Content by Mark Rosenthal
What Conversations Do Your Value Stream Map Drive?The intersection between Toyota <em>kata</em> and VSM
Wed, 02/21/2024 - 12:01
Continuing on the theme of value stream mapping (and process mapping in general) from my article “Where is your value stream map?”, I outlined the typical scenario: The map is built by the continuous improvement team, and they are the ones primarily…
The Importance of Supportive ManagementAnother tale from the past
Mon, 10/23/2023 - 12:03
This all happened nearly three decades ago. Since then, the company has been through a series of mergers and acquisitions. Thus, the only thing I can be certain of is that things are different today—at least I hope so. It was Tuesday afternoon of a…
‘95 Theses’ on Kaizen Events and the TPSNailing down the key concepts
Wed, 10/19/2022 - 12:03
Once again I’m going through old files. Looking back at my notes from 2005, I believe I was thinking about nailing these points to a church door somewhere in the company. That actually isn’t a bad analogy because I was advocating a pretty dramatic…
How Do You Know They Know?If the worker hasn’t learned, the instructor hasn’t taught
Tue, 05/12/2020 - 12:02
Training Within Industry (TWI) job instruction is built around a four-step process titled “How to Instruct.” Steps two and three are the core of the process: • Present the operation • Try out performance  I want to discuss step three: Try out…
Troubleshooting by Defining StandardsFive questions to ask and address in sequence
Tue, 04/21/2020 - 12:03
Sometimes I see people chasing their tails when trying to troubleshoot a process. This usually (though not always) follows a complaint or rejection of some kind. A few years ago I posted “Organize, Standardize, Stabilize, Optimize” and talked in…
If You Aren’t Being Heard, Then ListenMaking headway as a change agent
Wed, 11/06/2019 - 12:03
I was sitting in on a conversation between a continuous improvement manager and the operations manager the other day. The operations manager was asking for help developing good leader standard work. The C.I. manager was responding that she had…
The Key to Leadership Is ConsistencySome questions to ask to encourage lean improvement
Thu, 10/17/2019 - 12:03
The idea of doing the little things consistently over time is a powerful one that we often overlook in our hurry to show a spectacular result this week. We don’t get results from the big action we are taking today. We get results when business-as-…
Lessons From Driving a ForkliftWhen circumstances outpace a company’s ability to experiment, reflect, and adapt
Wed, 03/06/2019 - 12:03
The spring and summer of 2000 were a long time ago, but I learned some lessons during those months that have stayed with me. In fact, the learning from that experience is still happening as I continue to connect it to things I see today. I was a…
‘It’s Hard to Learn if You Already Know’Artifacts can help focus our attention away from personalities and toward shared understanding
Tue, 08/21/2018 - 12:03
During a TED talk, Amy Edmondson, the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School, talks about “How to turn a group of strangers into a team.” Although long-standing teams are able to perform, our workplaces today…
Overproduction vs. Fast Improvement CyclesSmall changes applied continuously become big changes very quickly
Wed, 05/09/2018 - 12:02
A couple of weeks ago I posed the question, “Are you overproducing improvements?” and compared a typical improvement “blitz” with a large monument machine that produces in large batches. I’d like to dive a little deeper into some of the paradoxes…