Columbus never achieved his goal but we celebrate the outcome of his failure. Columbus was obsessed with finding a westward route to Asia from Spain. Finding it would enrich not only his Spanish patrons, primarily Queen Isabella, but himself as well. Columbus attempted and failed four times to find a westward route to Asia. On...

It took the dentist and his assistant only 10-minutes to perform my scheduled treatment. But I spent 60-minutes in the chair staring at a computer screen. What are the root causes for me wasting 50 minutes waiting for my treatment to be completed? To answer that question, I’ll use The 5-Whys method I was taught...

Your processes are perfectly designed to produce the results you’re experiencing today. If you manufacture automobiles and every third car rolls off the production line missing a right front fender, your system is perfectly designed to produce that result. Or if you’re a distributor and every other delivery is missing an item from the packing...

The proper way to get lean is not instinctive. Most people try starving themselves while running on a treadmill. But if you go to any health club and walk into the cardiovascular room, what do you see? At my gym, you’ll see lots of people on treadmills, StairMasters and elliptical trainers. Notice that the vast...

My twin grandsons celebrated their first birthday on July 1, 2001. And while the majority of people reading this article don’t know Alex and Austen, there is another set of twins celebrating their fifteenth birthday this year whose names are familiar. Born in 1986, their names are Six Sigma and Activity Based Management (ABM). I’m proud to say...

“We’re all going to Krispy Kreme,” said Barry Cameron, co-author of The Principles. None of his staff had been on a field trip since elementary school. As a result, the Crossroads Christian Church employees were surprised when senior pastor Barry Cameron announced in February 2004 that everyone was going on a one hour, onsite visit to...

It’s fashionable for models and manufacturers to be lean, but not too lean. The regional government of Madrid, Spain took an unexpected stance in September ’06. Being too lean is unacceptable! (1) North American manufacturers, service providers and governmental organizations would be well served to take note of Madrid’s imposed restrictions and adopt a similar...

Every time my family took cross-country car trips, Mom would pack snacks, a pencil and a Mad Libs® book.   Mad Libs®, as you may recall, are short stories created by filling in blanks with an assortment of names, nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Miles and time would pass by as Mom, Dad, my brother and...