Paul Akers offers to help Puerto Rico on their Lean journey.

What lengths do you go to avoid mistakes?

Paul Akers find the perfect example to explain poka-yoke: any mechanism in any process that helps an equipment operator avoid (yokeru) mistakes (poka). Its purpose is to eliminate product defects by preventing, correcting, or drawing attention to human errors as they occur. If you like this video, give it a thumbs up & subscribe to our channel.

Mike Trulove shared this video about a Lean bike repair station at San Angelo State Park. Brilliant!

Paul Akers discusses the precision of the toll booths in Japan.

Mike Trulove shared this video about a Lean bike repair station at San Angelo State Park. Brilliant!

Printing and signing documents can be time consuming. But watch Robert Olinger cut the waste of 3 minutes 16 seconds for each signature.

Paul Akers discusses the fast and cool Kagoshima Airport. They only require you to show up 20 minutes early: 5 minutes to check in; 5 minutes for security; and 10 minutes at the gate.

Over eight years ago I had my first encounter with Harry Kenworthy. I can still remember his words as they resonate in my head today every bit as much as they did then. “How do you make lean stick? You must set an expectation and inspect the expectation and celebrate every accomplishment.” So practical it hurts! Lean Government Now! is exactly the same practical and to-the-point book. If you’re looking for theory, this probably is not the best book for you, but if you’re looking for a pragmatic approach to making government (or for that matter, any organization) more effective using powerful Lean concepts, Harry has unlocked the door! ~Paul

“‘The journey over the last two years has been nothing short of extraordinary,’ says Shalom Jacobs, deputy director of Arizona’s relatively new Department of Child Safety.

What’s changed most, says Jacobs, is a new management system under Gov. Doug Ducey, a former businessman, that borrows from “lean” practices in the business world to speed up the way they do things. In the past, the agency relied on ad hoc groups that would study an issue for a few months and recommend solutions. Jacobs, who started with the agency as a case specialist in 1999, says that previous leadership never focused on the processes and systems that kept breaking down. Now it’s the staff themselves who diagnose problems, propose solutions and then try out their ideas.”

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