Tailgate Meeting

Jason Herrera, of DPR Construction, shared these images of their tailgate pull plan and said:

“Over the past year I have been a part of many projects trying to integrate Last Planner tools into their foreman meetings and scheduling meetings…I’ve struggled with field engagement and generating value in these sessions, especially the first session.

That all changed today…I have a feeling a large part of the success was related to the session literally taking place on the tailgate of a truck. The foreman had no option whether they would sit or stand. There wasn’t any struggling to get the guys out of their seats and engaged at the planning boards. Perhaps the environment was even a little more comfortable for them opposed to being in the generals trailer surrounding by collared shirts.

Following the meeting the…foreman came up to me and said it was by far the best pull plan session he had ever been a part of.

I really do believe this is taking the principals of LEAN and removing the waste of make things more complicated than they have to be. Keeping it simple. After all, pull planning is just a high level of coordination and some of the best coordination has always taken place at a jobsite tailgate.”

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For more information on lean, visit 2 Second Lean.

MAPP Roundtable Interview

Paul Akers, of The American Innovator, leads a global round table at MAPP’s Benchmarking & Best Practices Conference in Indianapolis on October 17, 2013.

Round Table Participants
Ashley Bailey from Klime-Ezee
Kelly Goodsel of Viking Plastics
Nick Kocelj of Walters & Wolf
Michael Althoff of Yellotools
Greg Glebe of Xylem Design
Paul Akers of FastCap

For more information on MAPP’s Benchmarking & Best Practices Conference, visit their website.

For more information on The American Innovator, visit our website or Facebook.

For more information on lean, go to 2 Second Lean or Facebook.

For more information on FastCap, visit our website or Facebook.

To sign up to receive news regarding The American Innovator show, go to this link.

The American Innovator – Diving Off Molokai

Paul Akers, of The American Innovator, takes us along as he goes diving with hammerhead sharks near Elephant Rock off of Molokai.

For more information on Lahaina Divers, visit their website.

For more information on Whaler’s Locker, Inc, go to their Google+ Page.

For more information on FastCap’s iPole, go to this link.

For more information on The American Innovator, visit our website or Facebook.

For more information on lean, go to 2 Second Lean or Facebook.

For more information on FastCap, visit our website or Facebook.

To sign up to receive news regarding The American Innovator show, go to this link.

Bathroom Kanban Convert

We received this email from Scott Griffiths, of Laird, after a visit to FastCap.

Subject: RE: Fix What Bugs You – UPDATE

Fellow Travelers on the Path to Lean:

One of my commitments from the Lean Tour of Seattle was to try the bathroom cleaning concept we saw at Fastcap. (Inspired by the picture of Bill and Alberto hovering over that gleaming bowl of porcelain.)

Here is my first cut at the standard bathroom cleaning procedure which is now in effect for the men’s room outside the conference center at San Marcos. I’ll let you know what I learn. Peace, Griff