From the category archives:

lean

Check Sheets

by Pete Abilla August 31, 2010
This entry is part 28 of 28 in the series Lean and Six Sigma

A Check Sheet is one of the Seven (7) Basic Quality Tools. A Check Sheet is a simple tool for data collection. In this post, I’ll show how to create and use a Check Sheet and provide some basic heuristics and common pitfalls of Check Sheet and data collection overall. A Check Sheet allows us [...]

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Your Baby is Ugly

by Pete Abilla August 30, 2010

No, we’re not talking about children or infants here. We’re talking about people who are so invested in their idea, business, and process, which results in hyper tunnel vision and they begin to believe the fantasy that their [enter "whatever" here] is the best and cannot get better. Calling that [thing] imperfect is analogous to [...]

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Book Review: Whaddaya Mean I Gotta Be Lean

by Pete Abilla August 29, 2010
This entry is part 7 of 7 in the series Book Review

Jeff Hajek, the author of “Whaddaya Mean I Gotta Be Lean”, was kind enough to send me a book to review. Overall, I thought the book was good for an audience of on-the-ground practitioners of Lean. My first impression was not to take the book too seriously, given the cute and irreverent title of the [...]

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Lean for Service Operations: Improving Healthcare

by Pete Abilla August 27, 2010

A good article in Businessweek illustrates the impact of Lean Thinking or, more specific, Lean Consumption or Lean for Service Operations can have on Healthcare. Here are a few items from that article worth noting: [Look for] integration opportunities: connecting adjacent but unconnected pieces of the patient experience to create small, incremental improvements. The integration [...]

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Kaizen: They Must Increase, I Must Decrease

by Pete Abilla August 26, 2010

The true spirit of Kaizen isn’t just about improving the organization, but it is also in teaching, guiding, and in effectively stretching people beyond their current capabilities. Indeed, it is in developing people and in increasing their capability to contribute and add value. Staying true to the spirit of Kaizen has a few implications on [...]

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Video: Toyota Lexus RX Factory, Cambridge, Ontario, Canada

by Pete Abilla August 25, 2010

For those that are students of Lean Manufacturing or the Toyota Production System, but have not stepped inside a Toyota plant, this video will give you a sense of what it looks like. What you won’t see are many examples of Lean, except for a few: Minute 3:21 – You’ll see a runner, delivering a [...]

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Control Charts

by Pete Abilla August 21, 2010
This entry is part 15 of 28 in the series Lean and Six Sigma

This post will briefly explain and answer “What is a Control Chart?” and also quickly explain “How to Create a Control Chart?” through a video tutorial of a Control Chart. First off: entire books and PhD dissertations are written about Control Charts – this short post won’t do it justice. So, please learn on your [...]

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Run Chart

by Pete Abilla August 20, 2010
This entry is part 14 of 28 in the series Lean and Six Sigma

Run charts, also known as line graphs, display process performance over time. This post will explain “What is a Run Chart?”, show an example, and provide a video tutorial on how to create a Run Chart in Excel. Upward and downward trends, cycles, and large aberrations may be spotted and investigated further. In a run [...]

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Blendtec: Genchi Genbutsu and Visual Management

by Pete Abilla August 18, 2010

We went to Costco last weekend and there was a demonstration for Blendtec Blender – you know, those Blendtec “Will it Blend” viral videos on YouTube with that white-coat crazy scientist Blendtec founder blending everything from brooms to the iPhone. As a side-note: I met the founder and CEO of Blendtec, Tom Dickson, about 12 [...]

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