About Clarity, Focus, Discipline, and Engagement

This post is inspired by Karen Martin’s (author of Shingo Research Award-winning book, The Outstanding Organization)  interview by Ron Pereira (Gemba Academy). In this interview (https://www.ksmartin.com/videos/the-outstanding-organization-interview/) Karen explains the importance of Clarity, Focus, Discipline, and Engagement. These are the four fundamental behaviors or common patterns in successful organizations, that are strong foundations upon which to …

Don’t do unto others what you don’t want others to do unto you

If you check the Internet for this quote, chances are that it will be attributed to Confucius. It’s variations can found in many religions and cultures (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Rule) and can be easily understood as a basic code of conduct in a relationship based on reciprocal respect. Now here is an incoming (unsolicited) e-mail from an unknown …

Katacon Europe 2018

Many months ago I was approached by the European Katacon organizers to help setting up the 2018 conference. Katacon is about kata, the Toyota Kata revealed to the mass by Mike Rother in the book... Toyota Kata. It’s about patterns of thinking and behaviour to improve and solve problems. I modestly offered my website, blogs …

Quick look back to 2017

The first days of every new are usually the time to reflect about the past twelve months and make plans for the next twelve to come. As I write this post, 2018 is already 13 days old but probably not too late to look back to 2017 blog-wise. This blog went online in January 2014. …

Are the 5S the first steps to SMED?

This is a classical debate among Lean newbees and even among specialists: are the 5S the first steps to SMED or not? As so often there is more than just a binary choice. If you are not now familiar with 5S, you may get a primer reading my posts series: The Quick Beginner’s Guide to …