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…
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…
Daniel Diffenderfer 