Filipe Marques, of Torre, sent us this video telling us why Lean starts in the bathroom…and EVERYONE participates!

One-piece flow isn’t complicated! We watched this in our morning meeting.

John Kramer, of Cambridge Engineering, sent us this video to be included on the Lean Hub. Anyone can use the Lean Hub to connect with other Lean organization in their area.

Ken Allender, of Wildwood Cabinetry, sent us this video introducing us to lean at Wildwood Cabinetry!

Zingermans sent us this video showing their lean improvements and saying thanks!

Sherri Hotzler, of Vantec, Inc., sent us this video showing how that reduced wasted regrind. Continuous improvement has great dividends.

Working at the DoJo Toyota training center on the radiator assembling line.

We now have the Becoming a Lean Thinker video translated into seven languages!

English

Spanish / español

French / français

Chinese / chinois

German / Deutsch

Russian / Рyсский

Portuguese / Português

Portuguese (Brazilian) / Português Brasileiro

Paul Akers shows off Brad’s lean briefcase. Brad used FastCap’s Kaizen Foam to organize his briefcase and lets him know when something is missing.

For more information on FastCap’s Kaizen Foam, visit our website.

Pat Gilbert, of tustinwoodworks.com, sent us this story.

You don’t have to be an engineer to appreciate this true story.

A toothpaste factory had a problem. They sometimes shipped empty boxes without the tube inside. This challenged their perceived quality with the buyers and distributors. Understanding how important the relationship with them was, the CEO of the company assembled his top people. They decided to hire an external engineering company to solve their empty boxes problem. The project followed the usual process: budget and project sponsor allocated, RFP(Request For Proposal), and third-parties selected. Six months (and $8 million) later they had a fantastic solution – on time, on budget, and high quality. Everyone in the project was pleased.

They solved the problem by using a high-tech precision scale that would sound a bell and flash lights whenever a toothpaste box weighed less than it should. The line would stop, someone would walk over, remove the defective box, and then press another button to re-start the line. As a result of the new package monitoring process, no empty boxes were being shipped out of the factory.

With no more customer complaints, the CEO felt the $8 million was well spent. He then reviewed the line statistics report and discovered the number of empty boxes picked up by the scale in the first week was consistent with projections, however, the next three weeks were zero! The estimated rate should have been at least a dozen boxes a day. He had the engineers check the equipment, they verified the report as accurate.

Puzzled, the CEO travelled down to the factory, viewed the part of the line where the precision scale was installed, and observed just ahead of the new $8 million dollar solution sat a $20 desk fan blowing the empty boxes off the belt and into a bin. He asked the line supervisor what that was about.

“Oh, that,” the supervisor replied, “Bert, the kid from maintenance, put it there because he was tired of walking over, removing the box and re-starting the line every time the bell rang.”