Category: My Journey

Jan 02 2019 2019-01-02 2019-01-02 NoComment by Andreas

Some inspiration for the new year!

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I have recently had a passage of rough times in my life and this help me focus and move on.

“Try and fail, but don’t fail to try.” – John Quincy Adams

Also, as I get on with my journey I strive to grow and learn, to take the next step on my journey. This have become my passion. As part of this I am experiencing that coaching other is an excellent way to develop my own skills.

“The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.” – Aristotle

Happy New Year to you all!
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Jun 27 2018 2018-06-27 2018-06-27 NoComment by Andreas

The power of habit

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Through my journey in life and through my journey in Lean I have found that good habits makes for a solid foundation of every day life. This is true both at work and at home. Presently I am reading “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey. This has gotten me thinking a lot about my own habits.

The other day I saw a commencement speech by a Navy Seal admiral. He listed ten thing to help guide you through life. The first thing he listed was making your bed in the morning. I think most people has seen this in movies about military life at some point. What he did however is expand of why this practice is used through training. The idea is that if you start of your day with finishing a task to a high standard you always know that you have accomplished something that day and you are ready for the next task of the day. A habit of productivity and excellence.

Now this is very interesting and what I have found is that it is a point of contention. Some say it is powerful habit that  even though it in itself is useless, the mindset it creates is the true value of this habit. Other people see it as a waste and they might do it occasionally not as a habit. These people might have other habits to the same effect but this I don’t know for sure.

I am thinking that it is different for everyone. What habits you use for creating and maintaining a productive mindset may differ from person to person but I am convinced that it is something everyone would benefit from. Habits also create structure and order in life which might help you focus on what is most important.

On my own part I am struggling to make good habits a part of my daily routine. I tend to get stuck when it comes to going from task to habit. Maybe I should just start making my bed and build from there.

 


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Jun 03 2018 2018-06-03 2018-06-03 NoComment by Andreas

Where would I begin today?

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I am, as you might have guessed, partway on my journey. So far I have experienced and tried some of the tools of Lean and I have tried my best to live the philosophy of continuous improvement and respect for people (or humanity). My way has been anything but straight and it has taken me longer than I feel it should to get where I am today. But if I where to start again today, where would I start?

I have given this a lot of thought and there are a lot of choices. One way I know many do start is through 5S and it is really the first real hands on contact I had with Lean. But I am not convinced this is the best way to get started.

Setting things in order is always a good thing, but from what I remember the problem for me was that there was no depth to the thinking, and thus it was a bit of a waste. Since understanding was not there it was almost insurmountable to actually maintain this order.

Where I think I would start is with PDCA (Plan-Do-Check Act). It is a beautiful way to do anything and it will give you guidance through having a proper plan, by carrying through and analyse the results, comparing them to what was expected. With this you learn to see a new dimension of what you have done or are about to do. Most important , you can actually turn any situation to a valuable lesson. No matter if you have succeeded or failed there is always something to be learned. Through PDCA you have a framework for this.

With this said, my next step from PDCA would be 5S but done with a proper PDCA dimension. Before you start to remove anything. Make sure you have the full picture. In a factory it might not be as easy as just removing things and put them into a red tag quarantine area. If you remove things used by others but not yourself you are not being respectful and you are not being efficient. This will result in things being removed and returned and maybe removed again. This will be pure waste. Also it will make coworkers to distrust the tool. Doing informed work will get the respect of coworkers and be appreciated by most. Now, I am not saying there should be no red tag area but I am saying it should be used when the team decides and not when a single operator decides so.


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May 23 2018 2018-05-23 2018-05-23 NoComment by Andreas

How did I first get into Lean?

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When I first came in contact with Lean, I was working at a factory within the automotive industry. I must admit that at first I didn’t get it at all. It seemed to be used only as a tool to downsize and to lower the number of people needed on the production line. This lead me to get a very bad first impression. Also it was not really involving the workers of whom I was one so it was hard to get a grip of what it was all about.

As time went on I started to pick up on things that lead me to think there was something more to this Lean. I decided that I had to learn more, I wanted to know what the reasoning was behind what I saw.

Since I had learned that Lean was originally from Toyota, it seemed that Jeffrey Likers The Toyota Way was a good place to start. The short of it is that I was hooked immediately. The next book was Lean Thinking by Jim Womack. Again, it really opened my eyes to a whole new world. At this point I didn’t really know who any of the famous Lean-thinkers where but as it happens I had picked a good starting point.

Now began the journey to learn from the real world and to get everything I had read in perspective. To be honest this turned out to be very hard. What I had read and what I saw was not really matching up. At first I got confused but soon realized that most people around me knew as little or sometimes even less than I did about Lean.

The first line managers used a lot of expressions in Japanese but I don’t really think they knew fully what was behind them. This was evident it the way it was applied and presented to us on the factory floor. I decided that if I was to become more familiar with Lean and to understand and practice it fully this would be something I needed drive myself.

In the following year I read a lot, listened to podcasts, listened to colleagues and talked Lean. With every conversation and with everything I read I grew as a person and as a Lean thinker. However it was a hard journey, I didn’t really have backing from my manager or my surroundings. The joy of learning and developing skills made it worth every effort and I realized that if my current employer wasn’t going to utilize my newly found knowledge I might have to find someone who did.

This was but the first chapter of my journey to learn about and practice Lean.


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