Archive for June, 2009
What can happen when the audience doesn’t get the message!
Friday, June 26th, 2009
This is something that a colleague passed to me a while back. It was following a Lean training day and we had tried to use the Sticklebrick Game to show some of the fundamental concepts of Lean.
He had seen the training day as a team building event, well OK that was a factor but we had failed to get over the key message of understanding the needs of the customer, working at the pace of demand and organising your business to achieve this.
I was quite disappointed that we had failed to get this across, but with my Lean goggles I could see that we needed to learn from this and make the game more applicable to their experiences. Every set back is an opportunity to change and improve.
Click on the article to view it.
When attendees miss the point!
Tags: Continuous Improvement, Lean, Steven Johnson
Posted in All, Ideas, Lean | No Comments »
How can the Rail Industry apply Lean techniques to improve performance?
Friday, June 26th, 2009
One of my keen interests is to understand how the Rail Industry can apply Lean techniques and ideas?
Below I have listed out some of the obvious wastes that exist in the maintenance and renewal sectors of the industry:
Spare materials on and about the track,
Inflated costs due to the ‘specialist nature’ of the work and equipment,
Extremely long design processes,
Consistently late design approvals for what should be standard work.
These are some of the obvious ones, however, looking from a Lean perspective there are many more and some very fundamental wastes which are more worrying.
Issues such as:
Constantly changing workforce, low skill base and low morale,
Lack of standard work across the industry, everyone has their own way,
Very uneven work loads leading to excessive labour pools,
Systems based on empirical evidence rather than hard scientific evidence.
I would like to start a debate about how the industry can adopt and implement the principles of Lean. How can an industry as diverse as ours look to ensure we respect our people and look to improve what we do?
Do we understand what the future looks like? Can we move forward with confidence when there is a lack of certainty about what that future is?
Please make comment by leaving a reply below. I hope that we can get some good ideas floating around and help improve the performance of the industry, even in just a small way.
Steve J
Tags: Add new tag, Continuous Improvement, Lean
Posted in All, Ideas | 1 Comment »
Progress in the sun in Manchester
Friday, June 26th, 2009
The sun has been shining and progress has been made.
The last couple of weeks in Manchester have seen quite a lot of progress across the city. Some areas are now paved and new areas of work have been opened up.
It looks as though the hard work of everyone involved is starting to come together.
The photo below show the latest area to start being ripped out, the worksite has extended into Piccadilly Gardens on the Delta.
The old track on the Delta comes up.
In other areas the rails are in and the new street finish is going down. This is looking very good and hopefully will get the approval from the city residents. How long will it remain free from chewing gum though!
The very expensive looking street finish in centre of Manchester.
A slightly different finish at Mosley St Station.
We also get the very occasional opportunity to enjoy the lighter aspects of working in a vibrant city centre like Manchester. Here is Dave (Shammy) one of our key guys enjoying a moment with the girls from the Co-op. They have just opened a new store on the High Street directly opposite one of our worksites.
Are those Lepricorns Shammy?
Tags: Manchester Metro, Mosley Street Tram Stop
Posted in All, Business | No Comments »
New point work takes shape at Mosley Street Stop
Friday, June 19th, 2009
Work at Mosley Street Station has restarted after a week or so of seeming inactivity.
New point work is being welded in preparation for installation and the track in the station is getting its new very attractive paving.
A new area of Piccadilly Gardens has also been fenced off and the old track is being ripped out.
New pointwork at Mosley Street Station
New diamond for Delta Junction
As you can see from the photos, it rains quite a lot in Manchester!
Tags: Manchester Metro, Mosley Street Tram Stop
Posted in All, Business | No Comments »
SJRES Ltd now has a bank account
Friday, June 19th, 2009
Things are moving on, I have now set up a business bank account. There are a lot of forms and signatures associated with setting up a Limited Company!
Now I need to get the Web Site updated to show my Company registration number and VAT number.
It is all still quite exciting and it is interesting to learn about how these things are done.
Tags: Steven Johnson
Posted in All, Business | 1 Comment »