Indy ASQ chapter meeting 1/8/2013 6P-8P

Join us for this talk!

http://www.eventbrite.com/event/4290767802

Kaizen Klips #3 "Keep Trying"

Don't quit, keep improving, you will get there.



What have you improved today?

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer

Building a Kaizen Nation

As I have continued my personal use of kaizen, I am convinced it can be used for anything (I wonder if any of the NCAA Final Four basketball teams considered it).  In addition, kaizen can be scaled to small projects and to individuals all the way up to large multi-national companies and projects. Today, I find that Kaizen is being implemented in nation states by making it a national priority.  Why?  Japan realized the value of kaizen and has been exporting it to other nations whom have seen the benefits as well.  I wonder when the United States Government will get on board?

Zambia - In their 3rd year of adopting kaizen as a nation.

http://www.zm.emb-japan.go.jp/en/topic/02.18.KAI.html

Remarks by the Japanese Ambassador: http://www.zm.emb-japan.go.jp/en/press/02.18.KAI.doc

Singapore - working on improving quality since the 1980s. The 2011 Legatum prosperity index rated Singapore #1 economy with a per capita GDP of $59K, 95% literacy, and life expectancy of 73 years. 





Could there be a connection with kaizen?  http://www.spa.org.sg/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=23&Itemid=67

2011 Legatum ranking http://www.prosperity.com/country.aspx?id=SG

More countries, such as Malaysia are considering a National Kaizen Movement for their country.  Why?  Because it works anywhere in any size, family, organization, or team.  It's not just for Japan anymore.

What country have you improved today?

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer
http://littlebylittlechange.blogspot.com/

Kaizen Klips #2 "Let's help him see it."

I keep a playlist of videos that illustrate continuous improvement in interesting ways. Here is #2 from the miniseries From Earth to Moon.  This clip features engineers coming up with a different way of thinking about landing on the moon.




What have you helped people to see today?

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer
http://littlebylittlechange.blogspot.com/

Kaizen or hillbilly batching?

One trampoline flow or leaf batching?

Make it easier, make it visible

Over the years, I have learned how to take care of my cars better and better. I wanted to see what kaizens I could do so that family members can help me better monitor key auto fluid levels. So, here was my first attempt to make the process of checking more visible and easier:



So, I now build on the first idea:



What ideas have you improved upon today?

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer
http://littlebylittlechange.blogspot.com/

Why every family in American needs a continuous improvement program

Today, I am going to take a little more serious tone in this post than usual.  Most Americans hear news stories everyday about inflation but the implications get lost between celebrity sound bites and junk news.  People don't realize that accumulating effects of inflation each year that eats away savings and family finances.  In addition, monetary policy of the central bank is punishing savers by paying little or no interest.  So, your costs go up and your net income goes down-it's a double whammy.  However, there is a counter punch that any family can use to fight this threat-Kaizen.

First, a graph from http://www.shadowstats.com/ that shows the rate of inflation from the 1980 formula that is more accurate than today's formula (that conveniently excludes energy and food):

At 10% annual inflation, what a dollar would buy today will require $1.61 to purchase in 2017.  Even if you use the official 2% inflation figure, your dollar will lose over 10% of its purchasing power in just five years.  What can citizens do?  While we can't control inflation, we can control our response to this threat and mobilize our family, our focus, and our creativity and start your own continuous improvement program at home.

So, here's what you can do:

1) Educate your family on the effects of inflation.

2) Start a kaizen program and get everyone involved.  Have every family member contribute ideas in the following areas:

• What are we paying for that we are not using?
• How can we eliminate debt faster?
• What resources are we wasting?
• What areas do we have resources that we should be using but aren't?
• How can we do things better?
• What skills can we develop that could help the family?
• What can we optimize that is not optimal today?
• What improvements can we make today to make life better?

3) Track your ideas and savings and share the results so everyone home can see it.  Make it fun and recognize the good work and good ideas that come out of this effort.

This blog was founded on the idea that Kaizen, change for the better, is a martial art form that can fight the inflation monster.  I urge all families to start now...it's never too late to start improving.

What have you improved today?

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer

Kaizen Klips #1

I keep a playlist of videos that illustrate continuous improvement in interesting ways and shows the concept.  I will share these with you over the course of time.  Here is #1 that defines kaizen.



What klips have you shared today?

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer

Heijunka and the art of lawn work

Heijunka is defined as production smoothing where orders are "leveled out" over time to create a more stable and predictable process. From wikipedia:
"As in any process, fluctuations in performance increase waste. This is because equipment, workers, inventory and all other elements required for production must always be prepared for peak production. This is a cost of flexibility. If a later process varies its withdrawal of parts in terms of timing and quality, the range of these fluctuations will increase as they move up the line towards the earlier processes. This is known as demand amplification.  Where demand is constant, production leveling is easy, but where customer demand fluctuates, two approaches have been adopted: 1) demand leveling and 2) production leveling through flexible production.

I decided to try this thinking when it comes to yard work-which is a chore I hate.  Typically, my lawn work schedule in a given week would look like this based on how much I did in the yard each day:
 
Monday-0 min, Tuesday-0 min, Wednesday-0 min, Thursday-0 min, Friday-0 min, Saturday-75 min, Sunday-30 minutes

 

So, I decided to level my work across all seven days using heijunka principles so it now the schedule looks like this:
 

Monday-15 min

Tuesday-15 min

Wednesday-15 min

Thursday-15 min

Friday-15 min

Saturday-15 min

Sunday-15 minutes

 

Now I find that I actually enjoy puting in a quarter of an hour each day on lawn work since the burden is lighter.  In addition, it has become a habit that I find myself compelled to do.  Little by little, the tedious yard work is getting done and I find myself looking forward to it since it only lasts 15 minutes.  I will be applying this leveling concept in other areas as well to see what I can level and make better and become a good habit.

 

What work have you leveled out today?

 

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer

Little by little improving singing talent...

I have featured my children's improvement ideas in previous posts and here's one where my son organized his choir practice schedule to reduce search waste and make his schedule visible:

Make schedule visible

Jacob in now a freshman in college was a finalist in Residence Hall Got Talent over the weekend. Here's how years of continually improving his voice has paid off (His part starts at 1:10 into the video). His selection was "Home" from The Wiz musical and we are very proud of him!



What has your family improved today?

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer

Fun videos that illustrate continuous improvement

Guinness (this blog post is not an endorsement of their product) has a few commercials that beautifully illustrate kaizen thinking in a humorous way. Here's a few to enjoy...







What games have you improved today?

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer

Imagineering fruit

Small Japanese grocery stores had a problem. Watermelons are large and bulky and take up too much room. Many producers gave up this market while other farmers responded differently. Rethinking the problem, farmers found growing watermelons in a square box created a stackable fruit. Customers loved this innovation since it fit well in small refrigerators. Here's a Japanese video (you will get the idea without subtitles) that illustrates this innovation.



How many problems could we solve at work and at home if we used a little imagination and improvement thinking?

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer

Little by little - Biblical kaizen

The practice of kaizen or continuous improvement has very ancient roots. In the Bible, there are several examples of this type of technique. Exodus 23:27-30 illustrates this very well:

“I will send my terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run. I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way. But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land."

God states why He will use small continual change over large revolutionary changes:

1) Too much change too fast has adverse effects
2) Change should be paced so that you can grow sustainably and not be overwhelmed
3) Time is a necessary component of successful transition

A friend of mine in Weight Watchers says that many diets fail because the change happens too fast and the dieter doesn't accomplish the needed character changes to keep off the pounds. Indeed, this passage sheds light on the reasons for small but steady change. Skip the "shock and awe" change and go with the small and steady approach instead.

What have you improved today?

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer

Wiining three contests, two IPads, one method

And the Winner of the PlusIs Twitter Contest is…
By DHurwitz on Fri January 20, 2012 8:00 AM

After an entertaining couple of months, we are pleased to announce the winners of Serena Software’s latest Twitter contest. The PlusIs contest generated hundreds of creative “Plusisms” from a variety of submitters. It was a difficult decision to narrow down to the category and Grand Prize winners.  However, it was an enjoyable exercise, especially because the Grand Prize winner receives an iPad 2 and a $500 donation towards the charity of his choice, while the category winners receive $50 gift cards and $250 donations to their favorite charities. 
Donating $1,000 to charity is always gratifying! 
The Twitter-based contest called for contestants to submit Plusisms for three categories: Technology, Holiday and General. Inspired by Serena’s very own Plusism of “People + Process = Business In Sync,” we saw a little bit of everything from the hilarious to the bizarre. 

This is the third tweeting contest I have won in the last 4 months using kaizen thinking. The little by little method of continually improving can be used in any endeavour...I still talk to people that tell me kaizen won't work for them because (enter reason here). I' still trying to figure out what to do with the 2nd IPad. That's a good problem to have...


…AND THE WINNERS AND WINNING SUBMISSIONS ARE:  
Grand Prize (iPad 2) and $500 to Charity of Choice
Technology Category:
@Kaizeneer
Poor Release Management + Frazzled Service Desk = Pain Management @Serena_Software #PlusIs
Runner-ups and Winners of the Cash Prizes and $250 Donations to Charity of Choice
Holiday Category:
@JadenRuby
NBA + Lockout = 7 Christmas Day Knockouts YEA! @Serena_Software #plusis
General Category:
@jodeepups 
Creative Tweets + @Serena_Software = A Win Win Situation for my Favorite Charity & me! #PlusIs
Winners were selected based on creativity, humor and relevance and announced via Twitter on January 20th, 2012. Judges also verified that all submissions adhered to the published contest rules and guidelines. 
Thanks to the multitude of entrants and our judging panel for another great contest!
David Hurwitz is SVP of Worldwide Marketing at Serena Software.

Bible studies, Genuis birds, and all things kaizen

A preacher told me once that it's a sin to make the Bible boring. I took this admonition to heart so I try to make my lessons fun, inspiring, and meaningful using the Scriptures. When I was studying the Bible with my son, I would find YT videos that helped illustrate verses and stories to help the Word come alive. My son and I studied the story of Elijah and the daily feeding by the ravens. It seems far fetched until we did research into these animals and were amazed at what we learned. As a interesting side note, we found this great video on how smart this aviaries are and watched it together. It helped build his faith and amplify the prophet's story.



What Bible story have you made exciting today?

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer

Prevent meeting waiting waste!

Here's a video from my workplace using continuous improvement at the job. This clever solution helps prevent wasted time in meetings from a screen and white board melee!

Krazy Koffee Kaizen

A few years ago, there was a great video demonstrating the seven wastes while making coffee. It was in another language that was maybe Danish or Icelandic and was taken down at some point. Here's my quick and easy kaizen on how to use the excess steam waste to get a really warm mug while the java is brewing. My tribute to the "Koffee Kaizen" vids of old.



What brew have you improved today?

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer

Worship service improvements

As lead usher at my church, we are alway looking for improvements for the worship to be better, more spiritual, and safe for all. Here's a few things that we did last week in our spiritual kaizen program that we call "little by little improvements":

1. Left side sanctuary Exit sign bulb replaced.
2. Two back row sanctuary lights replaced.
3. Slide clicker replacement reducing congregation wait time.
4. Ushers trained to hold communion trays with two hands to improve safety.
5. Remove items from aisle walkways to improve safety when passing trays.

Improvements we tried this service:

1. Texted teachers when sermon started and ended to give them an idea of service pacing and when to wrap us class before parents arrive. Positive feedback and will expand next Sunday.

2. Created “Lost and Found” detective bureau with younger teens and returned five misplaced items to their owners. I would like to work with a few kids every Sunday to re-position “Lost and Found” as a game and give young teens a chance to serve members by returning their stuff and play a game-this will reduce unclaimed inventory as well over time.

What worship service have you improved today?

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer

Crazy Crow Kaizen

This is amazing that animals can be creative and improve their...in this case, fun! Any activity can be improved with Kaizen.

Personal Kaizen from the Book, "The Kaizen Way" - Part 2 & 3

Great interview with Dr. Robert Maurer (Part 2 & 3) on his book "The Kaizen Way." So many insights into personal growth and understanding physiological limits to change. Enjoy.