Can a safety pin make your home warmer this winter?

Before: Curtain is blocking the warm air duct sending warm air behind the curtain and out of the room:



After: A safety pin added to pin back the window drapes allows all the warm air to get in the room.



Benefits:

• Hot air is no longer diverted behind the curtain
• Room feels warmer

Cost of improvement: 2 cents

People have said to me that kaizen work like this is "common sense". Indeed. Why then isn't everyone improving things and making their lives better? Because it's not common sense or everyone would be doing it.

Kaizen is not common sense...it is uncommon wisdom.


What have you improved today?

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer

Muda Monday - 1st Waste at home - Transportation

Muda is the Japanese word for waste and I hope to illuminate how the waste of transportation, excess movement of items and people, can be reduced at home saving time, money, and effort. The Toyota Production system incorporates the continuous removal of waste as part of "lean" principles. Let's look at some examples of how the waste of transportation has played out in my home:

• Driving multiple cars to the same location - this happens frequently when everyone in the family goes to the same spot at different times.

For example, if we use the 2009 AAA mileage rate for trips, here's what it cost for a forty mile round trip with our vehicles:

1 car (compact sedan at .55/mile) = $22

2 cars (2 compact sedans) = $44

3 cars (2 compact sedans & large vehicle at .86/mile) = $78.40

As you can see, taking 3 cars almost quadruples the costs of the trips. In addition, every car has empty space in it which is waste and contributes to the problem. As a countermeasure, we work together to synchronize schedules and use the highest mileage vehicles for the longest trips. Yesterday, we rode to church in one vehicle although we were going in different directions after service. We simply coordinated rides home with some friends and only needed one vehicle.

• Going medium or long distances to get services or goods that are locally available.

We installed a fireplace insert in our home last year but we lacked wood to burn. I could drive a couple hours to get free wood from relatives or buy it locally. Instead, I decided to implement a countermeasure and first find all the free wood that was available within walking distance. There were unburned logs for an outdoor fire pit that I had in my yard, the neighbor across the street had sawed up an fallen tree, seven houses down was a large pile of logs that no one wanted, and two streets over was a massive stump with cut up sticks free for the taking. Not only did my fuel for the insert swell, but I did my neighbors and friends a service by removing flammable dead tree remnants. Needless to say, it's also been amazing to see how fast the wood added up while I was getting exercise and time outdoors.

• Placing items at their point of use

For years, I couldn't get my kids to change a roll of toilet paper when the roll was empty. They would complain about having to go find the toilet paper in the basement or in a closet. In their own way, they identified the transport waste of having to go down two sets of stairs and move toilet paper up to the bathrooms. As a result, we moved multiple rolls into the bathrooms and stock them on the plungers and hid them in the corner. Now, re-stocking the rolls takes seconds most of the time and the refresh rate for new toilet paper is much better.

These are but a few examples of transportation waste in the home. Please consider what transportation you do such a errands, trips, moving items in the home, etc. When it comes to the muda of excessive transportation, there is no end to all the ways at home that waste can be eliminated...and just watch the benefits add up.

What have you improved today?

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer

A flu-sey improvement

Everyone remain calm. As the onset of the flu season commences, I find myself home with my son who is ill with some sort of sickness. Even though I am home bound, the desire to eliminate waste has once again helped me pass the time until the boy becomes well. As I have been working from home and tending to my child, my wife and I came up with kaizens to make the nursing time at home a little bit easier.

Once the digital thermometer failed, I found myself too cheap and too tired to go out and replace it. So we get the old mercury thermometer...but it is in Celsius and hard to read. Neither my wife or I are good at converting from C to F and I have a hard time reading the scale because of my old eyes. Here's what we did:

1) I found the optimal process for reading the temperature. On the end of the thermometer, there is a triangle. If you hold it up to read it and point the top of the triangle toward your eyes, you can see the level of mercury and the reading is very easily seen. No more wasting time twirling the thermometer every which way trying to read the level.

2) My wife discovered that if she takes the reading in the kitchen, she can get the number and look at the outside thermometer which has both C and F , She just cross references and gets the Fahrenheit value. Quick, easy, and no calculation necessary.

Lastly, we believe in taking vitamin C to help stave off seasonal bugs but my son was resistant in taking them. His objection was due to looking on the vitamin shelf and sorting through several bottles of supplements...which he hates to do. My wife and I agreed that if the chewable vitamins were easier to find, he would take them more often. So, we simple moved them to a window sill next to the sink so that he can readily locate the bottle.

These are small things but they make a difference by reducing time, frustration, and effort when everyone is feeling a little under the weather.

What have you improved today?

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer

Quick and Easy Kaizen #13 - Free software for home

I like free. Especially when it is good and free. On the other hand, bad and free...that's called trash. Never accept trash even if they pay you to take it. That's called stupid.

On my way to an out of town meeting a few days ago, I picked up a copy of Consumer Reports and the issue I reviewed was evaluating software such as anti-virus, spam, pop-up blockers and so on. Interestingly enough, three free products were recommended by CR for anti-virus, spam, and pop-up blocking:

Avira anti-virus
Microsoft Windows Defender
Spam fighter Standard

The computer that the family uses was in dire need of protection since the Mcafee products expired and reminded us tirelessly that we need to buy an upgrade. All these products listed above were free so I downloaded them today and installed them on the family PC. These seem to run well, were a breeze to setup, and I saved $40-$100 over retail packaged software with similar features. Don't pay for overblown app suites when you get 80-90% of the value for free. Don't take my word for it, check out Consumer Reports!

Benefits:

• Free software
• Improved protection from virus, malware, intrusions, and pop-ups

What have you improved today?

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer

Improving my IT Service Desk...

OK...I'm going to depart from home and family improvement for a post...or two...or three.

I work as a manager at an IT Service Desk and we use Lean and Kaizen techniques all the time in our business. Here's a kaizen idea that one of my employees turned in:

An employee that transferred in from the night service desk noticed that she had some of her old functional access allowed her to solve certain problems that day time staff couldn't. During the day, service desk analysts had to escalate these types of problems to other teams. She submitted this idea as a Quick and Easy Kaizen. Upon investigation, no one knew why the daytime staff didn't have that access and so it was granted. Now, everyone of my staff can resolve these types of calls without escalation.

Benefits:

• Better caller resolution
• Faster resolution with no waiting
• Elminated the waste of uneeded escalation

What have you improved today?

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer

Camp Kaizen

For the last several years, I have been directing a week long church camp for fathers and sons called, "Dads Camp". Each year, I use continuous improvement techniques to make the outing easier, cost less, and reduce preparation time. Here's a story about improving the financial aspects of our event.

In 2008, a number of fathers spent their own money for camp expenses and once camp was completed, it took weeks to straighten out the mess and get everyone paid. Receipts were unclear, the process was not understood, and miscommunication occurred. So, using lean improvement methods, we made the camp expense process much easier by changing the following:

1. All camp expenses had to be pre-approved before the actual event or they would not be reimbursed.
2. Several required camp items were paid with the church credit card in advance eliminating the need to front all the expense money.
3. Expense forms were brought to the camp so that they could be completed and sent back to the church office immediately for faster turnaround.
4. Thank you gifts were purchased in advance of the outing for distribution at camp instead of weeks later.

These kaizens made the wrap-up process so much easier and I am pleased to report that our camp budget was in the black. Using kaizen techniques, we didn't need a bailout. Even a few small changes can make a difference and there will be even more improvements next year.

What have you improved today?

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer

Quick and Easy Kaizen #12 - Text your kids on home changes

Taking a page from my ITIL training, I send out "Home Change Alerts" when changes are made at our house that would affect my kids away to college. For example, I recently moved the dog cage into a vacant bedroom that my college students share when home from school. Our puppy now goes to sleep in his kennel in their room and they have been informed of this change. Home change alerts are simple, easy, and to the point.

Benefits:

• Improved communications among family members
• Children away feel more involved with the family
• Changes can be sent at one time to a group instead of being repeated over and over

What have you improved today?

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer