Lean Six Sigma Academy

So check it out. A few months ago my wife noticed some suspicious charges on our Washington Mutual debit card at a Walmart in the Fort Worth area. After discussing it we realized someone had swiped our information and made two separate charges for around $300 total.

We called Washington Mutual and suspended our card. We then had to basically change ALL our accounts since we were given a new number. Since we pay all our bills online this was a supreme pain in the rear.

Violated

We felt violated and honestly a little freaked out since someone went to a lot of trouble to rip us off. My fear was it would happen again.

It did.

Walmart Fails Again

This time someone ripped off my corporate credit card number and attempted to buy a pizza in California for $5.00. The pizza company, to their credit, must have done their job and didn’t allow the transaction to go through.

But not Walmart. They failed again as the same person in California charged something for $150.

Check ID!

The process that should be followed is pretty easy. The Walmart cashier should ask the customer for a picture ID if a credit card is being used. If they don’t have one the customer can’t use the card. Simple as that.

Help Protect Me (and Yourself)

Over the past year or so we’ve build a decent following here on LSS Academy. So, while I’ve never done this before, I am going to request a ‘call to action’ for all LSS Academy readers.

The next time you are in Walmart, if you don’t mind, please try to pay with a credit card (not debit). Then, if the cashier doesn’t ask you for your ID kindly ask them why they didn’t.

Several thousand people read LSS Academy daily so if we all do this who knows… perhaps we can make a positive change to Walmart’s “Standard Work.”

Have you Ever Been Ripped Off?

Have you ever been ripped off like this? If so, what did you do to prevent it from happening again?

Where were you when history was being made?

I was pacing in front of my TV while holding my new born baby and screaming at the top of my lungs as Jason Lezak held off his Australian competitor in the 4×100m Medley Relay.

Once it was final, I sat down and quietly pondered what I’d just witnessed.

Michael Phelps is now the most decorated Olympian ever. At just 23 years old, Phelps has won 14 gold medals overall – 8 in this Olympics alone. He’s also smashed just about every world record in his path. And, while I am probably a little biased as an American, I think he’s done it with tremendous class and humility.

Others in his sport, like his old nemesis Ian Thorpe from Australia, made it clear that they didn’t think 8 gold medals could be won by one person.

Serbia’s Milorad Cavic, one of his present day rivals, said he thought it would be good for the sport if Phelps lost at least one race (I’m assuming he meant the 100m butterfly where Phelps beat Cavic by one-hundredth of a second).

None of this mattered. Phelps would not be denied.

It’s just hard to fathom how one person can accomplish so much over the course of 9 days and 17 swims.  It’s also unbelievably inspiring for me personally. 

What I’ve Learned

There are so many things to learn from something like this.  The most obvious things are that we must prepare, work hard, and believe in ourselves. 

Some of the other things I’ve taken away are to not let others make you angry when they “do you wrong.”  Instead, if we can take that potentially negative situation and channel it positively we will be much better off.  This is exactly what Phelps seems to do.

What about you?

What have you taken away from watching Michael Phelps make history?  And if you watched the final race yesterday what were you thinking?  Was you heart pounding with excitement?  Mine sure was.

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I recently wrote a post about laundry kaizen… I now have the knowledge needed to take things to the next level. Check it out!

Question for Jon Miller: Can you please help us translate a little Japanese? At least I think it’s Japanese?

There are at least two schools of thought related to the use of software when drawing value stream maps.

Some lean purists claim the use of value stream mapping software is heretical while others have no problem with it.

My Opinion

My personal preference is to always use pencil and paper initially. I stress pencil since I’ve never completed a value stream map that didn’t have eraser marks all over it.

Then, once the team is satisfied with the map I usually transfer it into my value stream mapping software of choice. I’ve become quite speedy with the software and can usually document a complex map in less than 30 minutes.

Don’t Roll it Up!

No matter if you use software or not, I strongly recommend keeping the actual paper version (preferably a huge sheet of paper stretching across the wall) posted for all employees to see during the transition from current state to future state.

What about You?

What about you? Do you use software to document VSM’s? Or are you a paper and pencil type of person?

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If you don’t already read Jon Miller’s excellent blog you’ll want to pay a visit and read his most recent article “Toyota’s Top Engineer on How to Develop Thinking People.”

The original article Jon references is in Japanese making it useless to most readers of this blog (and me)!  Luckily, Jon was raised in Japan and speaks and reads Japanese so he is able to translate it for us.

Here is a small snippet.

Hayashi: I was really afraid of Mr. Ohno when I was young. But I think he was developing thinking people. He never gave us the answer. When he gave us an assignment, he would just stand by and watch us fail, even if he knew the answer.

If you read one blog today (OK two since you are reading this one) make it Jon’s.  Here is the link.

With my wife trying to focus on our newest family member I decided to do the laundry this past week. It’s been awhile since I’ve done the laundry and some things have definitely changed.

Before Kaizen

Before, what I’m calling laundry kaizen, we used to throw all of our dirty clothes into a hamper in the closet.

Then, when it was laundry time we’d dump all the clothes out and sort them as needed – colors, whites, delicates, etc.

After sorting we’d carry a load to the washing machine for the first load. While I didn’t do any formal time studies, I think it’s safe to say this “sorting to first load” process took at least 20 to 30 minutes (more when the kids tried to ‘help’ out).

After Kaizen

Well, as I’ve written before, my wife really gets this lean stuff. As such, she identified much waste in the “before” process. Specifically, there was a tremendous amount of wasted time associated with sorting clothes. Also, there was a lot of excess motion/transportation as she walked back and forth from the piles of clothes in the closet(s) to the washing machine.

So, to improve the system she purchased a clothes sorting contraption (see picture). When we’re ready to place our dirty clothes into the hamper we put them into the correct bin. We have a bin for colors, whites, and delicates/towels. You can’t tell from the picture but these bins are also on wheels, an often forgotten aspect of lean equipment design.

Now, when it’s time to do laundry, all we have to do is wheel the whole cart to the washing machine – bringing it to point of use. This eliminates all those trips back and forth.

But the biggest advantage is the fact that we don’t need to do much, if any, sorting of clothes. Instead, we can dump the bins straight into the washer, add soap, and get on with our day.

The Benefits

There are many benefits as a result of this laundry kaizen.

For one, we are now able to level load (pun intended) the process a bit more than before. When we see a bin almost full we can do a load of laundry. It’s far more visual than before when all we saw was a huge mound of mixed up inventory – I mean clothes – piling up.

And as it relates to time savings… I estimate my wife has cut out at least 30 minutes of cycle time from the weekly laundry process.

When I mentioned this to her, she said this is being far too conservative and that when you add in all the kids clothes (they also have similar bins to pre-sort their clothes) the time savings are much more.

Anyhow, staying conservative, 30 minutes per week times 52 weeks equates to 26 hours per year. With 4 kids this is a huge benefit!

How about you?

What about you? Do you have any laundry or home kaizen tips you can share?  Or do you have any thoughts as to how we could further improve our existing laundry process?

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“Children too are a gift from the LORD, the fruit of the womb, a reward.”

~Psalm 127:3

Yesterday my family was blessed with the arrival of our 4th child, a baby girl. While the births of all my children have been amazing, this one was extra special since we decided to not find out the sex of the baby before hand.

Words simply can’t describe how special it was or how proud I am to have four beautiful children to call me Daddy. This, as they say, is priceless.

I’ll be taking some time off to play, what I can best describe as, a one man zone defense against my 3 “older” kids (almost 6, 4, and 2) as we get settled with our newest addition. With this said, blogging will be light over the next few weeks.

Until then, you might want to check out (if you don’t already) some of my favorite blogs. Here is a short list and you can find more in the related sites section.

• Lean Blog
• Evolving Excellence
• Seth Godin
• Curious Cat Management
• Gemba Pantarei
• shmula (Pete and his wife just added their 8th addition to his growing family!)

A few weeks ago I was hanging out with some of my neighbors. The kids were playing, the wives were talking, and the men were drinking a few beers while playing the bean bag game. You know the one… where you try to toss bean bags onto a little board with a hole in it (see picture if you still don’t know what I mean).

Well, I had never played the game but decided to give it a shot. Well… I stunk it up real good. I think I scored a couple of points (i.e. the bean bag stayed on the board a couple times). It was painful to say the least. I licked my wounds and went home. My kids still loved me and I guess that’s all that matters, right?

The Soft Zone

Later that evening, before turning off the light, I decided to read a little more of The Art of Learning. That night I read the chapter called “The Soft Zone.” In it Josh Waitzkin, a child prodigy chess player as a young boy and the subject of the movie Searching for Bobby Fisher, talked about how he learned to turn serious distraction into an advantage.

He explained how he experienced a serious earthquake during an intense chess match in India… and while everyone else ran for dear life he sat calmly and found himself entering into an extremely deep and centered state of consciousness. He called this the soft zone. This is the same zone athletes like Michael Jordan often found themselves in during intense competition.

Later in the book Waitzkin wrote about how he also turned certain sounds and music into “triggers of excellence.” I found this very similar to the things they teach in Neural Linguistic Programming.

It was all very interesting… but I wasn’t sure how to apply it in my own life.

The Rematch

Fast forward a few weeks. The same neighbors I mentioned above all decided to have a block party one particularly warm Friday night. I brought my grill to the front of the house and neighbors from all over showed up. We must have had 50 people. It was great. Again, the kids playing, wives were talking, and yes… the guys were having a few beers while playing the bean bag game.

I watched for a bit. There were some “new” players this evening so I wasn’t forced into action as quickly as before. But, alas, finally I was called to play by my good friend, and Chicago native, Nick.

The Rooster

Now here is where it gets interesting. Right at the start of my first game the song “Rooster” by Alice in Chains was playing on the radio. You know the one… “Yeah, here comes the Rooster…. oh yeah!” Anyhow, I hadn’t heard this song for years. But I loved it “back in the day” and quickly realized I still love it today.

Anyhow, on my first round I was very relaxed (maybe the Corona I was drinking helped). I did well. I actually hit the board with all three bean bags and one stuck. Sweet. The next round was similar. The third round I missed badly with all three bean bags and almost tensed up. But I didn’t.

The fourth round, even though some other song was now playing; I cleared my mind and softly sang, “Yeah, here comes the Rooster…” I nailed it. One bean bag in the hole and the other two on the board. My partner was liking my new found skills.

But instead of getting all pumped up and excited I didn’t say or do anything. Instead, I focused on how I was feeling. I was calm. In control. I knew the next round was going to be a good one. And it was.

Unbeatable

The rest of the night (till 2:30 AM to be exact) I played that stupid game. And I couldn’t miss. I mean I was on absolute fire. There was one other guy, on another team, who was also very good. He never seemed to miss either.

So the last game of the night was just me and him. One on one. Winner takes… well nothing… but you know what I mean.

So, here I stood, literally 7 hours after that first toss and of hearing “The Rooster.” I won’t lie… I was a little nervous. I mean this game was for the bragging rights of my street. The stakes were high. We decided to play to 11 (instead of 21) since it was just me and him.

I smoked him on the first game… something like 11-5. I didn’t brag or boast (not really my style). But this guy was a serious competitor and he called for best of 3. I obliged

The Rooster Returns

He jumped out on top out straight away. He put two in the hole and one on the board (7 points) and I put 3 on the board (3 points) after round 1. He was also calm and focused. This would be a battle.

I then settled in and went back to old faithful… yes “The Rooster.” He faltered a bit the rest of the way and I didn’t miss. I was the champion of my street!

What does this all mean?

You might wonder what any of this has to do with leadership or lean and six sigma. Well, I contend I learned an extremely valuable skill tossing those bean bags.

I learned how to control my emotions on a seriously deep level. Sure, tossing bean bags is a silly game… but the fact is I went from being the worst player to the best player with no practice in between. All that changed was my mental approach to the game.

And if I can do this tossing bean bags… what’s stopping me from doing it when the stakes are much higher?

You know, like when I am about to make a huge presentation, or enter into a meeting with some knuckle head. What’s stopping me from quieting my mind and softly whispering, “Yeah, here comes the Rooster?” Nothing in fact. Nothing at all.

What’s Stopping You?

And, for that matter, what’s stopping you from also finding your own soft zone and triggering it with some song or sound or thought? Again, nothing.

And if you want to practice… go get yourself a bean bag game and call out your neighbors for war. If anything you’ll have a blast along the way.

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Here’s a list of principles worthy of our attention as we start the week.

1. Carefully observe oneself and one’s situation, carefully observe others, and carefully observe one’s environment.
2. Seize the initiative in whatever you undertake.
3. Consider fully, act decisively.
4. Know when to stop.
5. Keep to the middle.

These are Jigoro Kano’s Five Principles of Judo as outlined by John Stevens in Budo Secrets.

While I’ve never studied Judo a day in my life, I do find myself attempting to follow most of these principles.  I don’t always succeed, but I try.

The one I’m most intrigued by, probably since I understand it the least is number 5 – keep to the middle. I can see how this would be valuable for someone practicing Judo. But I wonder what this means for those of us applying lean and six sigma in our organizations.

What do you think “keep to the middle” means? And should we follow this principle or go for broke and run out of bounds once in awhile?

Tonight we’ll wrap up our series on how to lay down a strong foundation such that your continuous improvement initiatives not only survive… but flourish.

In part 1 of the series we talked about creating tension, ensuring our efforts are a means to an end, and genchi genbutsu. If you missed it, you can find it here.

Be Speedy

Some of the best advice I can offer an organization starting out on their continuous improvement journey is simple… never allow any “project” to be scoped for longer than 30 days during the first calendar year. No exceptions.

This would stop folks from attempting to boil the ocean with “super project teams.” Sadly, many of these super teams with huge aspirations out of the gate begin to hit some roadblocks. And the next thing you know, most of the once pumped up team members are suddenly too busy with their “regular” jobs.

So, by initially focusing on short kaizen events momentum can form. And once this momentum gets rolling… well, that’s when the fun really begins friends.

Put on Jeans

I could wax poetic about all kinds of other tips tonight… but I won’t. Instead, I want to wrap up with my favorite tip of all, especially for managers or leaders of people.

The next time there is a kaizen event scheduled, show up on the first day wearing a pair of old jeans and a t-shirt. And when the team members look and wonder what the heck you are there for… grab a broom or paint brush and get busy. I don’t care if you are an entry level supervisor or a vice president. Just start working… the team will follow you. I guarantee it.

And once you’ve won a few battles along side the troops… you are well on your way to an extremely strong foundation.

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