Videos to Help with People, Profit and the Planet

Have you checked out the A Better Way website yet at www.abetterwaycommunity.com? While some of it is for members only, there is a lot of great information there for anyone to check out. There are newsletters to read, forums to participate in and videos to watch. The videos are inspiring and informative and range from topics such as overcoming obstacles like DJ Gregory did when he walked every round of the 2008 PGA Golf Tour to listening to Mike Rorie talk about developing leaders to learning about how to create new business opportunities like Andy Blanchford did in building natural playgrounds. Take a look at the videos and let us know what you think.

The Value of a Kaizen Event

I just watched a video on the A Better Way website about an employee at Greenscape describing how they have set up their trucks to be more efficient. It was a great lesson to me again how effective using the lean tools of 5S and kaizen really are. Check out this video to see how Greenscape made their trucks so much more efficient.

Below are a few lessons learned from a teleconference we had on understanding kaizen events:

1. How do you choose what to focus on? Choose a process where you will get the “biggest bang for your buck.” Look at your value stream and find the processes closest to affecting value for your customer.


2. Just doing a 5S can increase productivity in an area by 20%.


3. How do you justify the time a kaizen event takes? If you consider that 95% of every job is waste, it is easy to see the worth of spending the time to make a process better.


4. How do you handle resistance if someone is unwilling to make the change to do a process differently? Say, “Let’s just try it.” Then document with stopwatch. Work with people to make changes. Listen to them and test your changes. Follow up with audits.

Linda Coors

Winning on a Monthly Basis

1. Establish monthly goals for your business on what you have to get done on an annual basis in your business and insure that the people own the goals
2. Insure your goals are visual so everyone knows what a win is
3. Create a plan for how you are going to achieve each short term goal
4. Insure that there is alignment in everyone’s personal plan so that they own their area and contribute making it happen
5. Review progress each week at your staff meetings to review where you are hitting the mark and where you are missing the mark
6. You need energy and urgency that comes from accountability and celebration

Success in goal achievement and performance improvement has to start with focusing upon the right things and setting out short term objectives. Everyone needs to understand how they can influence change and contribute to their department, branch and company goals. We have to make it personal for each individual so that they take the right levels of ownership.

Bob Coulter