The Lake and the Rocks
One of the metaphors that they use in Toyota is called the “Lake and the Rocks”. Is goes like this. The lake is the work in progress (WIP). That could be inventory in manufacturing, it could be partially processed mortgages or patients waiting on trolleys in corridors waiting to be treated or admitted. Anything that [...]
Eliminate Waste? Prevent Waste?
In a conversation with a colleague an intriguing thought came up. Is Lean about eliminating waste or about creating a system that prevents waste in the first place? I think that is the difference between continuous improvement (kaizen) and step-change improvement (kaikaku). Kaizen tries to reduce the waste in the current system. Kaikaku creates a [...]
Standardised Work
Standardised work is bad. If you standardise everything, the work becomes boring, you can’t deal with the special cases and the cost of documenting the standards is too high. Well, yes and no. There is no point in having standards yellowing away in a dusty folder, locked in a rusty cabinet. There is no point [...]
Let the system be itself
I was helping to run a workshop for NHS staff to assist them in preparing to meet the 18 week target set by the government. The target requires that the time between a GP referral and treatment be less than 18 weeks. The fact that targets are rubbish is not something that I am going [...]
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