by Brian M. Collyer | Feb 15, 2014 | Podcasts
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An interview with Karen Martin talking about her new book Value Stream Mapping.
How to Visualize Workflow and Align People for Organizational Transformation
In this episode, Karen discusses how too many organizations remain unfamiliar with value stream mapping as a methodology. As a foundation for Lean business management, value stream mapping is used as a means to build outstanding organizations.
- Value Stream Mapping
In this work Karen offers real solutions for organizations such as: information intensive office, service and knowledge work environments, communication, construction, education, energy entertainment, financial services, government, healthcare, hospitality, law enforcement and the military to name a few.
by Brian M. Collyer | Sep 28, 2013 | Podcasts
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:30 — 30.2MB)
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Innovation Engineering Deficit?
Are you plagued with IADD? As I spoke with my guest, David Mixson, he just coined the phrase Innovation Attention Deficit Disorder! Join me on this episode, to see if you and your business have fallen prey.
David with his experience in the field of economic development works with companies around the state to increase profits through a 
variety of means. He is based at Auburn University working through ATN Alabama Technology Network, a -5:02 function of MEP Manufacturing Extension Partnership ,a division NIST National Institute of Standards and Technologies. Their purpose is to help companies create jobs, maintain jobs through new products or new processes, improving efficiency of their operations with a wide verity of resources.
– 10:42 The term Innovation Engineering was first used by Doug Hall, who spent many years with Proctor & Gamble bringing many new products to market. One year he put out a record nine products! He later founded his own organization, Eureka Ranch, which for over the last twenty years has been building on the premise that ideas must be Meaningfully Unique.
The idea must:
- Have a clear benefit “Promise”
- It must have credibility or “Proof”
Innovation Engineering can be thought of as a system of looking at what could be called the fuzzy front end. Things like: idea creation, idea generation, and idea mining-looking forward.
– 17:00 A Google search on the word innovation yields 285 million results; An Amazon search on the word innovation yields 224 thousand results.
The formal definition for Innovation Engineering is: Meaningfully Unique. If you’re not meaningfully unique you’d better be cheap!
Ask:
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What is the problem?
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What is the promise?
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And what is the proof?
– 18:05 Nissan innovation that excites! And Infiniti Q50, predictive forward collision technology
If we build it, will they really come? Innovation Engineering teaches us to fail fast, fail cheap and get smarter. Does anybody care about what we think is an innovation? The first idea you come up with in many cases is wrong in some area, the promise, the product, or the profitability of it.
-30:00 Are we bringing our product and process ideas to market effectively or do we have Innovation Attention Deficit Disorder?
Innovation Engineering teaches us to spend that extra time on the “Fuzzy Front End” of idea creation and commercialization in a systematic way to get the maximum out of an idea in terms of solving problems and maximizing profits.
by Brian M. Collyer | Oct 12, 2011 | Blog
Why do we have so many heroes, so few farmers, and such poor results in most of our organizations? Because we’re blind to the simple fact that business heroes usually fail to transform businesses. They create short-term improvements at least on official metrics.
The gemba walk can, and should, help focus us on asking three simple questions (1) Is the business purpose of the process correctly defined? (2) Is action steadily being taken to create value, flow, and pull in every step of the process while taking out waste? (3) Are all the people touching the process actively engaged in making it better?
This is the gemba mentality of the farmer who year after year plows a straight furrow, mends the fence, and obsesses about the weather. Sometimes not very heroic, but by challenging the people engaged in the process we motivate the team towards steady and consistently process improvement.
Adapted from: Gemba Walks by Jim Womack
by Brian M. Collyer | May 7, 2011 | Blog
What a great experience blending the current with the past. Recently I attended an event put on by the Baldwin Economic Alliance, Baldwin Alabama. Which was brining the group gathered up to speed on a thousand acre, mega site that is prepped and ready to possibly house a new auto assembly plant.
The setting was beautiful, at the elegant Barber Marina. I was reminded of a past era by the spectacular collection of beautiful, fully restored outboard motors on display, most bearing the names of prominent American cities as their point of manufacturing origin.
I could only imagine the process that was being used at the time. Was it Batch-and-push? Or were the companies trying to imitate Henry Ford’s single piece continuous flow auto assembly line? Ford’s system which was lowering cost, implementing standard work, and collapsing the time required in the supply chain?
by Brian M. Collyer | Mar 5, 2011 | Blog, Lean
I recently attended Mike Hoseus’ workshop at the magnificently beautiful Mercedes-Benz plant in Tuscaloosa Alabama.
Mike did an excellent job at making the connection between Lean principals and the people side of the business showing how the two work hand in hand, creating a powerful and compelling business case.
The main take away for me was Mike’s challenging question:
Is your organization a “problem solving organization”
Are we training our team members at every level to be problem solvers?
Mike’s book:
