Throughout May we have been holding a contest for the best examples of Everyday Lean, examples of lean thinking that show up in everyday life from work to home and everything in between. Mark Graban, LeanBlog.org founder, has been sharing some of his Everyday Lean work from his trip to our nation's capital, Washington, D.C. But Mark doesn't get to win, someone else does. The contest is now over and we do have a winner.
The winner is Joe Wilson. Joe is a lean manufacturing coordinator at Guardian Automotive in Evansville, Indiana. The merits of Joe's winning is based on his pure volume of ideas which he uncovered from all walks of life. He submitted more than I can include here, but here are a few of my favorites:
- A nice safety fix on lawn mowers is the kill function tied to the lever on the handle of the mower. If the handle is let go, the mower engine is killed reducing injury possibilities when one is no longer in control of the mower.
- Maternity wards offering pre-registration so that all of the paperwork can be filled out before the woman shows up to the hospital in labor.
- The evolution from the pull tab to the pop top cans reducing the waste of disposing the tabs and cleaning up tabs that didn't make it to the trash.
- Here is an example I refer to as SMED (Single Minute Exchange of Diapers). I realize that the name isn't mine. New parents learn quickly that in order to change a diaper quickly, it is necessary to get all of the items prepared before removing the diaper and find faster ways to change the diapers. (Separating internal and external changeover tasks and kaizening remaining tasks).
Joe will receive a signed copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean: Lessons from the Road. This book, about 6 months old now, is starting up book club discussions and new thoughts for people to accelerate and improve their lean journey. I look forward to Joe's comments on the book. Since the rest of you didn't win a free copy, you can now go ahead and buy one here.
For a review of all the postings of Everday Lean, click here and read away.
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