START AT THE BEGINNING: Amazon, Genchi Genbutsu & the Karate Kid
Amazon is already pretty good at fulfillment, but Jeff Bezos’s comment below shows the true spirit of kaizen: - no matter how good you are or
- how well you understand principles
- you can always get better at executing them
“At a fulfillment center recently, one of our Kaizen experts asked me, ‘I’m in favor of a clean fulfillment center, but why are you cleaning? Why don’t you eliminate the source of the dirt?’ I felt like the Karate Kid,” – Business & Technology | Amazon says Kindle sales top its ‘most optimistic’ projections | Seattle Times Newspaper.
This article in BusinessWeek shows why Bezos was in the fulfillment center in the first place: he’s following Genchi Genbutsu (aka “Go and see for yourself!”)
>> Read more about “Go see for yourself” and all the “14 Principles” in this Executive Summary of the Toyata Way (PDF)
Video: Self-Organization: The Secret Sauce for Improving your Scrum team
An important presentation by Jeff Sutherland on real-world Scrum. Kills one of the myths about Scrum that ‘management’ isn’t required.
The Visual Workplace: Improving safety…
Another cross-over from (lean) manufacturing into (lean / agile) software development is the visual management and information radiators. While not a ground-breaking post, this article hives an example of using visual tools to increase workplace safety. Deming (and I) would recommend discarding the slogans idea, however.
Reliable (software) factory?
Ever since I read the book Japanese Manufacturing Techniques I’ve had a deep love and passion for all things lean. Adding this site (http://www.reliableplant.com/) to my growing list of lean-related sites to check out as soon as there are 98 hours in a day.