Rick Battye's Page

I recently went to a Toyota Kata seminar instructed by Mike Rother who is the author of the book Toyota Kata.  The book explains the improvement process using a structured approach involving many rapid improvement cycles, commonly called PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act).  By practicing these…

Gotham City would flash the Bat Signal to indicate the city had a problem requiring help from Batman as quickly as possible.   Andon signals have a similar purpose in our organizations to signal a problem that requires attention by specific problem solvers immediately. 

An andon can be visual…

I recently read an interesting article that was passed on to me from a company that is teaming with Auburn Technical Assistance Center.  The article, The One Thing That Changes Everything, is written by Alex Green who is the Investment Director of The Oxford Club. 

The article began by stating:

"Whether you realize it or not, one indispensable quality affects every…

Auburn Technical Assistance Center has been partnering with an organization where I recently participated in a Management Gemba Walk.  This organization has been very typical to other organizations in that they have a culture that jumps directly to solutions.  The good news is that they recognize this as a shortcoming and they have been diligently training and practicing their problem solving skillset. 

During the walk, I noticed a significant culture change when I saw the following…

If I said that the Standard Cost of a product increased from $55/unit to $63/unit after Lean Improvements, would you say that the Lean countermeasures were a failure?  In a Standard Cost Accounting world, I would agree with you---however, what if I said that;

• Inventory was decreased 80%
• Lead Time improved 75%
• Customer On Time Delivery improved 24%
• Batch Size decreased 95%
• Square Footage decreased 50%
• Quality improved…