The Good, The Bad, and How it Connects to Lean
Experience lean at our Des Moines, Iowa AirBNB house! And checkout our new course LeanBNB to find more training just like this one!
My Not So Lean AirBNB Experience
We recently had a short vacation and stayed at an AirBNB we will never forget. But don’t misunderstand me: when I say it was unforgettable, it’s because it was anything but “lean!” Can an AirBNB teach us about how to be lean? Absolutely. Watch the video to find out. And checkout our new course LeanBNB …
The Mindset Required To Succeed with 5S | Episode 11
Most 5S instruction includes a step-by-step approach for implementing 5S. It sounds nice, but in a lot of situations it is garbage! That’s because it is impossible to “get it right” the first time. If you try that approach you’ll waste hours and hours thinking and planning 5S vs. learning by doing. Each frontline leader …
The Mindset Required To Succeed with 5S | Episode 11 Read More »
Why Batching is Bad Even in a Restaurant | Episode 9
When we opened the storefront, everyone had something to say about how to fry our chicken. Two other business owners and even a nationally-renown chef told us we should par-fry the chicken. The problem with it is that par-frying increases the batching of work in process (WIP) enormously! We gave them the benefit of the …
Why Batching is Bad Even in a Restaurant | Episode 9 Read More »
Production Scheduling and “Plan vs. Actual” Controls | Episode 10
There is a lot of value to a production schedule that works. But it’s not just finishing the work at a time that you planned! The heartbeat of many lean processes is a built-in PDCA loop of “plan vs. actual” performance. In the case of the production schedule at the Lean Donut Shop, we made …
Production Scheduling and “Plan vs. Actual” Controls | Episode 10 Read More »
My Stupid Mistake Practicing Kaizen (Keep it Simple!) | Episode 8
Sometimes my good intentions (for perfection) leads to behavior that is very dumb. In this case, I wanted to have pretty and perfect labels for inventory management on my shelves. It’s not necessarily a hard thing to do, but in our situation there were too many barriers and disruptions pulling me away from doing it …
My Stupid Mistake Practicing Kaizen (Keep it Simple!) | Episode 8 Read More »