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Here we go with the builder across the road…he’s updated his sign!
Quite original, but only a minor distraction !
With the spring finally showing it’s face and a hint of summer on it’s way I’m enjoyiong three good things at the moment.
The first good thing is an increase in Auckland based engagements for yours truly, which cuts down on travel and long days on the road.
Secondly my new Mac Air which is so easy to use and gives me a much appreciated boost in personal efficiency.
The third is my re-aquaintance with coffee.
So this postcard comes from Middlemore Hospital’s Wishbone Cafe, having an I-Coffee, with my Mac Air in celebration of three good things!
Nelson by Lemuel Francis Abbot
In this blog I reflect on something I saw on a history programme charting the 2,000 years of British history from Roman times to modern day.
I was interested to learn that the major innovation that the British made was the ability to essentially die cast cannon out of iron in a way that they would not crack on firing.
The long story short is that they were lighter, cheaper to produce and more deadly than their continental enemies, notably the Napoleonic French and Spanish.
I also learnt that Admiral Horatio Nelson spent hours below decks talking through tactics with all ranks to discuss and involve them in battle preparations. he then always brought his Captains together to explain and get feedback on the battle plans, maybe the origins of the stand up meeting?
Nelson was obviously a master of leader standard work?
This was notably the case the night before the battle of the Nile, when the British dealt a knock out blow to the French who were finally routed after a cat and mouse chase around the Mediteranean.
So there you have it, Nelson was a Gemba guy. He spent a large proportion of his time with the troops in an early form of Leader Standard Work!
Back to the most notable battle, Trafalgar.
The Battle of Trafalgar was fought on the 21st of October 1805 off Cape Trafalgar on the Spanish coast, between the combined fleets of Spain and France and the Royal Navy. It was the last great sea action of the period and its significance to the outcome of the war in Europe is still debated by historians.
The British were out numbered but had approximately double the firepower and half the reload time of the Spanish and French.
The only option was to break the enemy lines head on, risking huge casualties on the approach. Nelson, aboard the Victory, took the lead at the head of his fleet and then when the victory broke their line and sailed in amongst the enemy, he gave the order to unleash their superior firepower to devastating effect.
The British lost no ships and the French and Spanish forces lost 17 ships, effectively wiping Napoleon’s naval power out in one fell swoop.
Unfortunately, as history reminds us, Nelson didn’t make it, but his deeds and bravery are all part of the founding of the British naval empire that spanned over 100 years.
The other day I was running a workshop at a venue which had a coffee shop as part of the function room facilities.
Having return to the fold so to speak, I now imbibe the occasional flat white, after a 15 year abstinence.
I picked up a cup of coffee, and once I had finished, put it down on the desk next to another when I noticed the subtle visual marketing, extolling the virtues of coffee…in think it’s quite a draw and almost poetic in its verse?
What do you think folks?
I was in Wellington yesterday and lets say I was in the shadow of the Beehive 🙂
I saw this poster in their offices and thought that it did alot to feature the health giving benefits of the stand up meeting.
I always seem to have to debate the benefits for a team to get together to communicate on a daily basis, but I can now claim it’s good for your health!
![IMG_1918[1]](https://kaizendiary.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/img_19181.jpg)
It is interesting to read some of the recent Lean releases which have shifted their emphasis onto how leadership needs to turn their direction to adopting the coaching style.
It is also pretty horrendous how many people claim to be a Lean Coach, with no comprehension or training in Coaching for Performance.
Personally I saw this as a weakness in the Lean Thinking system around 3 years ago, after discussing with a friend, who leads one of the leading Coach Training and delivery practices here in NZ.
With 25 years+ experience at the Gemba, I thought I could call myself a Coach, but on reflection, I was only just getting by.
Back in February and although I was a little uncomfortable to go back to the classroom, I took the time and invested my hard earned cash to be properly training.
I am now a certified coach, who although still under the watchful eye of coaches, am claiming a bit of a re birth as a true advocate of Coaching for performance in all aspects, not just in lean.
Already I am adding a whole dimension to my services to my clients as I blend Coaching with my mentoring, consulting and training.
So next time someone claims to be a Lean Coach, ask them to show you where, and how long did they train as a professional coach, and ask which qualifications body they are registered and certified with?
Toyota Supermarket
I was sharing a story with a recent Lean Academy group on how Taichii Ohno used to spend hours on the shop floor observing the process, and identifying waste.
Ohno coined the Seven wastes, which we all know and love. By the way, these were actually referred to as the Flow Wastes and despite numerous reincarnations were never the 8 wastes or the 9!
However he was most acerbic about the Waste of Motion.
Ohno saw this the waste of human movement, or activity and saw on so many occasions in his factories how people would want to look busy rather than actually being busy adding value.
Added value is simply defined from the Toyota perspective of transforming information or materials into a product or service which the customer would be happy to pay for. This definition was embedded into my cerebellum by none other than the legendary Shingijutsu back in the early nineties.
Ohno commented that no one want to look idle, so as a result, people perfected ways of looking busy.
Ohno uses an example of one of his times observing a machine shop, where fitter fabricators would make their component parts and would be forever sharpening their tools, as the flow of work meant there was uneven delivery of parts, so people didn’t want to be standing around.
The waste of motion is one of the least obvious wastes, but the advice I gave my students is to put a video recorder up overlooking their factory, and run it for an hour during the production shift.
This records just exactly what activities the employees are undertaking during the working day and is often quite revealing. I visit many Gembas during my travels, and trust me, I witness a lot of people walking around looking for either materials, tools and equipment and information in relation to the job in hand.
Last week I visited one of the factories, owned by one of my participants, and he had taken this to heart. He stayed that he’d been to many Lean presentations and was sceptical about the snake oil of you could achieve a 30% improvement in productivity through Lean.
However, he took me through their Gemba and already I could see the first flush of Lean with some good 5S, and the. He shepherded me up to the boardroom and he had a little surprise for me. He had actually taken my advice and had set up a video and after reviewing the content, he concluded that in the 10 minute video, he only saw about 3 minutes of working!
He has now shown this to his entire team, and has set them the challenge to reduce waste of motion, as this is often the biggest productivity winner of these classic waste.
Congratulations to the guys in Tauranga, this was a great example of using simple analysis using a video, to really identify where there was a problem!
I know they will be working hard to fix these opportunities, and of course there is no blame on this one, this was not a draconian measure to entrap staff…far from it!
I’m sure Taichii Ohno would have approved. I’ m also sure that he would have scolded the managers in front of the staff as to why they hadn’t done this sooner, as they didn’t spend enough time at Gemba.
I am in Wellington today on a grey winters day.
I was cheered up by this humorous personal plate for an explosives expert!
KABOOM!
A couple of years ago I spent two weeks doing some international consulting work in Thailand.
I really enjoyed my work there and I found a little bit of “me time” some of this bustling vibrant city.
As ever I noted some great Lean examples in everyday life which I found both interesting and humorous!
I found the best way to get around Bangkok was to use a combination of the Taxi service combined with the modern “Skytrain” metro system that can get you into the heart of the city.
It was whilst I was riding in the back of a taxi; I noticed some interesting examples of Visual Standards. Visualisation is a critical lean technique, enabling information and instructions to be conveyed in simple pictures and colours. The human brain is predisposed to receiving visual signals, and it’s how we can best interpret the world around us.
So moving back to my taxi ride, I wanted to share some more Visual Management examples Bangkok style!
The picture of a Yak actually means no messing around, “being a “Yak” is “Thai for playing the fool”.
The picture of the sword and AK-47 is fairly obvious, I guess you are supposed to put those in the boot!
The first images looks like a Bomb, but I am reliably informed it’s a local fruit, which smells vile and not a welcoming smell in a taxi.
The second image is a little more familiar, No Smoking!
for this one it’s obvioulsy no dogs in the cab, and no drinking…
Now there was a final image, which looked a bit like two people wrestling? I decided to censor that one as it was R18 🙂
So, there you go, everything you need to know about what you can and can’t do in the back of a Bangkok Taxi…all in pictographic form!
One my very first trips to Japan our tour included an interesting contrast between a visit to Yamaha musical Instruments and the motorcycle factory and museum.
It was a bit of a boyhood dream to visit Yamaha as a teenager I was desperate to own and ride a moped which at 50cc is all we were allowed to straddle at the not so sensible age of 16.
The long and short of it all is that although my sisters boyfriend had one, I was never allowed! I blame this on him as he was always a bad influence 🙂
At the time my best friend Andy wanted a Honda but the best we did was to by a Yamaha and Honda jacket which looked dashing on our bicycles!!
So back to the Japan tour, we had spent the morning visiting the Yamaha Instruments factory and after a swift lunch we headed to the Motorcycle factory across town.
The tour team were greeted and furnished with a Yamaha baseball hat (which I still have today) and we were taken through a bit of a company presentation before being taken through to the main assembly hall.
The motorbikes were built from the frame up and as we walked the final assembly line we were told there were 138 assembly stations that resulted in a finished bike.
The place was immaculate, extremely well organized and as expected each station was well set up and we could see eveidence of Standard Work, Kanban, Visual management and of course 5S!
We noted the very last station was a rolling road. The operator had the task of starting the motorcycle and then road testing it on a rolling road whereby he conducted a series of tests and computers ran their diagnostics producing either a pass or fail.
Apparently they rotate this job 3-4 times per shift. I wondered if this was because riding motorcycles all day would be much of a hardship!
After the completion of the tour we returned to the visitors centre and museum, and it was quite fascinating to see the history of their company and actually just how closeley they have worked with Toyota over the years.
Pictured above is my friend Celine, riding a virtual reality Ski-doo…that was a lot of fun!
Richard Steel
Lean Tomatoes 