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Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Welcome, Greenbelt Service Vancouver Participants!

This week marks the kick-off of the Greenbelt program for Service in Vancouver. More and more organizations are recognizing the value of applying Lean in service-based environments, and we truly enjoy providing a safe and engaging atmosphere of Lean learning. This is our third Greenbelt program to kick-off this September, and we still have two more to go! We are very excited to follow each group and share their experiences in the hopes that it will inspire others on their own respective Lean journey. For information on upcoming Greenbelt Winter programs beginning in January, please see our online calendar at http://www.leansensei.com/calendar. Registration is available online here.


Teamwork/Teambuilding activities aplenty:








Stay tuned for more updates!

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Second Day of Blackbelt

Yesterday was the second day of Blackbelt. Starting today, the Blackbelts will kaizen!

The topic of the kaizen is Lean Strategy and Assessment. The kaizen will take place at a local Vancouver company. Stay tuned for the class created video of the module which will be posted on the blog and our Vimeo page.


Monday, September 16, 2013

Funny picture of the day

Lean Sensei founder David Chao dresses up as an astronaut as part of the Blackbelt program (there is always a surprise in Lean Sensei programs!). Jessie follows David with her own version of a Disco player to demonstrate that it's ok to have fun in the Blackbelt program.


Blackbelt Fall 2013 Kick-off


Fall Blackbelt challenge begins! 










Blackbelt program focuses on Lean Strategy and the Strategic Deployment of Lean methodology. Structured around the Lean Excellence (LE) model, the program covers Lean Strategy, Excellence in Product, Process, People and Customer as well as suppliers and external partners. This is an advanced level course that includes our well-renown Japan Lean Tour.  This eye-opening and insightful trip serves to be an invaluable experience for participants who are serious about encouraging and promoting a continuous improvement culture within their organizations.




Saturday, September 14, 2013

Vancouver Blackbelt launches Monday!



On Monday, we will be kicking-off our most important lean certification program, the Blackbelt program. Designed to develop world-class lean leaders, the Blackbelt offers 4 modules of intense, insightful projects. More importantly, the Blackbelt programs includes a complete benchmarking trip to Japan.

Please take a look at our overview video:

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Greenbelt Operations Vancouver Kick-off!

The weather may be getting cooler, but here at Lean Sensei we are just getting fired up! Fall programs have started up again at our head office in beautiful Vancouver. Participants from all over the United States and Canada are here for the first module of Greenbelt for Operations. For the bulk of this week they are applying their Lean skills at a hosting company conducting a Kaizen on the principles of 5S.

 
Without standardization, it is difficult to achieve even the most obvious of targets.


Keep an eye out for more updates with this group and for more from our other upcoming fall programs!
 Please check out the Lean Sensei Website for our program calendar and more information.

And here are the answers from the Greenbelt trivia questions posted on Monday. Thank you to all who posted their answers on our Facebook page.

Question (1)
How many books are in the “Toyota Way” series?

Five (The Toyota Way, The Toyota Way Field book, Toyota Talent and Toyota Culture, The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership)

Question (2) – Multiple Choice
Since 2004, how many people have graduated from Lean Sensei’s Greenbelt program?

a) 1,000
b) Between 1,000 and 1,250
c) Between 1,250 and 1,500 (the actual number is 1,305 and still counting- We are transforming the world!)
d) Between 1,500 and 2,000
  
Question (3) – Multiple Choice
In which year was the term “Lean” first coined?

a) 1987
b) 1990 (by Jim Womack in his book “The Machine that Changed the World”)
c) 1997
d) 1980
  
 Question (4)
In 2012, LSI started a quarterly newsletter, in which Andrew wrote our first ever Coach’s corner article on Flow. In this article he wrote that Flow could be broken down into four vital components. Name each of these.

1) Materials
2) Information
3) People
4) Spirit (or teamwork)
  
Question (5) – Multiple Choice
How many group kaizen’s have been completed through Lean Sensei’s Greenbelt program?

a) less than 150
b) 150 - 200
c) 200 - 250
d) greater than 250 (the actual answer is 276)

Question (6)
Name all 7 types of waste – Bonus point if you can name the 8th

1) Transportation / Travel
2) Unnecessary Inventory
3) Unnecessary Motion
4) Waiting
5) Over Production
6) Inappropriate Processing
7) Defects

8) TALENT! (or Skills)

Question (7) – Multiple Choice
As you know, the focus of these three days is on Lean Leadership. As leaders, this question is to see how well you know your Greenbelts. Amongst all LSI Greenbelts, what is the most common MBTI type?

a) INTP
b) ESTP
c) ESTJ
d) ISTJ (interestingly ISFJ is the dominant type in the overall population, meaning Greenbelts are more likely to be thinking than feeling vs. the general population)





Tuesday, September 10, 2013

For the first time Blackbelt in Winnipeg!

2013 marks the first year Lean Sensei with CME is offering Blackbelt in Winnipeg!

We hope you enjoy the photos from the first day.


The famous (and more challenging than it looks) Number Plate Game

Group Discussions

The Love the World song!

Group Photo!

Monday, September 9, 2013

How Much Do you Know About Greenbelt

Welcome to Greenbelt! -Sarah, Lean Sensei Greenbelt Coordinator

Everyone is back from summer vacation and it is time for our wave of Fall Lean Greenbelt certification courses. This Fall we will have two Greenbelt classes in Vancouver, one in Calgary (starting October 7) and one in Toronto (starting September 30). The first of the four pack begins today with Greenbelt Operations in Vancouver.

While our participants are learning about the philosophy and history of Lean today, let's test how much the rest of you know about our Greenbelt programs...

Question (1)

How many books are in the “Toyota Way” series?
Question (2) – Multiple Choice
 
Since 2004, how many people have graduated from Lean Sensei’s Greenbelt program?
a) 1,000
b) Between 1,000 and 1,250
c) Between 1,250 and 1,500
            d) Between 1,500 and 2,000

Question (3) – Multiple Choice
In which year was the term “Lean” first coined?
a) 1987
b) 1990
c) 1997
d) 1980

Question (4)
In 2012, Lean Sensei started a quarterly newsletter, in which Andrew wrote our first ever Coach’s Corner article on Flow. In this article he wrote that Flow could be broken down into four vital components. Name each of these.

Question (5) – Multiple Choice
How many group Kaizens have been completed through Lean Sensei’s Greenbelt program?

a) less than 150 
b) 150 - 200
c) 200 - 250
            d) greater than 250 
Question (6)
Name all 7 types of waste – Bonus point if you can name the 8th

Question (7) – Multiple Choice
Amongst all Lean Sensei Greenbelts, what is the most common MBTI type?

a) INTP
b) ESTP
c) ESTJ
d) ISTJ

Post your answers on our Facebook page, get them all right to win a prize!

Stay tuned for photos from today's Greenbelt program kick-off...

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Japan Lean Tour Trailer



Our Blackbelt program starts this coming Monday in Winnipeg Manitoba, followed by a launch in Vancouver, BC on September 16th.  We are extremely excited about this incredible program, which features our renowned Japan Lean Tour.

Take a look at our Japan Lean Tour trailer video!

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

The Pain to Sustain


We’ve all heard it before. In fact, we’ve all probably asked it ourselves once too many times:

“Why is it so difficult to sustain the gains from the kaizen we completed only a couple months ago?!”

Well, the pain to sustaining is too often more than just disinterested, disengaged, and indifferent staff in the workplace. There are certainly many possible root causes contributing to unsuccessful attempts at sustaining gains from process improvement activities. Here are some of the main contributors to the abject failure to launch:

 
1.       Lack of simple and clear documentation of the new standard or best practice (which should be positioned at the point-of-use for easy access and reference)

2.       Lack of ownership of the process to ensure that the standard is kept alive

3.       Lack of follow-through training, coaching and audits by supervisors to ensure that the new way to doing things is clearly understood and carried out (it takes at least 20 days of constant reminder to change behavior after all)

 However, probably the biggest failure by companies wanting to gain long-term success implementing Lean initiatives is the lack of engagement by their staff in process improvements. Many studies have in fact been done on this and the reality is that in general only about 20% of change succeed when initiatives come from the top-down. This stands in stark contrast to an approximately 80% success factor when people affected are part of the solution to a problem and are engaged in driving the change effort!
 
In a recent in-house process-time reduction kaizen held at one of our clients, the process owners were given the opportunity to tell their story about the problems they faced and what they did to overcome these problems. 


Change-Over Team Report-out
Start-Up Team Report-Out

Office Team Report-out
 
The facility was shut down for a full 3 days to facilitate this kaizen event. By the end of the report-out, all the process owners sincerely thanked the business owner for the investment in time and resources and for giving them the opportunity to improve their respective process areas as one team shouting “All for One and One for All”.

 

 


Monday, September 2, 2013

Photo of the Day

Magnificent Dhalias bring back memories of summer...