We’re putting the finishing touches on a new course over at Gemba Academy called “Lean Lingo Explained.” In this course, Brad Schmidt takes a deep dive into the meaning of some of the most popular lean terms and phrases used today.

This course will be officially released in a few weeks… but here is a sneak peak at the first video.

Finally, our one month Free Training DVDs Promotion is still active for another 10 days as we have yet to hit the 500 customer mark. So, if you’re interested in learning more please follow this link.

If you’re reading this post via your RSS reader or email you’ll likely need to click through to the website to view the video. Enjoy!

We’re finishing up the final touches on a new course over at Gemba Academy called “Lean Lingo Explained.”

In this course Brad Schmidt, the managing partner of Gemba Japan, explains what several lean terms mean in great detail.

Muda Explained

One of the words Brad covers is muda.  Most of us refer to this word as waste… and it is.

But, like many lean terms, the word muda has a much deeper meaning when you study the Japanese Kanji.

No Money in Muda

As it turns out, the characters on the left that make mu actually mean ‘nothingness.’  And the characters on the right that make da mean ‘money.’  Click the image above for a larger view.

So, in essence, muda literally means ‘no money’ which makes perfect sense when you think about what muda is… we’re doing work that our customer’s aren’t willing to pay us for!

Never Stop Learning

The thing I love about lean is how I personally never stop learning.  You see, I’ve been practicing lean for awhile and feel, at times, I have a decent grasp on things.

Then I listen to someone like Brad talk and realize how little I know.  You see, Brad has probably forgotten more about lean than I will ever know.  It’s humbling, yet inspiring.

The lesson?  Never ever stop learning.

Guest Post by Michael Lombard of the Lean Builder Blog

Have you seen any of Conan O’Brien’s “In the Year 2000” skits? They were funny when he started doing them way back in the 90’s, and were even funnier when he kept doing them long after the turn of the millennium.

I don’t know if it was the quasi-futuristic clothing, the dude with the falsetto voice, or Conan’s ridiculous predictions, but that was some hilarious television.

In that same spirit, I’d like to make some ridiculous predictions about what Lean Leaders will be like in, let’s say… 10 years from now (in the year 2020). Here goes:

Prediction #1: In the year 2020… Lean Leaders will do a great job of utilizing Social Media.

I predict this because Lean Leaders place a high value on collaboration, just-in-time communication, and overall organizational awareness…all of which are enhanced by social media. Just check out some of the things Hal and the gang at Lean Project Consulting are already doing with micro-blogging and other tools. Or check out this list of Lean folks I follow on Twitter.

I predict Lean Leaders in 2020 will utilize micro-blogging, blogs, collaboration software, and yet-to-be-invented tools to improve the flow of knowledge and communication in their organizations.

Be honest, do you chuckle when you hear the word ‘Twitter?’

Prediction #2: In the year 2020… Lean Leaders will be leaders in Project Management.

Project Management as a profession is a relatively new phenomenon. It has arisen in response to the chaos that globalization and innovation have wreaked upon organizations in recent history. Products and processes have to be constantly reinvented nowadays to keep pace with the market, so organizations have to constantly manage a portfolio of change projects.

Good project management (i.e. the PMI PMBOK methodology) provides a solid base of stability for projects to be performed. However, as Lean Leaders understand, creating process stability is not the end, but the beginning of improvement. Taking Project Management beyond basic stability and into radically improved flow will be the next great leap for Project Management, and I predict it will be the domain of Lean Leaders.

Have you used Scrum or the Last Planner System? Check it out if you want a preview of what mainstream Project Management might look like in 2020.

Prediction #3: In the year 2020…Lean Leaders will have infiltrated a wide range of industries.

This is already happening. Lean Healthcare, Lean Construction, Lean Military…you name it—Lean advocates are seemingly everywhere now, just in small numbers at the moment. By 2020, I see Lean becoming more generally accepted and Lean Leaders becoming more common in a wide range of industries.

I say this because global trends seem to indicate that resources of all sorts (money, energy, water, etc.) will become more and more scarce, thus placing a premium on the ability to minimize waste—the domain of Lean Leaders. Every industry will be affected by these global trends to some extent, which should create broader demand for Lean Leaders.

Are you pioneering the use of Lean in your industry? If so, let’s hear about it!

Prediction #4: In the year 2020… Lean Leaders, out of necessity, will get really good at organizational design.

Pop quiz—If Lean is a clearly superior approach to management, then why hasn’t it become the standard for all organizations? Why have we yet to make the great leap?

Maybe it’s because we have failed to address deeply ingrained organizational barriers, such as: antiquated accounting systems, short-sighted employment practices, pathetic talent development strategies, rigid vertical management structures, and so on. We need people who can address these issues with authority.

Many of the most talented Lean Leaders I’ve met have had backgrounds in Industrial Engineering, Supply Chain Logistics, Operations Management, or Six Sigma. They’re highly technical people. I predict that future Lean Leaders will not only be technically skilled, but will also display a much deeper understanding of organizational factors. We need to take the big organizational decisions out of the hands of the bean-counters and put them in the hands of the people that can tell the difference between value and waste.

If there was one thing you could change about your organization’s design that would help your Lean initiative, what would it be?

Prediction #5: In the year 2020… things will be so radically different that my predictions will seem as ridiculous as Conan O’Brien’s.

But that’s okay. My hope is that Lean Leaders will surpass my predictions sooner than expected, and that by 2020 they will already be figuring out new ways to improve the world that we’ve yet to anticipate. In so many ways, they already are…which makes right now, 2010, an exciting time to be around the Lean world.

Don’t you agree, Lean Leaders?

About the author: Michael Lombard is a Lean advocate and Project Manager, based in Dallas-Ft. Worth, currently exploring career opportunities in all industries and locations. You can view his profile here, his Lean Builder blog here, or contact him directly at mlombardjr@gmail.com.

Guest Post by Alicia C. Simmer of KHC

There’s a choice to be made in how hospital leaders approach implementing lean: either let lean run free or force lean efforts to be coordinated.

Running Free

In the ‘running free’ approach, power is distributed to departments and groups to make improvements => the on-the-floor experts focus on their issues and make changes that allow them do the right things, the right way.

This sounds great, right?

People are empowered to change their environment. Lean becomes incorporated into the culture and mindset of the hospital staff. Change and efficiencies are realized where the rubber meets the road.

Hospitals have a history of this approach, based on the theory that since change is so hard to accomplish, small changes anywhere are sure to make the situation better.

Is This Really Better?

But is that really better? This uncoordinated approach can lead to waste-shifting rather than waste-elimination, and the voice of the customer is very easily lost.

While small teams work in their silos, patients flow through the entire system, using resources at almost every level.  The lack of coordination minimizes each Lean accomplishment because the work is isolated in the individual environment, leaving the patient to work around the inefficiencies of a non-systems based approach.

What do you think?

It makes me wonder if instead, leaders should begin with goals derived from the ideal patient experience, and then work on Lean projects that produce strong, standardized processes across the hospital or hospital system.

Hospitals/healthcare is the slowest industry to change, so we can learn a lot from manufacturing.

What do you think?  Should we focus our efforts in a coordinated manner or allow the running free mentality to continue?

Alicia C. Simmer, a senior healthcare consultant with KHC, shares some insights on implementing Lean in hospitals. She runs Lean operational improvement projects for healthcare facilities and new facility planning projects, and she can be reached at asimmer@khcthink dot com.