FastCap Team members walks us through many Lean improvements on the SpeedBrace packaging table. For more information on the SpeedBrace, visit our website. SpeedBraces are perfect as Work Station Brackets, Countertop Braces / Hidden Countertop Supports and comes in stainless steel option.

Paul shows us how to take a good station and make it even better with Lean using strong visual controls.

Andrey walks us through a Lean inventory system improvement.

Paul,

I want to tell you what I did today, just because I would never have done it without meeting you and reading the Toyota Way.

I have a 1993 Saturn SC2, wonderful little car, but on Friday the water pump went boom on me, so I had to have it towed home.

Being unemployed, there is no way that I could afford a mechanic, who would have charged me close to $700 to replace the water pump and Thermostat.

I had to do it myself, I have worked on this car before, as a matter of fact, I replaced the water pump, and I went “by the book”, the Chiltons manual. I was NOT looking forward to it.

The Chilton manual tells me that in order to replace the water pump and thermostat, I must jack up the passenger side of the car, remove the tire, and then remove the plastic insert inside the wheel well for acces to these components, then I have to get UNDER the car, (very dangerous, as far as I am concerned) and remove the water pump with 3 inches of clearance between it and the side of the car, this is a real pain, and takes HOURS…. to say the least, with a little 10MM open end wrench, which you have to turn, over, and over, and over again, to get the bolts out, and there are 6 of them, all around the water pump, with minimum clearance, especially from the bottom of the car. The thermostat must also be removed this way, but from the front of the car, so slide under the car from the front, take your 10mm wrench, break them loose, and turn them over and over and over again. Only 2 bolts, but still a pain, because the air conditioning unit is in the way. And it is in the way of the water pump as well, which makes thing even tougher there.

OK, you say, Richard, where are you going with this….

I read the manual, then took a very close look at the engine, and realized, that if I remove the 6 bolts from the air conditioner unit, removed it, and placed it on top of the valve cover, still connected to it’s hoses, that I would have full access to BOTH the water pump, and the Thermostat, and I could use a ratchet, instead of turning the bolts over and over and over again with a 10mm wrench.

I took 20-30 minutes to figure this out, but once I did, it probably saved me close to 4 hours, and a LOT of muscle work..

I would NEVER have thought of this before meeting you, I took a risk, by doing it this way, and it saved me 4 hours labor, and a lot of backache, and it was less dangerous, because I did it from the TOP of the engine, instead of having to be underneath the car for that long a time.

So, instead of “doing it by the book”, I did it the “Toyota Way”, look at the problem, ask why 5 times, figure out the process( what I need to accomplish), look at the process(how I am going to accomplish it), and then implement it.

I saved at least 4 hours, I was safer, because I was not underneath the car, it was more comfortable, because I had much more room to work, and I was not on my back, and last but not least, I could actually see what I was doing.

And I have you to thank for it.

Thanks Paul!!!

Richard

Paul Akers discusses one of his favorite Lean principles.

Using Lean Principles to organize your garden tools.

FastCap Team members take a messy garden corner and make it lean!

Andrey tells us about something that bugged him and how he fixed it.

Three years ago when I visited China I came across a powerful truth, wherever there is abundance there is waste. The thought occurred to me when I walked outside a factory and was standing there with the factory owner.  His dog was circling around our feet, rummaging and foraging in the bushes for any little morsel to eat.  I noticed the dog was very thin, not malnourished, but very thin; if you will, very lean.  This dog was very resourceful.  It spent no time lying around like most dogs, it was constantly on the hunt for food.

I realized that in the environment of China there isn’t much waste. Everyone has to make do with very little and indeed you see this very clearly when you go inside a Chinese restaurant. They eat everything, whether it be the beak or the feet of a duck or the fins on a fish, everything is consumed & nothing is wasted because there isn, abundance.

In America, however, there is waste everywhere you look.  Indeed, we’re a very rich country with abundance everywhere.  Abundance in and of itself is not the problem; it’s the way we treat the excess of the abundance.  When we have a resource and we don’t use it properly or to its fullest extent then we waste that resource.  That resource – that waste – could be allocated towards other valuable activities.  We have become lazy because of the excess so we don’t use our resources to the fullest extent.

At companies like Toyota and Fastcap, there is a finely honed culture that understands that waste is the enemy and the goal is to eliminate it at every turn.  At these companies it isn’t just about not wasting things; it’s really about allocating the waste towards other valuable activities.  This is the critical component. You don’t waste only because it’s not good to waste.  You don’t waste because there are other valuable activities that you can put that waste toward.  In a lean environment Lean Thinkers understand this.

When I told this story to a friend of mine and explained the idea that wherever there’s abundance there’s waste, he chuckled and laughed.  He said, “You’re absolutely right”. I was raised on a farm, and whenever our friends from the city came to visit they noticed that there were a lot of very skinny barn cats.  They would ask my dad why he didn’t feed those cats.  My dad would always retort back ‚”Are you kidding, those are self propelled, self cocking mouse traps!“.  My dad got a chuckle out of telling those stories because he understood that if he fed those cats they wouldn’t do their jobs.  They’d be lying around like most other farm animals would if they were fed at every turn.  Instead my father allocated just the right amount of resources to keep those cats on their toes and on edge and doing their job.

That‚’s the power of not wasting resources.  When you don’t waste resources then you get exactly what you put into it, no more and no less.  There aren’t available resources that are left on the side of the road, animals lying around the farm not doing their job.  The cycle the laws of nature, work perfectly when available resources are not wasted. That’s the power of understanding that wherever there is abundance there is waste.

For instance, in our company, FastCap, we make a concerted effort not to throw money at every problem. Our work bench was made and maintained by or people from particle board, not bought from some fancy catalog. Instead, we answer every problem by using our wits, not our wallets.  We understand that when you answer every question with the abundance, i.e. the wallet, you probably aren’t going to get a creative answer, and most definitely you’re not going to get an efficient answer.  When you limit the resources, when you use your head (your wit) and not your wallet, then amazing things can happen.  You can have a lean dog and a lean work bench and very little waste. This is a beautiful thing. Waste is not just bad because its waste – waste is bad because it does not give you the best answer.

Paul,

I want to extend a “thank-you” for taking the time to “go to gemba”.¬† To jog your memory, I was the “young guy” in the back and my wife Kaila is Georganna’s niece.¬† Kaila and I extend our thoughts and prayers to your success in your election.¬† I will be sure to pass the word on.

As I mentioned last night, the past few years I have had extensive exposure to implementation of Lean Culture.  I have seen the success first hand in product development, project management, and manufacturing.  It was very exciting to hear of your enthusiasm to extend the boundaries of a solid improvement methodology into the governmental arena.  Even more compelling is that you are clearly running with the right motivations and principles at the core.  I deeply wish you the best of luck.

I have had some good training in leading Kaizen workshops and trying to gather a group of people around the spirit of improvement.  If there is anything specific my experience in being immersed in lean can offer let me know.

Tim Treto

Mechanical Engineer