Thursday, September 22, 2016

Lean or JDI?

Sometimes, people think of Lean Manufacturing as being very complicated. It doesn't have to be. There's a wonderful Lean technique, it is so simple that it's really advanced; it's called JDI or Just Do It. Here is an example.

I live in the country and ride a 920 pound Gold Wing motorcycle. I noticed it was getting harder and harder to pull out of my carport and get my bike turned around in my backyard. When I actually stopped and looked at the problem, it was easy to see that over time, my nice little path had become covered with huge hickory nuts and assorted stones, sticks and roots.

The solution? Just rake the darned crap out of the way and be done with it. Just Do It! Five minutes later, I was done. My solution took no money and hardly any time or effort. Now, my morning commute is not just more comfortable, it is also easier on my tires, shocks and springs and much safer.

A quick look revealed the problem. No wonder I was having a hard time.

My Just Do It solution? Rake the darned rocks and nuts into the woods. JDI!

Monday, September 19, 2016

This Guy Had a Problem, He Fixed It

I believe that college is way, WAY too expensive. It bugs me that people become wage slaves for decades to earn something they are sure they must have. Apparently, it bugged this guy too. In this TedX talk, Scott shares how he got an MIT eduction in computer science for only $2,000.00. Clever.






The Easiest Part of Fixing What Bugs You

Making things better can be tricky. The tricky part is learning to notice what's wrong in an active way, not just in a bitching and moaning and blowing-it-off sort of way. Fortunately, there is a trick to it. What usually bugs us is waste, and there is an acronym that helps us learn to see waste. The acronym is T.I.M. W.O.O.D.S. Meaning:

Transportation
Inventory
Movement
Waiting
Over-production (the number one waste)
Over-processing
Defects and
Skills (the saddest waste).

When you get in the habit of learning to recognize these forms of waste, you are halfway done fixing them.

So, if recognizing waste is a trick you can learn, what's the easiest part of continuous improvement? The easiest part is, of course, coming up with solutions! As soon as you see the problem, you automatically see the solution. That's how our brains work. We are problem solving machines! We are making too many donuts, is the waste of over production. The solution? Stop making so many extra donuts! The answer is in the question.

Simple. Right? So, why is continuous improvement so difficult? Because it's always hard to change. It is always hard to get things done.

My suggestion is to schedule a half hour every morning, for making improvements. Make it part of your morning cleanup, your morning preparation, your morning routine. You grab a coffee, you clean up your work area, you make an improvement. When you are working in groups, you take a step forward on whatever your assignment was. Look up busiest day for donut sales? Done. Next day, breakdown donut sales by types. Done. Next day, put together a donut graph. Just one step forward every morning, first thing.

First thing every morning, make your life a little better. It's addictive. Especially when today's improvement makes every day a little bit better.

Friday, September 16, 2016

Fix What Bugs You With Systems Thinking

Welcome to my Lean, Visual Workplace and Systems Thinking blog. My name is Rodney Robbins. I'm a long time quality manager and a big fan of FIXING WHAT BUGS YOU. Things that don't work right drive me nutty! I hate it when things that are supposed to work, don't.


  • Didn't anyone think this through before they started? 
  • Didn't anyone check on it to see if it was working right? 
  • Doesn't anyone care how very, very unhappy the customer is about the delays and defects? 
The short answer is, no. The longer answer is, probably not in ages.

Hey, we are all busy. We all wear too many hats. We all have day jobs, night jobs, family work, home work, yard work and, of course, our daily cooking, cleaning and chauffeuring to do. What is hard to notice, but oh so cool when you do, is what is not working. What is not working is your guide to a better life. We need to learn to embrace those things. Love them. They are great big fat signals saying, "Fix me. Fix ME! If you will only fix me, your life will have less stress, you'll have more time, things will run smoother. Please, I'm the nail sticking my head up. Please, hit me with a hammer now!"

So, as you notice what bugs you, consider how everything works together As A System. Stop. Take a step back, and think about how things and information flow into the process, get changed and flow out. Dishes pile up all over the kitchen table and counters. Dishes get dumped into hot, soapy water. Dishes go onto racks, then into cupboards. Which one of those steps is the worst nightmare? How do the steps, er, piles interact? Is there ANYTHING we could do about ANY of these stages?

If you want things to get better, noticing what bugs you is the first step. A good next step is to stop, step back and wonder how everything interacts. That may be all you need to do to get started making things better.