by Jamie Flinchbaugh, co-author, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Lean I believe that NIH, or Not Invented Here, is one of the silliest cultural barriers to progress. What we’re basically saying is that there are good ideas out there, ideas that…
by Jamie Flinchbaugh, co-author, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Lean Some of you have read the beginning of my Leading Lean A-Z. You can see the introduction and the first post here. I continue, quite out of sequence, with I. I:…
By Jamie Flinchbaugh, co-author, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Lean We all struggle with taking continuous improvement from a department or process level to an enterprise level. But what would it mean to take it to a national level? What would…
by Jamie Flinchbaugh, co-author, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Lean What’s the purpose of thinking about work as a value stream? Is it just a buzzword? It helps us identify how our activities connect and flow together in order to deliver…
NPR: Airline Prices Depend on Airport I haven’t harped on this theme for a while, but I was reminded of it from this NPR story on airline prices. The report expressed such confusion (and almost outrage) that airline flight prices…
Here is a question from a Lean Blog reader: I am an OE Consultant and I am currently working with an organization to help them improve and “upgrade” their current leadership development processes. Currently this organization is using Lean Sigma…
by Jamie Flinchbaugh, co-author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Lean Decades of knowledge in lean have been passed on, written down, turned into curriculums and even documented in the annual reports of some companies. But why do so many fail…
Link to Purchase on SME.org I was very honored to be asked to write an essay/case study on lean healthcare for the Society of Manufacturing Engineers new “Lean Yearbook” publication and that book is out now. It’s a large magazine…
Article Link Thanks to Ron for sending this article my way. Check out his excellent blog post on the difference between being fast and “playing fast,” tying the football idea to manufacturing (although I’m hoping my Wildcats can finally beat…
Lean Blog: Misunderstandings About Value Stream Mapping, Flow Analysis, and Takt Time The link above is my first blog post, from January 2005 (back when the blog looked like this). I let the blog “birthday” slip by again this year.…
Here’s the winner of the Lean Blog Challenge Contest. Congratulations to Rich, the winner of an MP3 player pre-loaded with the first 13 episodes of the Podcast. Have advice for Rich? Feel free to post your comments here. Check back…
We have winner (12/27) Hi, blog readers. It’s time for another Lean Blog contest. Our first was the “Everyday Lean” contest, where the winner won a copy of Jamie Flinchbaugh’s book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Lean: Lessons from the Road.…