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Brain Rules

March 30, 2009 By 3 Comments

The human brain fascinates me. As such, I was very excited to finally read Brain Rules by John Medina.

In this book Medina proposes 12 different rules, that once understood, may help us all to be happier and more productive individuals.

Here is a quick summary of the 12 rules. At the end of the article will be an awesome slide show created by Garr Reynolds of Presentation Zen fame.

  • Rule #1: Exercise boosts brain power. Medina proposes that the most effective meetings would be ones where all attendees walked 1.8 miles per hour.
  • Rule #2: The human brain evolved, too. Medina proposes, “There is no greater anti-brain environment than the classroom and cubicle.”
  • Rule #3: Every brain is wired differently. Each time we learn something our brain is literally re-wired. Medina also claims the categories of intelligence may number more than 7 billion!
  • Rule #4: We don’t pay attention to boring things. Microsoft is to blame for this as their famous “PowerPoint” software has resulted in far more boring meetings than anyone should have to deal with. Stop reading the slides man!
  • Rule #5: Repeat to remember. As powerful as they are, most human brains can only hold around seven pieces of information for less than 30 seconds. To remember we must repeat things… a lot.
  • Rule #6: Remember to repeat. Medina claims that our schools are currently designed so that most real learning has to occur at home.
  • Rule #7: Sleep well, think well. In one study, a 26-minute nap improved NASA pilots’ performance by 34 percent.
  • Rule #8: Stressed brains don’t learn the same way. Medina claims that the emotional stability of our homes plays a huge part in how our children learn.
  • Rule #9: Stimulate more of the senses. Ever wonder why, if you like coffee, walking into a Starbucks makes you feel happy? Smell. That’s why.
  • Rule #10: Vision trumps all other senses. Bullet points are so 1998… use images and simple phrases to get your point across in your presentations.
  • Rule #11: Male and female brains are different. Show a man a slasher film and his right brain lights up… while a woman’s left brain goes into overdrive. Same movie, different reactions.
  • Rule #12: We are powerful and natural explorers. We humans love to explore and learn new things even if crammed inside a cubicle 40 hours a week!

Brain Rules for Presenters

View more presentations from garr.
Filed Under: Off Topic

The Ultimate “Sustain” Audit

March 24, 2009 By 8 Comments

So I have 5S on my mind since I’m wrapping up a 5S course for the Gemba Academy School of Lean.

Anyhow, while finishing the “sustain” module I thought about one of the easiest ways to determine how far your organization has come on the 5S journey.

Candy Wrapper Audit

Here’s my idea.  Go to your vending machine and buy a candy bar.  Eat the candy bar or give it away if you don’t eat candy.  Next, take the candy bar wrapper and drop it on the ground.  And make sure the place you select has decent foot traffic.  Then hide around the corner.

The “audit” is to see how many people walk past the candy bar wrapper before bending down, picking it up, and throwing it away.  Perhaps if the first person stops you score a 5, etc.  You could even run the test in multiple locations if you wanted to get really tricky!

Am I nuts?

What do you think?  Is this a fair test?  Why not give it a try and let us know how it works out?

Filed Under: Lean

Do We Even Need the 4th and 5th S?

March 20, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Jon Miller – my friend, mentor, and now business partner – has asked his readers some extremely interesting questions regarding whether the 4th and 5th S, in 5S are even needed.

Your feedback will be used by us as we finish off our “5S and Visual Management” course that will soon be added to the existing Gemba Academy Transforming your Value Streams course.

So, just this once, I am going to ask you not leave comments below… instead I’d really appreciate you flooding Jon’s blog and leaving your comments over there.

So, please zoom on over to Gemba Panta Rei and offer your thoughts and help us shape and mold the best 5S and Visual Management course ever created.  Thanks!

Filed Under: Lean

Sandwich Making Muda

March 19, 2009 By 1 Comment

I absolutely love to watch people. And I don’t mean watch in a creepy kind of way…

I mean I love to watch people work and do their jobs.

Well, today I was getting some lunch at a restaurant I often go to and I noticed they had implemented a process change.

Back in the day

In the “old days” the process they followed to make and package a sandwich went something like this. Note: I’ve marked what I consider to be value added (VA) and non value added (NVA).

  1. The employee asked me what I wanted (VA)
  2. The employee immediately started to make the sandwich (VA)
  3. The employee grabbed the Styrofoam box that was at point of use (NVA)
  4. The employee placed sandwich in box and closed it (VA)
  5. The employee handed me the box (VA)
  6. I paid

It was a pretty good process – with 4 of the 5 steps being VA – from my perspective as a customer.

Out with old, in with the new

Well, today, I noticed the line was moving extra slow. When I finally got up there I could sense the employees were frustrated. I, as you can imagine, watched to see if I could figure out why.

It didn’t take me long to figure out why. Here was the new process this same guy I’ve ordered from for over a year went through to make and package my sandwich.

  1. The employee asked me what I wanted (VA)
  2. The employee wrote down what I wanted on a piece of paper (NVA)
  3. The employee started to make my sandwich (VA)
  4. The employee grabbed some foil like paper and wrapped my sandwich up (NVA)
  5. The employee grabbed the new little open topped cardboard container they were now using (NVA)
  6. The employee placed some colorful paper in the bottom of the container (NVA)
  7. The employee placed my nicely wrapped sandwich in the container (VA)
  8. The employee grabbed a paper bag (NVA)
  9. The employee placed the container into the paper bag (NVA)
  10. The employee taped the piece of paper onto the bag (NVA)
  11. The employee handed me the paper bag (VA)
  12. I paid

Yikes. This new process now has 12 steps! OK, OK… maybe I could have combined some of these… but of these steps again only 4 were value added.

Cost Savings?

I am not quite sure what caused this change. Perhaps there are material cost savings, but I find that hard to believe since there are more “parts” involved.

Perhaps there are environmental benefits, which of course, are a good thing.

But all I know, from my perspective as a customer, this “new” process has tons of muda, or waste, in it. And it makes me want to go somewhere else for my sandwich now.

And the worst part of all? I think it’s a pretty safe bet none of the employees tasked with actually delivering value to the customer were involved in, or asked about, this process change.

How do I know that? Well, I don’t for sure… but one thing was definitely missing from the guy’s face that made me my sandwich – a smile.

What do you think?

Do you have any idea why they made this change? And if it were for a good reason like to be more environmentally conscious, how else could they have done it? What would you do if you ran this restaurant?

Filed Under: Lean

The Cost of Searching

March 17, 2009 By 2 Comments

Studies have shown that the average person can spend around 30 seconds every 5 minutes of their working day searching for something. That’s not too bad… or is it?

Consider This

Well, if you consider that this is 30 seconds out of a possible 300 seconds… meaning 10% of this time has been wasted on searching for something and not adding value to the product or end customer, it would seem less than good!

Taken even further… over a 450 minute shift this “searching time” could essentially result in 45 minutes of wasted time! Yikes.

Ideal State

Of course 30 seconds is not the perfect number and searching time will vary person by person and situation by situation. But imagine being able to never search more than 3 seconds for something. What would that mean?

For starters, this is a 90% improvement (30 seconds to 3 seconds) resulting in savings of over 40 minutes per 450 minute shift!  Not too shabby, eh?

Ultimate Productivity Enhancer

So, while 5S is often thought of as a housekeeping activity where all we do is throw away the junk we’ve been hording and tidy up a bit… it would seem to be so much more.

You see, 5S could very well be one of the most powerful productivity tools you have access to. And the best part of all? You can start improving your 5S today. There’s no need to wait.

Quick Test

If you’d like to test this searching theory out try this. Select a co-worker or family member and think of something you’ve given them in the last week or so. Maybe a document, or an email, or something of relative importance.

Once you have the “item” in mind go and ask that person to retrieve it for you and count in your head how long it takes them.  You may be surprised at what you discover!

What do you think?

Do you think 30 seconds every 5 minutes is a realistic “searching” number? Or is too high? Too low? What do you think?

Filed Under: Lean, Productivity

It’s Officially On: Gemba Academy Launches

March 15, 2009 By Leave a Comment

After many, many hours of PDCA (plan, do, check, act) the time has finally arrived for Gemba Academy to officially open its doors for enrollment.

Transforming Your Value Streams

To get things started we’re offering a course called Transforming Your Value Streams that explains exactly how to – as the name implies – transform your value streams using lean tools and principles such as value stream mapping, takt time, one piece flow, kanban, jidoka (automation with a human touch), and heijunka (production leveling).

Coming Soon

In the coming weeks and months we’ll be offering interactive online training courses on a wide range of business excellence topics such as lean manufacturing, project management, six sigma and other related disciplines.

Specifically, we’re putting the final touches on a 5S course that is scheduled to launch in April. You can view the first module of this 5S course here.

Continuously Improved

The coolest thing, and something we’re really excited about, is that additional content will be added to all Gemba Academy courses long after they’re first launched – free of charge to anyone enrolled – as we listen to and learn from customer feedback.

Any Suggestions?

Please visit our site and let us know what you think. And be sure to watch, use, and share our free videos with your entire company.

Also, I’m very interested to know what course topics you’d like to see developed. Please drop me a line or leave a comment below.

Filed Under: Lean

The Greatest in the Kingdom

March 12, 2009 By 5 Comments

I was recently reading my all time favorite book and came across some comments that caused me to ponder a few of the articles I’ve recently written about being an expert and how many hours it takes to become an expert.

Here’s the text that brought me amazing clarity.

They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house, he began to ask them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they remained silent. They had been discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest. Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all” (Mark 9:33-35).

This pretty much sums it all up wouldn’t you say?

Have a safe, blessed, and outstanding weekend everyone.  And thanks for reading LSS Academy.  I sincerely appreciate it.

Filed Under: Leadership, Site Update

An Expert State of Mind

March 10, 2009 By 8 Comments

A person going by the name of “ford” left a very interesting comment to my post about it taking 10,000 hours to become an expert at something.  Here was the comment:

“The moment one gets into the `expert’ state of mind a great number of things become impossible” – Henry Ford
Pretty good manufacturing guy…be careful becoming an expert…

I absolutely love comments like this.  They challenge me.  They make me re-think things.  They help me re-focus on what’s truly important.

And for the record, I completely agree with what Henry Ford said (I’m assuming he said it at least?).  You see, if someone thinks they are an expert they may stop trying to learn new things which, in the end, is a deadly mistake if you ask me.

Confident, Never Satisfied

Perhaps the better approach is to feel confident in your skills… but never satisfied.  Do you agree?  Is being a so called expert actually a curse?

Filed Under: Leadership

Web Check-In: Lean or Not?

March 8, 2009 By 12 Comments

The Pereira household has been battling flu like symptoms for over a week now.

My kids have all had it and most recently my wife got it. I, knocking on wood, have escaped it so far but I am not getting cocky about it!

In any event, at one point last week 2 of my 4 kids were sick along with my wife. So we called our pediatrician for the kids and our family doctor for my wife.

My experience with the pediatrician was less than exemplary… but I’ll save that story for another time.  The thing I want to explore in this article was the process we used to get my wife in front of a doctor.

Care Now Here We Come

Our family doctor was not able to see my wife on the day we called… and since she was feeling REAL bad we decided on the ‘Doc in a Box’ known as Care Now.

I remembered seeing a commercial about a web check-in process for Care Now.  So I decided to give it a shot.  I got to their website and in just a few clicks was booking my wife’s appointment.  I entered in all the insurance details and other stuff meaning she would not have to do this in the office.

A few minutes later I was done.  The confirmation page said they would call when it was time for my wife to come in.  They asked how long the commute was which I’m assuming they took into consideration.

The Result

About 40 minutes after submitting the form they called for my wife to come in, meaning she got to ‘wait’ in the comfort of our home and not some germ filled waiting room.

And while she still had to wait a few minutes once she got there it seemed to be much better than her having to go there and fill out all kinds of paperwork and then wait even longer.

What Do You Think?

So, I’m curious, do you think this web check-in process is lean?  Or are they treating  – no puns intended – the symptoms and not the problems of poor internal processes that create the waiting in the first place?  What do you think?

Filed Under: Featured, Lean

Spreading the Gospel with Web Video

March 5, 2009 By 2 Comments

Man, who would have thought a video I shot at around midnight with a crappy digital camera and some shop lights from Home Depot clipped to a step ladder – yes that’s exactly how I did it! – would be watched more than 12,000 times! Click the crazy looking thumbnail to the left to see for yourself.

Spreading the Gospel!

Now, I know there are lots of silly videos that go “viral” and get millions of views… but I am pretty stoked to think that 12,000 people may have a better understanding of why one piece flow kicks the cr@p out of mass production alllll dayyyy longgggg.

Home Depot Lights Retired

Anyhow, if you’ve seen the videos we’ve made over at Gemba Academy you may have noticed that we’re not using Home Depot lights anymore! There has definitely been much kaizen involved.

In case you missed my official “web video debut” feel free to give the video below a watch.  And if you want to read some passionate comments click here.  But grab a cup of coffee first as there are 58 of them to read upon last check!

Have a Great Weekend!

Have a great weekend everyone.  Stay safe.  Hug your kids.  And do something nice for your significant other.  They’ll appreciate it I’m sure.

Filed Under: Lean
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