Whatever the measuring stick, they are more successful. Here are some tips on how successful leaders think.First, let’s talk about how less successful people think. Typically, they haven’t established a goal they want to accomplish. When they run into a roadblock, their thinking goes like “I don’t know how to do that”… so they stop. Why do they stop? They didn’t ha...
2020-07-1304 min
What A Load Of CobblersFriday Night LightsIt's Friday night and what else is there to do but listen to the What A Load Of Cobblers Podcast?Andy Bodfish, Tom Reed, Martin Maloney and Ian Brant discuss the new contract for Town boss Keith Curle, the Cobblers retained list and the success of the player pathway at Sixfields.Ever bumped into a Cobblers player out and about? We have and there's tales of meeting such luminaries as "Mr Million Pounds" Christian Lee and someone who may or may not have been Efon Elad.Mr Beacon is in...
2020-07-1054 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesRV Supplier Stays Lean to Keep up with DemandOne of the key elements on my American Lean Weekday podcast is the weekly interviews that I conduct with companies on their Lean Journey. These companies are from various industries and are all different sizes. I have interviewed leaders from family-owned businesses to multi-national organizations.Lippert Component Inc. (LCI) in Goshen, Indiana world’s leading supplier of highly engineered products for the leisure and mobile transportation industries. LCI employs roughly 9000 employees throughout 70 locations worldwide. They have annual sales greater than $2.5 Billion dollars. These are some key points taken from my interview with the Director of Lean Manu...
2020-07-1014 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesHow Robots are Helping the Fight Against COVIDSince March, there are many areas that have changed because of COVID19. Going to a restaurant, the adoption of telemedicine, changes in retail shopping. These are all areas where robots are helping the fight against COVID.Traditionally robots are used in the manufacturing sector. Since the deployment of 5G speeds is coming, robots are rapidly being tested in other sectors. Specifically, the service and medical sectors.Boston Dynamics stated that they have seen surges in demand for robots that can do dull, dangerous, and dirty tasks. If you have don’t know who Boston Dynamics is, the...
2020-07-0904 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesFour Tips for Being an Excellent Project ManagerAs you progress through your Lean Game Plan, there will be times when you conduct Rapid Improvement Events that will be 2-5 days. There will also be times when you have to manage larger projects, maybe six sigma projects that are larger and more cross-functional. Regardless, here are four tips for being an excellent project manager.Tip 1 Only do projects that matterIt will be hard to be an excellent project manager if you are leading a project that doesn’t matter. Capture the ROI before beginning any major project. Make sure you have leadership support...
2020-07-0804 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesHow to make Change Stick in Your OrganizationDriving improvement and change in an organization is hard. It requires a lot of heavy lifting. Employees rarely embrace change because the mind doesn’t like uncertainty. When you talk about change, that leads to an uncertain future in many people’s minds. Here are four tips to make change stick in your organization.1. Your company is being too casual about itThere is a saying in Lean, what is your burning platform? Early adopters ran into the very thing this blog is about. Employees don’t embrace change on their own.If you develop a...
2020-07-0705 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesFour Tips for Having Difficult ConversationsWhen you lead people, there will be times when you have difficult conversations with employees. To make these conversations successful with both party's emotions intact, here are four tips for having difficult conversations.Tip 1. Don’t enter the conversation in an emotional stateWe’ve all heard the advice to count to ten before answering when upset. There is a reason for that. Counting to ten helps you calm down and control your emotions.When you are planning on having a difficult conversation with someone that you lead, it’s important not to enter the...
2020-07-0604 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesThree Benefits of Edge ComputingSince COVID19 has driven everyone to work from home (WFH), the importance of cloud computing has become more relevant. Right now about 8M people are working from home part of the time. To help with this transition, your company might enjoy the benefits of edge computing.I’m sure you have heard of cloud computing. Many software products that we use are now cloud-based. Think of Microsoft 365. It used to be you had to download software to your computer and that was how you accessed it.Updates were slow and then had to be sent via DVD...
2020-07-0204 min
What A Load Of CobblersFriday Night Lights: Promotion SpecialA hungover WALOC crew of Andy Bodfish, Tom Reed, Martin Maloney, Ian Brant and Jake Moore chew the fat on a amazing Playoff Final win for Cobblers over Exeter City.There's basic discussion of the 4-0 trouncing of the Grecians before we get stuck into the serious business of turning Sixfields into a Wild West theme park, which A-Team member would make the best Cobblers boss and football without fans being everything.Finally we get round to choosing our Cobblers' Player Of The Season in what has been an unexpected, surreal end to...
2020-07-0141 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesTips to Improve Culture, Connection and CamaraderieSince the COVID19 pandemic, many employees have been asked to work from home. How can you build connections with people that you can’t walk up to and start a conversation? Here are tips to improve culture, connection, and camaraderie.Culture1. Develop a True North Management SystemYour True North Management system acts as a manifesto for the organization. It acts as a rallying cry, a set of rules that everyone abides by. Often, it provides the reason many employees are there.It includes your Mission and Vision, but it is more th...
2020-06-3005 min
What A Load Of CobblersFriday Night Lights: League 2 Playoff Final Special.Wember-lee we're the famous Northampton and we're going to Wem-ber-lee. Well the fans aren't but you get the picture.Tom Reed, Andy Bodfish, Jake Moore, Martin Maloney and Ian Brant are joined by ex-Cobbler Chris Freestone and Football Lab EFL pundit Gabriel Sutton to preview the League 2 playoff final.The Cobblers take on the Grecians on Monday night at an empty Wembley for promotion to League 1 and Freestone talks about the footballing attributes that will get the Cobblers there. EFL expert Gabriel discusses the tactical permutations of Northampton v Exeter and how the...
2020-06-2854 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesHow Binoculars Helped Tulkoff Foods Become LeanerOne of the key elements on my American Lean Weekday podcast are the weekly interviews that I conduct with companies on their Lean Journey. These companies are from various industries and are all different sizes. I have interviewed leaders from family-owned businesses to multi-national organizations. This podcast can be found here. It is episode ninety-two of the American Lean Weekday podcastTulkoff Foods is headquartered in Baltimore Maryland. They employ roughly 50 employees in their world class co-packing food operation. These are some key points taken from my interview with the President of Tulkoff Foods, Phil Tulkof...
2020-06-2612 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesBenefit from Leader Standard WorkTwo weeks ago, I introduced the concept of a layered approach to support your sustain efforts. This week I want to go into more depth on Leader Standard Work.First, let’s do a re-cap. The three layers of support are coaching cards, leader standard work, and management or Gemba walks. Each layer supports the layer above it.Operator Coaching CardsThese are elements of standard work that we want the team members to complete each day within their work area. This is a great way to sustain your 6S. You can put the ele...
2020-06-2403 min
What A Load Of CobblersFriday Night Lights: Post Cheltenham SpecialAn audio reliving of what will go down as one of the best matches in Cobblers history last night where the Town came back from a 2-0 deficit to beat Cheltenham 3-2 in the playoffs.Tom Reed, Andy Bodfish, Martin Maloney and Ian Brant are joined by Cheltenham fan Owen Knight to talk what went oh so right for Northampton and oh so wrong for the Robins.There's plenty of talk about the monumental performances from Callum Morton, Vadaine Oliver and Co and we discuss Town's chances again Exeter in the playoffs. A...
2020-06-2347 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesUse Intrapreneurs to Pivot Your Business FasterSince the COVID19 pandemic has impacted many businesses, some have had to pivot to stay in business. Putting the right team in place quickly can help you pivot your business quickly. Even General Motors has been able to pivot to making respirators and masks to help fight COVID19.Idea PeopleThis can be anyone in the organization, but my guess is, you know who your creative thinkers are. Get them together in a room and do some brainstorming to see what they come up with.Don’t give them constraints when they begin the b...
2020-06-2304 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesFour Tips to Become a Great LeaderMany people enter the management ranks of an organization. They manage to the best of their ability and do a great job. There aren’t many who become true leaders. Leading requires a different operating framework. Here are some tips to become a great leader. 1. Cast a VisionWhen a leader casts a vision, they suggest that things will be different. They acknowledge that to grow as an organization, things need to change. They are presenting what they believe the future will look like. Who wants to work at a company where there is no future visi...
2020-06-2204 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesThe $10M benefits of Industry 5.0One of the key elements on my American Lean Weekday podcast is the weekly interviews that I conduct with companies on their Lean Journey. These companies are from various industries and are all different sizes. I have interviewed leaders from family-owned businesses to multi-national organizations. This podcast can be found here. In this episode, I interview Michael Rada from the Czech Republic about what Industry 5.0 might look like. It is episode eighty-seven of the American Lean Weekday podcast.Given the increasing speed of adoption of Industry 4.0 is it too early to start thinking about what Industry 5.0 looks like...
2020-06-1907 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesBenefit from the Speed of Hybrid ManufacturingI read an article today in Machine Design about how certain types of industries are using 3D printing to supplement their main production. This is a process referred to as Hybrid Manufacturing.We all use plastic parts every day. Most of us never think twice about these parts are made. We take it for granted that it is light, strong, colorful, and meets our needs.Many plastic parts are manufactured through a process called injection molding. Plastic resin is heated to a high enough temperature until it will flow like water.This resin is t...
2020-06-1804 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesGain Huge Benefits from Coaching CardsLast week I introduced the concept of a layered approach to support your sustain efforts. This week I want to go into more depth on coaching cards.First, let’s do a re-cap. The three layers of support are coaching cards, leader standard work, and management or Gemba walks. Each layer supports the layer above it.Coaching cards, called Kamishibai cards in Japanese facilities are small elements of standard work for team members to complete each day. The tasks can range from 6S to TPM activities or anything that you want team members to accomplish each d...
2020-06-1704 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesFour Tips to Build a Proactive CultureMany company cultures are reactive. People love firefighting. Something happens and then everyone reacts to what happened. Decisions are made with little data collection. I’m sure your company isn’t like that but in case you are, here are four tips to build a proactive culture.1. Establish the company Lean Management SystemWhen you operate without a Lean Management System it is like trying to run a computer without an operating system. Employees aren’t aligned with what matters to the organization.Using a Lean Management System helps guide everyone’s decision making. It ref...
2020-06-1604 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesIt's Physical Distancing not Social Distancing- Don't Leave Your Employees on an IslandGiven everything that is going on right now with the Covid19 pandemic, you are urged to wear a mask and keep six feet away from other people to stop the spread of the virus. Unfortunately, this gained the name of Social Distancing. In reality, what is being suggested is physical distancing.As a leader, you must encourage social interaction amongst your employees even if they have to stay six feet apart. Here are three tips you can use as a leader to encourage social interaction, not social distancing.1. Schedule 10-15 minute calls with your employees
2020-06-1504 min
What A Load Of CobblersFriday Night Lights.1st of WALOC's new regular Friday night shows chewing the fat on all things Cobblers and general football bumf.Regular host Tom Reed is joined by Eurosport commentator and Northampton lad Andy Bodfish, Martin Maloney, Ian Brant and Jake Moore.Playoff talk is short and sweet before we get to grips with the serious stuff of Efon Elad, 50p Lil, cardboard dictators in the crowd, Chicago Rock Cafe and Death Row Dogs.As a podcast it's the Sixfields East Stand, seems alright from afar but liable to fall down at...
2020-06-121h 00American Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesImplementing Flow Lines Saves $200K and Increases Throughput by 30%One of the key elements on my American Lean Weekday podcast are the weekly interviews that I conduct with companies on their Lean Journey. These companies are from various industries and are all different sizes. I have interviewed leaders from family-owned businesses to multi-national organizations. This podcast can be found here. It is episode eighty-two of the American Lean Weekday podcastGeater Machining and Manufacturing is headquartered in Independence, Iowa. They employ roughly 500 employees in their world class machine shop. These are some key points taken from my interview with the Manager of Finishing Operations, Ashley...
2020-06-1209 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesDid You Know there is an Industry 5.0?It seems like we are just learning about Industry 4.0 and the enablers that will impact that digital transformation. Now companies are discussing what Industry 5.0 looks like.Earlier in the year, I talked about the use of cobots to support Industry 4.0. Industry 5.0 is based on humans and robots working together in close proximity. Given the advances in sensors, cobots no longer need to be kept in a cage away from humans.Smart sensors deployed on a cobot allow the cobot to work directly on an assembly line alongside human counterparts. Some of the smaller cobots only weig...
2020-06-1104 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesHow to Build High-Performance TeamsMuch of your Lean transformation will be driven by employee engagement and teams. Value Stream Mapping teams. Rapid Improvement teams. TPM teams. 6S teams. Safety teams. Problem-solving teams. People working closely together on teams to make a positive change within your business. Here are tips to build high-performance teams.1. Provide clarity and measurements for the teamFor a team to perform at a high level, everyone on the team needs to know what they are there to accomplish. Think about teams that win championships. They don’t set out at the beginning of the year to be .500...
2020-06-0904 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesElkay Manufacturing Improves their Supply Chain with LeanOne of the key elements on my American Lean Weekday podcast is the weekly interviews that I conduct with companies on their Lean Journey. These companies are from various industries and are all different sizes. I have interviewed leaders from family-owned businesses to multi-national organizations. This podcast can be found here. It is episode seventy-seven of the American Lean Weekday podcast. Ron shares how Elkay improves its supply chain with Lean.Elkay Manufacturing is headquartered in Downers Grove, Illinois, and is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year! They employ roughly 3,500 employees across 29 locations worldwide.These are s...
2020-06-0510 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesDoes your Company have Enough Industry 4.0 Skills?As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to change the face of business and manufacturing as we used to know it, the pressure to increase the use of technology will increase. That might be great if you are making the robots or automated material handling equipment used in warehouses, your demand will increase, but what about the end-user? Does your company have enough Industry 4.0 skills to take advantage of this opportunity?Will companies find the talent to deploy new technology? Who will service these machines as they eventually need preventive maintenance or repair? Who will set them up in you...
2020-06-0404 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesSetting up Your Lean Promotion OfficeYour organization has developed current state and future state value stream maps. You have identified waste opportunities that exist and have laid out your quarterly Lean Game Plan. Now it is time to set up your Lean Promotion Office. This is the “war room” or headquarters for all your lean communication, planning, and Rapid Improvement Events.I realize there are thousands of ways to set up a Lean Promotion Office but I would like to provide you with some examples I have seen work well.1. Set it up in a Plan, Do, Check, Act formatEa...
2020-06-0304 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesAre you Adopting Industry 4.0 Quickly Enough?As the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us, companies can pivot quickly and produce entirely different products in a short period of time. The need for ventilators, n95 face masks, and other personal protective gear has made companies pivot quickly. Are you adopting Industry 4.0 quickly enough?Even organizations as large as General Motors (GM) have pivoted. They won a $489MM award to build 30,000 ventilators for the US Government to stockpile. They will deliver all 30,000 by the end of August 2020 which is only five months since they began the process.What does this prove? Manufacturers typically think in a...
2020-05-2804 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesDeveloping Your Lean Game PlanLast week I talked about developing a future state Value Stream Map. After you have developed what you want the organization to look like in the future, now comes the hard work of moving toward that future state. That calls for developing your Lean Game Plan.I believe there is a simple way to ensure you will have a successful Lean Innovation- one that involves true culture change. This entails developing your own Lean Game Plan one quarter at a time. To keep it simple, focus on four steps in your Lean Game Plan.1. Define your...
2020-05-2704 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesTips for Developing a Culture of Personal ResponsibilityHave you worked in an organization where no one seems to take any personal responsibility for meeting their deliverables, deadlines, or project results? As a top performer, how does that make you feel? Let’s talk about how we can develop a culture of personal responsibility and drive results!1. Understand the Aim of the organizationEveryone must understand the aim of the organization. What are the goals for this quarter? For the year? How will we handle business in a pandemic? I have mentioned before the importance of a Lean management system that shows the True Nort...
2020-05-2604 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesLearn what this Essential Business is Doing to Keep Employees SafeOne of the key elements on my American Lean Weekday podcast are the weekly interviews that I conduct with companies on their Lean Journey. These companies are from various industries and are all different sizes. I have interviewed leaders from family-owned businesses to multi-national organizations. This podcast can be found here. It is episode sixty-seven of the American Lean Weekday podcastKV Engineering is a machine shop located in Santa Ana, California and primarily supports the Aerospace and Defense industry. Established in 1984 starting with one manual mill in a garage, they have grown into a 22,000 square foot facil...
2020-05-2205 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesDeveloping Future State Value Stream MapsIf you have read my book the Lean Game Plan, you know that I talk about Value Stream Mapping as an enabler to help your organization understand where you should focus your improvement efforts. This blog will cover how to develop a future state value stream map.If you have never completed a Value Stream Map (VSM) for your organization, your first step should be to develop an Enterprise Value Stream Map (EVSM). This shows how the entire organization adds value to the customer. It covers from the time the phone rings until you deliver a product or...
2020-05-2004 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesThree Tips to Help Your Team Make Good DecisionsWhen part of a team focused on making improvements, many opportunities arise when you have to make good decisions. Where are we going to put this equipment? How many should we design the line for? Who needs to be in this event?There are many opportunities to make decisions during a three, four, or five day Rapid Improvement Event. Here are three brief tips that you can use that will help your team make good decisions.1. Make the decision as early as possible in the processOften, when you come to a roadblock or a...
2020-05-1904 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesLean in a Printed Circuit Board Company that sees Huge SavingsOne of the key elements on my American Lean Weekday podcast is the weekly interviews that I conduct with companies on their Lean Journey. These companies are from various industries and are all different sizes. I have interviewed leaders from family-owned businesses to multi-national organizations.NeoTech in Longmont, Colorado is a contract manufacturer that primarily supports the Aerospace and Defense industry. NeoTech is the combination of Natel, EPIC Technologies added in 2013 and OnCore Manufacturing which was purchased in 2015.Locations include California, Nevada, Ohio, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Mexico, and China. The Longmont location has about 150 employees acro...
2020-05-1508 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesLevel One Leaders in LeanResearch states that "46% of all improvement initiatives fail because of lack of leadership."1 Having too many Level One Leaders will kill your Lean transformation. Here is how to identify them!Much has already been written on Lean Leadership. Jim Womack and John Shook at the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI) describe the evolution of leadership models as going from ‘Do it my way’ (old Dictator style) to ‘Do it your way’ (1980s Empowerment style) to ‘Follow me … and let’s figure this out together’ (Lean style).This week’s blog focuses on the ‘Do it my way’ style, John Maxwe...
2020-05-1105 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesInside Secrets on Working with Fortune 100 CompaniesOne of the key elements on my American Lean Weekday podcast is the weekly interviews that I conduct with companies on their Lean Journey. These companies are from various industries and are all different sizes. I have interviewed leaders from family-owned businesses to multi-national organizations. This week is a little different, I share the mic with James, a buyer at a Multi-National Fortune 100 company. He shares inside secrets on supplying a Fortune 100 company.James is unique in that he worked with both a supplier to Fortune 100 companies and is now a buyer from the same supplier base. He ha...
2020-05-0812 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesHow to Increase Cash Flow without Laying Off Employees Part 4In the previous blog, I talked about setting up our pull chains for the parts that support the top 80% of the products you sell to customers. We calculated the quantities we need to keep at each location within the pull chain. In this blog, let’s talk about how we will signal when we are out of parts in one of our bins and what happens next. We will do that using pull cards.The whole purpose of a pull system is to react to what is happening on the shop floor based upon consumption. MRP systems operat...
2020-05-0604 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesHow to Increase Your Confidence as a Lean CoordinatorWhat if you are the employee assigned to guide your companies Lean journey but you have little experience? Here is how you can increase your confidence.1. Have Confidence in your Lean AbilitiesIn our minds, we believe that we have to know everything there is to know about Lean before we can confidently deliver results. We overcomplicate things. Increase confidence with the decision to be confident in what you are doing. This is a choice that you make every day. Choose to have confidence!The reality is you have to be one page ahead...
2020-05-0505 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesFive Levels of Leadership Applied to LeanWhen talking about Lean, people often focus on the process management part. They focus on value stream mapping and try to improve processes while neglecting to update leadership and management systems. The lean leadership model is based on one crucial belief – the leader’s goal is to raise new leaders. To do that, leaders must become teachers and coaches. A good roadmap is a book- The 5 Levels of Leadership.In his book, “The 5 Levels of Leadership” John Maxwell details the concept of 5 levels of leadership. The levels represent stages in leadership development starting with being the boss who people...
2020-05-0404 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesKeep Better Score with Lean AccountingLean accounting may not sound very exciting, but this podcast episode with Jerry Solomon brings all kinds of energy and excitement!Jerry shares how he moved from an accounting role into VP of Operations roles and shares the struggles of getting business performance information that employees can use to make improvements.These are some key points taken from my interview with Lean accounting expert Jerry Solomon. I was asked to move from the COO position to running operations. What a difference. I went from being a provider of information to a consumer and saw som...
2020-05-0116 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesMD Engineering's Lean Journey Helped them Free Cash to GrowOne of the key elements on my American Lean Weekday podcast is the weekly interviews that I conduct with companies on their Lean Journey. These companies are from various industries and are all different sizes. I have interviewed leaders from family-owned businesses to multi-national organizations. These are keynotes from a conversation with MD Engineering.MD Engineering founded in 1999 and located in Corona, California is a nationally recognized leading producer and distributor of quality machined products providing parts to the military, industrial and commercial manufacturers worldwide. They are a leading supplier of complex machined parts, assemblies, and “buy comple...
2020-04-2413 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesSystems Integration in Industry 4.01. Requirements GatheringWhat does your business hope to gain from undertaking an Industry 4.0 digital transformation? What do your systems do today and what would you like them to do? Do you know what customers expect from you regarding systems and scalability? Will you be invited to a larger company’s private blockchain to collect data? These are all questions that you and your integrator should explore.2. AnalysisGiven the wants and needs of your company, the analysis stage is where your integrator will offer solutions for your company to consider. Every company is unique to...
2020-04-2305 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesSay yes…and... to Improve Brainstorming and Engagement1. Say yes…and...Try communicating with these two words to keep brainstorming moving along and engaging your employees. It shows you want to hear more from them and increases engagement.2. Be flexibleIt’s hard to be creative when you are rigid. Your brainstorming and creative process will be more authentic if you are flexible and will do a better job of meeting your customer's needs of tomorrow not yesterday. Allow the creative process to flourish and then filter the many ideas through an impact/effort matrix or P.I.C.K. chart to narrow...
2020-04-2105 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesHow to Overcome Imposter Syndrome as a Lean Leader1. Establish a vision for your Lean transformationThis helps drive alignment and support. Develop a management system and share the vision with the entire organization. Employees will get behind the change effort then they can see there is a vision for change.2. Select a few KPI's to measure the businessThere is a saying in Lean that is very important- measure what matters. Don't go to the KPI smorgasbord when developing your KPI's. Keep them simple, and don't use so many that you confuse the organization. Develop KPI's that employees can impact through their p...
2020-04-2004 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesCapco Inc. Seeing Benefits from Lean in 7 MonthsOnly 7 months into their Lean Journey- Capco Inc. a $65M company headquartered in Grand Junction, CO has seen benefits and inventory improvements by implementing Kanban.Capco Inc. has 100,000 square feet, 404 employees and has been around since 1968. They are a Department of Defense critical supplier.This interview is with the Paul Kobishop the Director of Production and Inventory control. He has over 30 years of lean experience and is a great example of how a company can speed up results by using an experienced coach."We have a product that has 2500 parts and we will...
2020-04-1708 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesHow to Increase Cash Flow without Laying Off Employees-Part 1The natural tendency will be to reduce staffing levels when we are allowed to go back to work. This is the first part of a four-part series that will share a proven better way to increase cash flow.If we are a $25M company with a gross margin of 36% like in the example above, our COGS is $16M.Keeping 76 days of inventory that means we have 3.3 inventory turns. 250 working days/76 days of inventory = 3.3 inventory turns. Since we have 3.3 inventory turns that means we carry about $16M/3.3 turns = $4,840,000 in inventory.If our direct labor co...
2020-04-1506 min
What A Load Of CobblersWhat A Load Of Cobblers (Episode 2)Football writer Tom Reed and original WALOC editor Deborah Marshall are joined by former Northampton Town reporter turned supporters' trust Chairman Andy Roberts.Andy talks us through his years covering the Cobblers for the local media between 1994 and 2000 which saw Town go from the bottom of the bottom division to the verge of what is now the Championship. Features insight into life as a journalist, the Ian Atkins' dressing room and the potential for community ownership at Sixfields.What A Load Of Cobblers, Still only a pound. Oh go on then you can...
2020-04-131h 18American Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesLippert Component Inc. Uses Report Out Process to Celebrate and Drive Employee EngagementOne of the key elements on my American Lean Weekday podcast is the weekly interviews that I conduct with companies on their Lean Journey. These companies are from various industries and are all different sizes. I have interviewed leaders from family-owned businesses to multi-national organizations.Lippert Component Inc. (LCI) in Goshen, Indiana world’s leading supplier of highly engineered products for the leisure and mobile transportation industries. LCI employs roughly 9000 employees throughout 70 locations worldwide. They have annual sales greater than $2.5 Billion dollars. These are some key points taken from my interview with the Director of Lean Manu...
2020-04-1014 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesIIoT in Industry 4.0Learn about the five benefits of IIoT in Industry 4.01. Reduced Maintenance costs and response timePredictive analytics can provide a real-time picture of the state of your equipment. This allows you to conduct maintenance only when the equipment needs it and not before. Analyzing historical information means that you can have a better picture of maintenance parts to keep on hand to reduce response time. Also, a great business value add.2. Condition monitoring on a real-time basisIIoT will allow you to monitor off-site equipment. Imagine being able to remotely monitor elevat...
2020-04-0906 min
What A Load Of CobblersWhat A Load Of CobblersFootball writer and Cobblers fan Tom Reed sits down with creator and editor of What A Load Of Cobblers fanzine Deborah Marshall as WALOC is reborn in podcast form in association with the NeneQuirer.WALOC ran for 96 issues between 1988 and 2004.Featuring talk on the formation of the original Cobblers fanzine in the 80's, Graham Carr's Champagne Cobblers, the first ever Supporters' Trust in the 1990's and life as a Cobblers fan over decades.Hooliganism, the "McRitchie Out" campaign, the Shrewsbury "Great Escape" via Pat Gavin's arse and Wembley '97 it's...
2020-04-071h 01American Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesAttack the Problem Not the Person- Using a Fishbone DiagramThere are huge benefits to problem solving when an error occurs in your business. Learn four tips to use in this podcast!1. Believe that the person is trying to do the right thingIt helps to have a belief that employees come to work every day to do their best work. Does that always happen? No. Automatically assuming that they have bad intentions will not provide you with the best mindset to begin the problem-solving process.It’s easy to say in your mind that someone is a bad performer. Mentally, that gets you of...
2020-04-0604 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesGeater Machining Increased Throughput by 60% after one RIEHere are the key elements from my interview with VP of Operations Dan Heller of Geater Machining.1. “We were able to increase throughput through the bottleneck process of paint by 60% after one Rapid Improvement Event. 2. “Lean applies to many areas, especially a machine shop. Any time you want to increase throughput, and save money, Lean applies.” 3. “Seeing the employees’ enthusiasm, give their ideas, be heard and provide their input is very exciting.” 4. The biggest successes have been the Rapid Improvement Events. “We have seen a huge benefit by gettin...
2020-04-0307 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesCloud Computing in Industry 4.0Cloud and Edge computing will allow for huge benefit in Industry 4.0. Learn about them in this podcast.1. Big Data AnalyticsChances are, your cloud computing service provider can provide data analytics quickly. Using detailed data collection and analysis you can quickly understand how advertisements, social media campaigns, marketing, and internal business processes are performing.2. Data recovery optionsHaving information in the cloud helps prevent on-premise disasters. What if your power goes out or you have software problems? Data recovery options can save your critical business functions and keep you operating.3...
2020-04-0206 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesFive Steps for a Successful Waste WalkWaste Walks are an important first step in identifying waste in your business. Here are five steps to ensure you have a successful waste walk!1. Walk the process backward2. Take notes on the waste walk3. Interview team members4. Use a DOWNTIME chart to identify waste5. Brainstorm ways to eliminate the wasteRate and Review HereMore show notes are hereSchedule a free 1/2 call with Tom Reed.Buy the Lean Game Plan
2020-04-0105 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesFour Steps for Developing a Winning TeamLearn about the four steps for developing a winning team in this podcast!1. Have good listening skillsYes, we’ve all heard that we have two ears and one mouth and that we should listen twice as much as we speak. I’ve found this to be very good advice, but the problem is that when things pop into our heads, we feel as if we have to get them out right away or they will be lost forever.No matter how hard it is for you, try to wait until the other person...
2020-03-3104 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesGreat Leadership begins with Self LeadershipLearn how to become a great leader using Leader Standard Work (LSW)!1. Providing consistencyLeader Standard Work is what it sounds like. Daily standard work that doesn’t vary. It may only be half an hour of your day, but that consistency is important for your employees to see and model. 2. Ensures long-term successLeader Standard Work ensures consistency over a long period which ensures you will be successful as a leader. Leader Standard Work isn’t a one-time act. It provides leaders with a framework they can follow and guarantees success i...
2020-03-3004 minAmerican Lean Weekday: Leadership | Lean Culture & Intrapreneurship | Lean Methods | Industry 4.0 | Case StudiesFilter Minder uses Mixed Model Flow Line to Improve OperationsHere are some key takeaways from my interview with Lean Coordinator Allen Anderson:1. Using mixed-model lines, they reduced WIP, co-located employees and made ergonomic improvements.2. “Moving from batches of 50 to one-piece flow, we eliminated operator conflict.”3. “It’s important to understand the change model that employees will go through. You need a people-centric approach. It can’t be a textbook approach”4. “Surprised by how receptive employees can be when they realize Lean benefits them. Even some of the initial naysayers got on board.”5. “It’s good to get some dedicated resources to g...
2020-03-2706 min