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THINK LEAN NOW, LLC HAS CEASED NEW PROJECT ACTIVITY EFFECTIVE DECEMBER 22, 2009.
IT'S TIME TO TRY TO RETIRE (AGAIN).

OUR THANKS TO ALL THE FRIENDS WE HAVE MADE.  

If you need to communicate with us, CONTACT US.   We will do our best to get back to you as soon as possible.

If you need help or are a past partner with us we are still available on a selected basis
 but TLN is no longer actively seeking new projects.
Our goal is to provide you
with the insights, experience
and information
you will need to make the
transformation
becoming a Lean Thinker;

....To equip you for
Lean success....

to teach you how to think
Lean now and see the
potential and opportunities in
all you do.
Being "Lean" is not something you just go out and do.   It's not something you can hire someone to do for you.

Lean starts with the way you "think" about and how you "see" the things that you do.
And then finally, Lean causes you to act; determines what you do about what you see.
Three supporting activities are necessary to achieve Sustainable Productivity:

  • Lean        Optimizing Effectiveness AND Efficiency.  
  • 6 Sigma / VRK    Identifying and controlling the cause of a problem.
  • Constraint Management           Targeting and prioritizing improvement actions.
.  Consider an action to be VALUABLE  if:

    1]  The customer cares whether we do it and how we get it done.   
                    The customer thinks it's important and is willing to pay for it.

    2]  It changes the product.   It's not just older, it leaves different than it was when it arrived.

    3]  It is not an expedited action.  Not a repair or recovery activity.
                    We do whatever we do at the right time.    We do it right the first time and we do it on time.

    4]  It is required by the customer, the law or by regulation for contractual, EHS or ethical considerations.

.                                                                                      EVERYTHING ELSE IS WASTE
.                                                including Value adding actions if they are being done in an ineffective or inefficient way
The LEAN RoT (Rules of Thumb)
The 4 Flows
The LEAN Toolkit
  • Product
  • Material
  • People
  • Information
  • 5S - Bringing Order out of Chaos
  • VSM - Value Stream Mapping
    CM - Constraint Management
    6Sig - 6 Sigma
  • SMED - Quick Changeover
  • TPM - Total Productive
    Maintenance
  • EP/PY - Error Proofing/Poka-Yoke
  • CF - Continual Flow
  • Pull - Need Based Actions
  • SW - Standardized Work
The 4 Actions
  • Storage
  • Transportation
  • Transformation
  • Inspection /
    Approvals
There are some basics >>
  • You can't Be Lean until you Act Lean.   
    You won't Act Lean until you Think Lean...
    You can't just go out and Do Lean !

  • Don't just eliminate waste.   Identify and enhance value...
    Be Effectively Efficient to ensure you stay Efficiently Effective...
    Growth requires 'Doing More' - not just 'Using Less'.
    If you are only driving contraction then you are going out of business.

  • If you don't have a Strategy, you don't know where you are going - or why !!!
    Even worse, If you don't know where you are today, you'll never find the route to get to where you want to be tomorrow.

  • Don't confuse activity with action.
    Know when and why to say NO to an 'Opportunity''
    It's all about what you can sell and get paid for, not how much you can produce.

  • Every task is only part of a larger process.   
    Every process has at least 3 customers whose needs must all be met for you to claim success.
    1 - The next step in the process - one who uses your work.
    2- The whole process; the Value Stream of which you are only one step.
    3 - The one who wants, needs, and is willing to pay you for your product or service.

  • If you don't break the #1 process bottleneck - the process constraint -
    you will not - you cannot have a positive impact on the process performance.
    If you can't find or measure the impact of an improvement at the output end of the value stream, you haven't really improved
    anything meaningful

  • If the operating metrics you are monitoring change, how are your Strategic goals impacted?
    Are you measuring the right things?
    Are you measuring them at the right location?
    When they move, either up or down, what action, if any, do you take ?
  • Identify Value
  • Eliminate Waste  (Muda: less than optimum use of
    resources)
  • Continually Flow through the entire Value Stream
  • Establish Pull
  • Chase Perfection - Improve again
.
Balance EFFECTIVENESS and EFFICIENCY
By ENHANCING Value and ELIMINATING Waste
Think Lean Now
Think Lean Now
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The LEAN proposition:
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