Fix what?

In 2008, I was recruited to help with the implementation of Lean practices at the factory where I was a production worker. It was a 6 month project and I took it because I was always looking for a way to change my daily routine. Factory work can be pretty repetitive. What I never expected was that I would really enjoy Lean and see opportunities to apply it everywhere I looked. In that way, it was sort of a transformation. Once you take a step back and break things down in your mind, you look at the process in a completely different way. After I trained myself to see things again for the first time, so to speak, there was no going back.

I'll always remember when the head of our office told us that Toyota, who pioneered much of the Lean thinking and practices in use today, allowed plant tours so others could see how well their initiatives were working. Wouldn't a company so progressive and efficient want to keep their trade secrets private to avoid letting their competition pirate their practices? You would think so. The explanation was that continuous improvement is so entrenched in Toyota culture that by the time someone tried to implement their techniques in a different factory, it would have been revisited and improved by Toyota staff several times over already.

It's been 5 years since I worked at that factory, but I still think about Lean in my day to day life. I'll introduce some basic terms and practical concepts that have helped me see the opportunity for continuous improvement in all kinds of work environments, as well as at home.

Photo courtesy of xda-developers.com