Lean Marketing House » Lean

Leading Lean from the Middle

admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 03:19:00 +0000

Paul Yandell of Value Stream Focus was interviewed in the Business901 podcast, Transforming Lean thru Middle Managers. This is a transcription of the podcast.

Paul Yandell is a manufacturing and supply chain specialist with strong skills in identifying and eliminating waste and improving operational performance. His particular strengths are building infrastructure to support turnaround and growth situations, building and leading teams in total quality environments and he is bilingual (Spanish).

Preview of Presentation at the LSS12 Conference

admin — Wed, 09 May 2012 22:18:00 +0000

This is a preview of my presentation at the Lean software and Systems Conference in Boston, MA. The Lean Software and Systems Consortium is bringing three premiere events to one centralized location to facilitate the next wave of ideas in methods, process and organization for software & systems engineering development. Boston is the premiere place to be for those innovating in the Lean community.

Preview of Presentation at the Lean Software and Systems Conference

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The Lean Software and Systems Conference emphasizes Lean concepts representing the next wave of ideas in methods, process and organization for software and systems engineering. It brings together an international community of practitioners, consultants, thought leaders and authors to cross-pollinate ideas and foster a sense of community for those promoting better economic and sociological outcomes in their workplace.

Three Events, One Venue – 3-Day Conference, Lean Camp & Lean Tutorials
Lean Software & Systems Conference 2012 (LSSC12) May 13-18, 2012, in Boston, MA

Can Lean be driven by Middle Management?

admin — Wed, 02 May 2012 02:34:00 +0000

Paul Yandell: I speak to middle managers, I was a resident with them. I think most of us have been middle managers and understand those frustrations. I hit on a theme of a guerilla manager, years and years ago, and I’ve actually given a similar talk to a number of national and local forums. It really resonates with people, because people stuck in the middle are trying to figure, "What do I do? How do I be effective?"

Many of them are waiting for leadership. I’ve also done a lot of teaching, and I find my students are the same way. They’re kind of like, "I’m learning Lean tools, but how do I put them to use?" I’m trying to say, "Just go right ahead. Don’t wait for your CEO to say, ‘We’re going to go down this path.’ Just start leading the company from the middle and you can be quite effective." We did that at Dimension One Spas, and we completely turned around the culture and transformed the company to a Lean company. We ended up winning a regional Shingo prize. It was kind of a validation of our efforts.

But it was really like a middle management revolt, if you will. The owner, like many small business owners, didn’t take a strong interest in manufacturing. They want to make sure there’s no problems in manufacturing, but they’re not really sure how to build things. They’re more sales people or finance people, generally. When they see someone getting traction, they generally say, "OK," as long as you’re getting top management support, you don’t need top management leadership. I think many people think they need leadership. There’s a big difference. I think you can lead from the middle if you have support from the top.

Joe Dager: You’re singing my message, Paul. I’ve already started the podcast because I thought what you just said here is golden.

Paul Yandell of Value Stream Focus is my podcast guest next week and we discussed one of my favorite topics – Middle Management. Paul Yandell, led a lean transformation that won the 2007 Pacific Northwest Silver Medallion Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing. Business Week called the Shingo Prize the "Nobel Prize for Manufacturing".

Driving Profit through People and Processes

admin — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 02:38:00 +0000

This is a transcription of the Business901 Podcast, People & Process Drive Profit Podcast with Vivian Hairston Blade, Founder, President & CEO of Experts in Growth Leadership Consulting, LLC (EiGL Consulting, LLC) based in Louisville, KY.

Open publication

Vivian is a recognized expert, keynote speaker, trainer and executive coach in the principles of Customer Experience, Lean Six Sigma and Leadership Development. With a 20+ year career in Fortune 100 companies, General Electric and Humana, Inc., Vivian has extensive experience in successfully leading the development and execution of customer centered, quality-based, growth business strategies.

PDCA Cycle of Zingerman’s Deli

admin — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 03:30:00 +0000

At the 2011 ASQ Lean and Six Sigma Conference, one of the featured speakers was Ari Weinzweig, CEO and co-founding partner of Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor, Mich. The Zingerman’s Community of Businesses (ZCoB) has annual sales approaching $40 million. ZingTrain, a consulting and training company that shares Zingerman’s approach to business with like-minded organizations from around the world, and offers a variety of management training seminars in Ann Arbor, as well as customized workshops and presentations at client sites.

Fellow Lean Blogger, Mark Graban wrote a recap Management Lessons from Zingerman’s CEO Ari Weinzweig of Ari’s talk. I encourage you to read it. What I wanted to share was my personal experience of Zingerman’s Deli. Besides the great food and great service and catalog littered with special gifts and even more unique food, Zingerman left a special mark on a venture into the retail business that my wife and I did for six years. It was Ari’s book,Zingerman’s Guide to Giving Great Service, that provided our outline for the service that we would provide and train our staff. Below is a mind map of the initial outline that I constructed from the book.The second mind-map is what I would call an ad-hoc representation of the Zingerman’s PDCA cycle: Define, Teach, Live, Measure, Reward. I find the Zingerman model an excellent guideline for our and other retail operations. In fact, very few things are difficult to do, it is just a matter of doing it.

P.S. I was unable to attend this conference as I was on the other side of the county in Orlando at the ISO9000 Lean and Six Sigma Conference.

Service Design Thinking Podcast with Marc Stickdorn

admin — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 04:36:00 +0000

Service Design changes the way you think about business. No longer can companies focus their efforts on process improvements. Instead, they must engage the customer in use of their product/service rather than analyzing tasks for improvement. We no longer build and hope that there is a demand. We must create demand through our product/service and Service Design Thinking is the enabler of this process. It changes our mindset of thinking about design at the end of the supply chain to make it look good and add few appealing features (all within budget). Instead, it moves design and the user themselves to co-create or co-produce the desired experience to the beginning of the supply chain.

My blog and podcast for next few months will focus on these features with Business Strategists, Design Thinkers, Appreciative Inquiry Coaches, Architects and of course Lean Thinkers. I could not think of a better way to start this series than having a podcast with co-author Marc Stickdorn of This is Service Design Thinking. A preview of his book is below.

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Download Podcast: Click and choose options: Service Design or go to the Business901 iTunes Store.

About: Marc Stickdorn graduated in Strategic Management and Marketing and worked in various tourism projects throughout Europe. Since 2008 Marc is full-time staff at the MCI – Management Center Innsbruck in Austria, where he lectures service design and service innovation. His main areas of interest are service design and strategic marketing management particularly in a tourism context. This involves research such as the development of a mobile ethnography application for mobile phones, the Customer Journey Canvas and various publications and presentations. Marc is co-founder and consultant of “Destinable – service design for tourism” and guest lecturer at different business and design schools.

His Websites:
http://thisisservicedesignthinking.com/
http://www.servicedesignresearch.com