Best of Post: A winning pinewood derby car through continous improvement: Part 2

More on the pinewood derby stuff.  We didn't buy any books or spend any extra money on a "champion package" to get a winning entry-we simply kept relentlessly improving the car and reducing all possible friction.  Isn't the whole point to learn by doing with your son?

A winning pinewood derby car through continous improvement: Part 2

Ok, here is the brain dump of what my son and I did to get a winning pinewood derby car:


First steps:


Get the car kit a month of two before the derby. Start working on the car early to give your son and yourself time to learn and overcome production obstacles. Beginning the work on the car a few days before the race will cause stress and frustration and lead to a poor outcome.


Create a work area for the car kit with all the tools so you and your son can work on the car and have everything in one place.  Have your son organize the tools and layout of the work area-he will take more ownership in the car and the process.


If you can, buy a second kit and pick the best wheels and nail axles out of the two kits.


Some choose to buy the books about how to make a winning car. My advice is to check out the library and see what it has on the pinewood derby. Also, networking with other dads will give you 90% of the knowledge you need for a great car.


Car Design


Have your son draw designs for the car on paper first 1 to 2 months before the competition. This will engage his mind and create excitement about the process of creating the car.


Look at pictures on the Internet to get ideas of designs. Really cool stuff out there.

Make it as close as possible to your son's design-this will create more ownership from the boy.

Tools I recommend for this project to speed the production process:


Hammer


Screwdrivers


Variable speed drill


High speed drill tool(Dremel)


Wood chisels


Pliers


Jigsaw or ban saw


Belt sander


Car body


I believe the more aerodynamic the better. He chose a smooth curved shape this year and got good results. However, I do not believe that the greatest speed return will be in this area so don't go crazy with it.


Cut the car body with a ban saw or jigsaw.


Teach your son workshop safety tips as you go.


Sand the body down with a power sander or belt sander.


Make it an inter generation project and include grandpa if possible!


Sand the body nice and smooth to prepare for painting.


Start with a coarse grit and then use finer and finer grit sandpaper for final preparation.


Pencil on the bottom of the car "F" for front and "R" for rear - this applies to some designs that are hard to tell front from rear.


Do a "axle" test and see if the axles are level by placing the nails in the body axle slots and checking them with a level.


We would travel to my dad's workshop and do all this work. I imagine that we spent about 1-2 hours out in the shop teaching, cutting, sanding, truing, and cleaning up the shop. My goal was that both my sons remember working with Grandpa and Dad on their cars.


Next post will cover things to do for the wheels and axles.


What have you improved today?


Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer

Best of Post - A winning pinewood derby car through continuous improvement: Part 1

Every year around this time, I get lot of hits on my past posts on pinewood derby cars and kaizen.  So I'll make this a little easier for folks to find...first posted in 2009.


A winning pinewood derby car through continous improvement: Part 1


On Friday night, my youngest son had his last every pinewood derby race for cub scouts. Both of my boys raced in the local pack race and enjoyed this activity. My oldest sons highest placing was 7th out of 28 cars and my youngest best finish ever was 5th in 2008. This year, we determined to use the kaizen approach and pull out all the stops since this was the final race that we would participate in. I will tell you that this was the best race we ever had in our family! Before I reveal our secrets and how we finished, here is what we decided to do in the final derby of our family:



1) My son had to do over 50% of the work on his car- In my opinion, Dad doing all the work defeats the purpose and spirit of the pinewood derby. Some of the cars that race are obviously built by an adult...my goal was that by doing over half the work he would take interest and ownership in the car.



2) Inter generational project - My dad, myself, and my son all took time to work on the car. My father is a fabulous woodworker with a primo workshop and he helped his grandson cut and sand the body of the car. Our goal is that he remember working with his grandpa and his dad and how much fun it is to do projects with his family.



3) Check listing all the things I learned previously - in all the past races, I learned a few tips here and there. This year, I went back to all the techniques I had heard over the years and followed them in the building of the car.



4) Add my own improvement - this year I added some of my own kaizens of which most I believe helped the cars performance in the race. One didn't work at all...not all kaizens work but don't get discouraged.



5) Focusing on the process instead of the outcome - the time that I any son spent was building and working on the car to do all the things we knew to make it go fast. We focused on the fundamentals and process of reducing friction in every place possible instead of thinking about winning the competition. If you work on the fundamentals, the results will take care of themselves.



In my next post, I tell all the secrets we learned over the years and how we used them. Unlike so many others charging for pinewood derby car information, we share what we learned for free to benefit everyone that wants to read it.



What have you improved today?



Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer

How to win an Ipad using kaizen...

Kaizen and Lean can be used in anything even improving haiku writing!  Check out the video about winning this "Help Desk Haiku" contest sponsored by Serena Software...


Here is the explanantion of the contest...
http://www.serena.com/solutions/itsm/help-desk-haiku-contest.html

I challenged myself to use the same kaizen thinking I use at work and home to convince myself that these principles will work in any endeavor. They do!

What have you improved today?

Dan Lafever
Kaizeneer

One crazy idea can make a difference

My kaizen for Waterman's Farm extra pumpkin inventory has now become a charity event in its second year.  Great to see how a crazy idea can help sick children and orphaned pets. Originally, I noticed the farm has a lot of pumpkin inventory waste and they just plowed them under after Halloween. I approached them about an event to smash pumpkins and gave my 17 year old son a party where we obliterated the orange orbs, played baseball with green tomatoes, and had a very fun time. Instead of plowing the excess pumpkins under as a total waste, we used them for a smashing good time. Waterman's took the idea and has now made it an annual charity event to raise money. Cool.



What farm have you improved today?

Dan Lafever
Kaizeneer

Church kaizen

I have become known at church for kaizen activity so I wanted to share a couple of things I have done. The little by little principle is in the Bible found in Proverbs 13:11 in regards to saving money. Oddly enough, my first church kaizen has to do with giving. As a past volunteer contribution counter, people fold their checks to keep their gift confidential which is fine but unfolding these adds no value and just wastes time. My kaizen has been to not fold my check but to place it in the offering basket face down. This keeps my gift secret as well as reducing motion waste especially when unfolding double folded checks!  I am starting to see a few checks now unfolded and face down since I have evangelized this idea so I am spreading the word.

What have you improved in church today?

Dan Lafever
Kaizeneer

2012 Resolutions

1)To post more in 2012
2)More pictures to see
3)More kaizen work to help others

Happy New Year

Quick and Easy Kaizen lessons at the food bank.

Last night many of our church members went to volunteer at the Gleaners Food bank in Indianapolis.  In the space of about two hours, we assembled 640 boxes of food and I learned some good lessons.  My job was to "stock" 5 lines of food items for volunteers assembling the standard box of food on the line.  As I was supplying the boxes of corn flakes, I noticed the teenage girl removing the corn flakes packages from the large box had a hard time getting the first one out.  This was due to the tight packing of the cereal packages in the large box.  She would sometimes take what seemed to be a long time to remove the first corn flakes box in a busy fast moving assembly line.

My quick and easy kaizen was that when I opened the big box of corn flakes to supply her, I pulled one package out and set it on top.  This then made it easy for her since she didn't waste time struggling to pull the first one out and quicker to get two in at a time.  Just a little change like that made it easier and faster.

What have you improved today?

Dan Lafever