Running to standard Whenever there is a problem, we should always first ask the question: Are we running to standard? Often the issue is that we’ve not followed the standard and we simply aren’t doing what we ought to be doing. It can be hard to admit to ourselves that we’ve merely been human and...

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Lean is probably one of the most misunderstood leadership concepts in business, and many people would even question why I would refer to it as a leadership concept. Surely it’s a manufacturing methodology, hence why it’s often referred to as Lean Manufacturing and is the descendent of the Toyota Production System (TPS)? Somehow, and despite...

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One of the biggest challenges of a Lean Transformation is to create the ‘Vision of Excellence’; what should we aim to achieve over the coming years, what is possible? This is often problematic because the majority of people in the organisation ‘don’t know what they don’t know’; that is, they haven’t seen what truly Operationally...

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This is an except from Chapter-1, Introduction from my book, “The Simplicity of Lean”. Lean means many things to many people and its success or failure is important to a large number of stakeholders: customers, employees, management, shareholders, suppliers, and society as a whole. Is Lean a toolkit? Is it about cost saving? Is it...

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One of the frequent criticisms that Lean Practitioners face in teaching Lean Thinking and its Leadership is that the language used can be confusing or exclusive. Whilst terms such as Kaizen and Kanban might have become well established across industry and geography, terms such as Kamishibai, Kaikaku and Yamazumi (please see the end of the...

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As we approach the Holiday period and Christmas, it got me thinking about Father Christmas, or Santa, and whether he is, in fact, a good example of a Lean Leader. The more that I investigated, the more that I found supporting evidence: Safety First Safety is the top of mind for any Lean Leader and...

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When I was a child one of my favourite cartoons was Scooby Doo, with its ‘tongue in cheek’ humour and pseudo ’70s approach to life. Even the low budget nature of Hanna Barbera’s cartoon was compelling and somehow added to the enticement of the programme. However, during some recent reflection on Leadership challenges I considered...

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Steve Jobs once said: “Be a Yardstick of Quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected” Therefore a Quality Mind-set will only pervade the organisation when the Leadership actively models the behaviour. Only by living the approach to Quality that they desire can Leaders truly drive the change to a Culture...

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