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Monday, October 31, 2011

Greenbelt Vancouver Service Module 2

Happy Halloween!!!



Today our Greenbelt Vancouver Service Program had their first day of Module 2 at Terminal City Club. The group learned a lot and showed up with Halloween spirit!
The participants each did a short presentation about their 5S homework, where they worked towards cleaning and reorganizing workspace to create a leaner and more efficient work environment.
Next, the participants worked in teams on the airplane simulation exercise which builds on line balancing, pull systems, and takt time.
After lunch, the group will be practicing their impropmtu presentation skills which will help for the final presentation in Module 3.


We had some very creative costumes this year!!! Gumby, Luigi, Snow White, a rockstar, and Green Lantern decided to show up.

The participants are working on the Airplane Simulation Exercise

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Jim Womack - What is Gemba and Who is Sensei?

David Chao has met Jim Womack a number of times, mostly at lean conferences and sometimes sharing thoughts and ideas about lean in general.

At the most recent AME Lean Conference in Dallas, David asks Jim about "gemba" and "sensei".... and here's the answer from the lean thinking guru Jim Womack:

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Where is Mr. Sensei today

Just travelling through Phoenix Arizona

Cowboys Stadium

Also, we visited the iconic mega-engineering and business operations in one of the most highest valued American sports organizations!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Dr. Temple Grandin is now speaking at AME

David and Jessie with Jim Womack

AME Day Two

We are excited to be in "Gemba" here in Dallas for the second day of the conference. I've chosen to attend the session by Honda which talked about their Lean Network this morning. More to follow...

Monday, October 24, 2011

AME Dallas kicks off!

We are happy to kick off our Introduction to Lean Strategy workshop today at AME Dallas with about 60 participants coming from various industries. Here is a picture of David conducting the interactive session!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

LSI at AME Lean Conference

We are excited to be in Dallas at the renown AME Conference where we will be presenting a workshop. More stories to follow as the program kicks off tomorrow.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Blackbelts delivering presentation

supply chain project final presentation

Quote of the day



Don't waste time thinking about "what went wrong" - instead, spend time thinking about "what can go right" and create real solutions that matter.

David Chao

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Vancouver Greenbelts, Module 2



Our Vancouver Operations Greenbelt group had the opportunity to visit Excell Battery Company. They spent the day learning about Cycle Time Reduction. The group also had the chance to hear from Excell Batttery's CEO, who gave a great welcoming speach to the Greenbelts.






Monday, October 17, 2011

Greenbelt Operations Module II in Vancouver

Our module II kicked off today with an airplane simulation which studied time and motion and demonstrated the benefits of leveling production among other things.

Blackbelt module 2 kickoff!

We are excited!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Why iPhone 4S is important for lean practitoners

As a lean practitoner, taking photos and videos become second nature. Our camera has to be "always ready," because you don't want to miss interesting moments that might come up during a lean workshop, a factory visit, or at an important conference.

"The best camera is the one you always have with you."

How true, because we are not often carrying our camera with us on a day to day basis and we just might come across a "lean moment" and realized that we don't have something to take picture with.

As well, with increasing emphasis on video capture (for video taping a speech, site visit etc), the ability to take high quality video at any given moment is important for lean leaders.

So it's obvious that iPhone 4S could be viewed as an important "lean tool" for lean leaders who might want to lean out their equipment and only carry one item that combines cell + camera into a single device - without sacrificing the quality of the photo/video capture.

Here's an actual footage taken by iPhone 4S, utilizing its 1080 HD capture. Other than adding a music, the video is unedited. The quality is exceptional.

Over the next several days, we will continue to evaluate the 4S from a business-use perspective and provide you with some insights.

Photo taken by iPhone 4S

Just for Fun

Can you guess who's who in this dance video?

Friday, October 14, 2011

Review of iPhone 4S coming

How useful is it for lean leaders? I will let you know soon!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Greenbelt Edmonton Fall Kick-off!


Lean Sensei is excited to have our first kick-off day in Edmonton today at the Four Points by Sheraton. We have 7 participants working towards becoming Greenbelt certified. Andrew is coaching the group for module 1, then Bob will visit for Module 2, and Joey will be their module 3 coach.

On Thursday and Friday, the participants will be going to the hosting company, CWS. CWS is a well established Canadian company since 1963. CWS designs, engineers, and manufactures top quality attachments, cabs, and conversions for heavy equipment for agriculture, construction, oil & gas, forestry, and mining industries internationally.

More to follow soon!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

LSI in San Francisco area

While in San Francisco area to work on supply chain projects, LSI was able to catch the air show near the Golden Gate bridge. The blue angels were amazing!





Sunday, October 9, 2011

Photo of the day

Venice Italy, at LSI executive program

Friday, October 7, 2011

Greenbelt Service Vancouver Report Out

Today was day five of Module 1 for our Greenbelt Service Vancouver group. Fifteen participants divided into 3 teams and worked together to implement lean within the hosting company, North American Tea and Coffee Inc. (NATC)
Our LSI coach, Andrew, was very impressed with the three different presentations and their success with making NATC more lean and efficient. The three groups worked closely with NATC staff to eliminate waste and reorganize office space for more efficient storage and inventory. The three groups used lean methods such as spaghetti mapping and value stream mapping to determine what is needed to be improved.

 The group is thanked by NATC for their hard work and 
for bringing big improvements to the company

Team Hansei (self-reflection) to see what went well and what to improve on

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Greenbelt Calgary Cycle Time Reduction

Today was day 4 of Module 2 for our Greenbelt Calgary Operations Program. We have 18 enthusiastic participants being coached by Bob Low who are working towards becoming Lean Greenbelt certified. The class is expected to graduate on November 4th once they have completed Module 3. Today, the group visited the hosting company, Excell Battery.

Our participants are shown below busy working on their Cycle Time Reduction Kaizen at Excell Battery located in Calgary. A lean Cycle Time Reduction Methodology includes six significant steps:

1.) Preparation
2.) Mapping out the Process
3.) Splitting sequential from parallel
4.) Eliminating waste to reduce business waste
5.) Calculating the number of steps involved
6.) Finally, having a balance of each step