Happy Thursday,
What does lean mean to you? As a "lean" thinker, you are thinking about what you are doing and making it more lean, cutting the fat, eliminating the waste. It's not something you put on your calendar to do at a certain time, it's a thought process, it's a life style, it's everywhere.
An e-mail can be lean. You know the un-lean e-mail writer. Some people can say what they need to in two sentences and others seem to make it a couple paragraphs to say the same thing.
A diet can be lean. Cutting out the fat and empty calories in your diet such as soda, cookies, bacon, etc. helps. Not that you can cut out all the fat, but you can always improve.
A process can be lean. How do you improve a process that causes you waste. What waste can you eliminate...DOWNTIME (Defects, Overproduction, Waiting, Non-utilized talent, Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Excess Processing) For example, using a shared document as opposed to sending a spreadsheet back a forth. It speeds the process up by eliminating excess processing, less e-mails back and forth to share spreadsheet. It eliminates inventory of spreadsheets and e-mails. It eliminates waiting, as you can see the updates immediately.
Don't be afraid, frustrated, or confused by the term "Lean". It is really all about helping you do things more efficiently so you can get your job done easier. We can all point out the waste in each other but what if everyone would concentrate on the lean principles on things they have control of......wow, think of the waste we could cut out as a company.
I challenge you all to have a conversation daily about lean. Make it part of your life, both at work and in our personal lives.
Think lean and enjoy your Thursday,
Chris
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