Improving the plug cover on my electric bike.

I have an electric bike, an eGO, that I have been improving.

One of the first things I noticed was that the rubber plug cover was not attached the eGO bike. If I took it off and set it on the deck of the bike, it would roll off under something. I improved it by attaching it to another part of the bike with a black dress shoestring and got two improvements:

1) The plug cover is attached to the bike and won't get lost.
2) I don't have to remember where I laid the plug when it charges.








It looks pretty nice too when it plugged in.






It costs $10 to replace the AC plug cover plus shipping so this improvement will help me in the future. Keep on improving!!

Dan Lafever
Kaizeneer

Dad, I need a note for school

Could you send a permission slip for my field trip?

With three kids in school(I had four but my oldest is in now in college), it seems that I am always getting some request for a note. It's always when I am trying to drink my morning coffee. I fiddle around trying to find a pad, find a good pen, and so forth all while interrogating my kids on the reason for the note. As we have been trying to improve our processes at home, I found this chore takes longer than I expect and uses more paper than what was really needed.

Before:

• Every note was hand written.
• Usually it was written in a short time because the kids would remember at the last minute.
• Due to the time constraint, quality of the content and penmanship was lacking.
• Used a large piece of paper that was mostly blank.

The elegant solution:

A pre-printed form with every reason I need.

The top of the form has my wife and my address, phone, and contact information.
The second line has the type of absenses(absence, permission, etc) and I simple circle the one I need.
Line three has all 4 kids list and I circle the correct name.
Date
The reason the child needs a note.
Signature and date.

After:

• I can crank out a note in about 30 seconds versus a couple minutes.
• Two notes can fit on one 8.5" X 11" so I am using less paper than before.
• If the kids forget to tell me the night before, I can get one done fast.
• The note from home process is now ordered, efficient, and better quality.
• This improvement has made me less stressed in the morning.

I have written several of these since I created the form. My daughter told me that she feels guilty turning in this new form because she is afraid that the school with think she is forging these notes. Well, I guess that's the consequence of interrupting my morning coffee too many times.

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer

Thanks for reading my blog

Improving my son's morning routine.

Backpack, pack lunch, put on socks and shoes, eat breakfast, devotional, the walk to the bus. This is the order of my son's morning routine. However, finding his shoes is a big problem.

Before:

• His shoes can be anywhere in the house.
• He never puts them in the same place twice.
• When he can't locate his shoes, his morning routine goes in a tailspin.
• He gets upset when he loses them.
• I get mad when he can't find his shoes.

The elegant improvement solution(and cheap I might add):

I simply made a cardboard cutout of his shoes and labeled it "Chip's shoes home position" and placed it next to where he puts his backpack at night. Chip knows where he is to put his shoes before going to bed:

After:

• He can find his shoes much easier
• Little by little, he is placing his shoes in the home position every time.
• His morning routine is better.
• He and I are happier because the stress of locating his shoes is gone.

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer
Thank you for reading my blog.

403B improvement

In my mid thirties, I realized that I was not saving enough money for my retirement:

• As I recall, my savings was around 3-5% of my income in the 1990s.
• Based my my contributions, I would have enought saved.
• With pensions plans going the way of the dinosaur and social security looking paltry, it is my responsibility to prepare for the future.

So, my little by little improvement was to fold every raise or market increase into my 403B contribution. So, over time I have gradually increased to giving of my pre-tax income to what it is today in 2007, 17.5%. Here's what happened:

• I don't miss the money that is going in my 403B.
• I have got used to not getting much of a raise.
• My wife has upped her contributions to 15% her part time income well.
• It took several years to get to 17.5% but it was easy and fairly painless because we did it slowly.

I'd like to take credit for this idea but Solomon actually came up with it with the wisdom God gave him:

Dishonest money dwindles away, but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow. Proverbs 13:11

I hope this helps you because it's worked for me. Take responsibility for your future with this little by little improvment idea.

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer

Thank you for reading my blog.

Little by little, you can change things and make them better. The japanese call this "Kaizen".

Here is what Kaizen or is:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7788463356044216543&q=kaizen+video&hl=en

Dan Lafever
Kaizeneer