Hi Paul !!
Here at Con-way Truckload we are beginning the Lean journey. My boss, our President, has given us books to read, but as a single parent of two boys, time is precious and finding time to read is difficult. So I thought, I spend 50 minutes a day in the car just driving back and forth to work, not to mention all the time driving to practices, games, church, birthday parties for my kids friends …. and so on and so on. Therefore, to make the best use of my time, rather than listening to music, I decided to find some audio books on Lean. So I started doing some Google searches and found you, then went to iTunes and downloaded your audiobook, 2 Second Lean !!! What a great book !! I’ve listened to it three times in the last couple of weeks and enjoy it each time, and learn something new also.
You talk a lot about “having fun with Lean”, so I thought this story was funny, probably because of the title, but it’s goes along with what you talk about in regards to Lean at home. Here’s the story:
My 10 year old takes his lunch every day. And every day (along with a sandwich, fruit cup and other items) he likes to have two small slices of Pepper Jack cheese. So before listening to your book, every night while making his lunch, I would get out the brick of Pepper Jack cheese, get out a knife, open the package, cut off two slices, put them in a zip lock bag, put the cheese away, put the zip lock bags away, wash the knife and put the knife away. So now I’m beginning to think Lean, and this past Sunday evening, I get out the cheese, make enough packets for all week, then put everything away and wash the knife. So before your book, I was getting out and opening the cheese 5 times a week, getting out and putting away the zip lock bags 5 times a week, washing a knife 5 times, etc. etc. Now, I get out the cheese and zip lock bags once, wash one knife and I’m done.
So as I was doing this last Sunday evening, I was thinking about you and your book. Then I laughed and thought, this Lean is amazing ………………… there’s even a Lean way to “cut the cheese” !!!!
Thanks for your passion for Lean !!!!
Randy Cornell
Vice President – Maintenance
Con-way Truckload