It’s that special time of year: open enrollment season. Over the next few weeks, employees will be choosing between plans through their employers. And many other self-employed people will purchase insurance through health care exchanges. A year ago, my wife was pregnant with our second child, so I knew we would face hefty medical bills.…
The role of a parent is a difficult one. First, there’s the burden of the mother to carry a child. Then, that child must be birthed. The next two years of its life that child is completely helpless (note: on occasion this timeframe can extend much further, sometimes into adulthood). Then, you must instruct, teach,…
I recently read a brilliant book called The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level by Gay Hendricks.
The primary idea in the book is that you have an Upper Limit Problem that controls the degree of overall wellbeing in your life.
The waste of human potential is often described as the eighth waste of lean (in addition to the seven we’ve previously covered). The waste of human potential is likely the most costly form of waste in most companies today. Human potential is wasted when employers have employees do meaningless tasks and functions (such as with…
In our last post in our series on lean, we introduced the seven wastes. Why does waste matter? Waste matters for a number of reasons, though the top three for me are listed below: It’s damaging to the environment It’s expensive It’s slow It wastes human lives and potential I’m going to cover the first…
We’ve previously discussed the importance of focusing on value creation. I like to think of value creation as the importance of rendering service to another human where profit is the thing that lets you do it again. From there, we discussed the entire value stream and the importance of ensuring that your value stream flows…
Today’s post on lean has to do with a topic that’s often misunderstood: perfection. The lean enterprise should pursue perfection. It should continuously improve and work to make each processes leaner along the way. Perfection is a tricky goal, however, as it is a continuously variable goal and one that, by definition, you will never…
I am taking a break from my series on lean to acknowledge my five-year workplace anniversary today. With a background in the oilfields and a bachelor of arts in political science, Trelleborg hired me at a time when unemployment for my demographic was in the double-digits (and underemployment much higher). Since being hired, I’ve been an inside…
The lean concept of pull is an extension of flow. Within flow, we’re trying to eliminate excess inventories and places where the product stops moving. The idea is to get an entire value stream continuously flowing. So, what drives the flow of the value stream? The customer. Customer demand is what makes the value stream…
Flow means to move steadily and continuously in a current or stream. From a lean manufacturing standpoint, we’ve previously discussed that value is defined by the customer and the importance of mapping the entire value stream for your product or service. Your value stream is what you’re trying to make flow. This may seem quite…
With lean thinking, the value stream can best be understood from the standpoint of the customer. After all, as we previously discussed, it’s the customer that defines value. Thus, it’s the customer that defines the value stream. The value stream is everything the combines together to make the product or service the customer pays money…
All lean thinking begins with value as the basis. Lean defines value from the customer’s perspective. Whatever you think is worthwhile or important is irrelevant. What matters is what the customer thinks. And, more specifically, what the customer is willing to pay you to do (which is at the essence of value). Beginning with the…
The Real Reason: This Guy Threw Your Resume in the Trash WARNING! Unsolicited career advice forthcoming: I was attending a professional conference today. There, a number of workshop speakers were talking about the current crisis in the labor market. “Crisis? But I thought unemployment was low.” It is. And that’s the crisis from an employers’…
Daniel Diffenderfer 