Pursuing the Ideal Office!

Pursuing the Ideal Office!

Implementing Lean Principles in Hospitals!

Implementing Lean Principles in Hospitals!

Lean Training & Certification

The question that comes up often when I visit with clients, “Where can I go to get the right training to become a certified Lean Practitioner?" Well, to answer this question you have to understand that there is no definitive standard for lean training or certification. Anyone offering lean training and certification is using generally accepted training materials that have become accepted over the years. There is no actual certification body that is giving guidance to training companies that are teaching lean principles and certifying them. 

The truth is that anyone who has been involved with implementing lean principles for 15 years or more understands what is necessary in terms of the lean knowledge and competency levels. Unfortunately, over the years different employers have developed different standards as far as which training and certification bodies they will and will not recognize. It is even worse in the Six Sigma world. A good example is you can have a Six Sigma Black Belt certificate from many of the recognized institutions in the U.S. but the Army will not recognize them. They want you to take and pass their own Black Belt certification exam.    

So, what does a person do? How can they know they are getting the right training? How do they know if the certificate is acceptable to other businesses?    

The truth is they don't know for sure. There is not any way of knowing. They must do their own research and look at the credentials of the person or persons working with any organization that is offering lean training and certification. Check their bio to see what experience they have in applying lean principles in different sectors. Find out what results they have delivered to their clients. Ask questions! Anyone who is not willing to answer your questions or tell you about their background is someone you probably don’t want to work with anyway. Walk away and save your time and most important your money.

So what are employers really looking for in a person who is applying for a Lean Implementation position? Many will ask for education, then certification, then experience and finally examples of results when applying lean principles into a business environment. If you can show great results for several projects with different companies, this will help. I think results are the most important factor when deciding if a person can apply their lean knowledge. Unfortunately, the person making the decision about employing you or not may not have any experience of lean principles. Therefore, they may be more interested in which college or university you attended.  

 Lean principles teach us to be prepared and develop a proactive awareness to prevention. To get the best training find the people who know about lean principles. These people are those who have years of experience in the business of implementing lean principles. Lean Certification Online is a great website because they explain what a good lean training program looks like. Click here to learn more.

Lean Healthcare! Do Patients Benefit?

Lean Healthcare! Do Patients Benefit?

Getting real before the chips are down!

Many companies set out on their own Lean journey only to find they are up to their necks in stuff. Why is this? It is because most companies are totally unprepared for their Lean journey. In fact, research suggests that over 90% of companies who embark on a Lean journey will fail within two years. This is an astounding number!

Most companies don't think about implementing Lean principles until it's too late. The business has taken a turn for the worst and things are looking pretty bad. I call this scenario the "Oh Crap Factor."  How can a company in this state begin to stack the deck in their favor?

They can start by using the 5P's. Prior Preparation Prevents Poor Performance! To prepare, a business must clearly define its purpose for implementing a Lean program. Next, it must determine the outcome it is trying to achieve, this could be to increase market share, improve profits, save jobs, etc. It must be able to define a measurement of success or a Key Performance Indicator (KPI). How will it define success? This is very important, without this the business will not know if it is on the correct course or not.

Training its employees to understand the Lean tools is another important part of preparation. I would suggest using an online training program such as Lean Certification Online. This will allow employees to receive their training during non-production hours.

Applying Lean Principles in a Business!

I get lots of comments about applying Lean principles in a business when the economy is down and troubled. I say "Listen up people! Nothing is easy at any time but now is the time to suck it up and make your business as effective as it can be at delivery products to your customers on-time, every time."

To many business owners are focused on what is not happening in Washington DC to turn the economy around rather than trying to get their businesses prepared for when things do change. I can only give this piece of advice "Stop looking over their for solutions, they are not coming from that direction, start looking at your own business today!" Try to improve your processes by teaching your employees about how to use and  implement Lean principles. Empower your employees to come to work and turn on their creativity. Allow the to finds simple ways to work smarter and not harder. The myth is that everyone will get out of trouble by working harder. Not true! People have to work smarter and only then will the magic happen in every business.

Doing business in a down economy

It seems like you can't get away from the news about the state of our economy these days. It's amazing how everyone has a different opinion about how to get out of it. I do know one thing and it's happens to be true! Of all the companies suffering at the moment, the ones that are suffering the least are those companies that adopted lean manufacturing principles into their business model over the past several years. Just look at the severe state of GM and Chrysler compared to Toyota, Honda and Nissan to name a few. It's really a sad comparison when you base it on their ability to create a quality car at a fair market price. The American Automobile Industry has been heading over the cliff for several years with no one telling them to pull back or re-evaluate their business goals and objectives to re-calibrate their organization.
What ever happened to their strategic planning? Did they have one? I'm not really sure if anyone understands the words "Hoshin Kanri" in Detroit these days.
I continue to wonder if they understand the key reason for their failure, in that it was a lack of flexibility in their business model to meet the changing demands of the market. The ratio of big gas guzzling vehicles to small economical cars was totally out of whack. It's highlighted a major problem with getting their "products to market" timeline, starting from research and development to get a new design of vehicle off the drawing board onto the production lines and out to the dealerships.
I hope GM and Chrysler make it because so many peoples jobs and our economy are dependant upon a competitive and viable American Automotive Industry. Only time will tell and in the twilight of history I hope the lessons learned will echo in every business sector.