Jamie and Buzz

I was very pleased with the 2010 Georgia Tech Lean Leadership Event.  Jamie Flinchbaugh gave us some watch-outs plus guidance on improving our lean implementation and changing to a continuous improvement culture.

Here are my edited Blackberry notes from the day.  Post or email your comments.

Much of what Jamie discussed was an expansion of principles presented in his book, Principle 4 – Systematic Problem Solving and Principle 5 – Creating a Learning Organization.

1. It’s not about the tools — it’s about getting the thinking right.

2. It’s not about the leadership support anymore – but how leadership engages.

3. Organizational change – specifically our organization.  Most changes focus on actions and results – not the thinking of “why these actions?”

We typically jump to solutions when presented with a problem:

-     Changed behaviors include understanding the current situation — the WHY

-     You cannot observe or measure thinking

         -     #people trained, #events conducted are typical measures – but are they good measures?

-     LEARN APPLY REFLECT – best reflecting should be done in the aisle. What did we learn? 

-     Do we fully understand the current state?

       -     Is there a COMMON understanding of the current state?

-     Question everything.

-     Get to CHECK as quickly as possible but reduce the RISK 

       -     The “WELD BOLT CLAMP HOLD” principle. 

       -     How do we test the idea quickly to see if it works?

       -     Experiment cheaply. How can we get the data?

Waste Elimination = Problem Solving

The purpose of 5S is to surface problems quickly.

If a problem is not exposed does it still exist?  Yes, so instead of bemoaning a problem that’s discovered, celebrate that’s its uncovered.  Otherwise you will suffer the effects without knowing why.

“Lean Done Well” means engaging more people.  There is an endless supply of problems so we need more people who can solve problems.