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Thought I’d give a shout-out today to a local Pella business, Vermeer Manufacturing, which is celebrating its 60th Anniversary of being in business this year.  There is all kinds of Vermeer celebration-related activity going on around town right now, and I also stumbled upon this article about their 60 years in business.

Vermeer probably became famous from its round baling equipment (”Vermeer made the world go round”), but they also make construction equipment, other farm machinery, and trenching and trenchless equipment.  Vermeer is still family owned and is heading into its third generation of family members.  They’ve been on their lean journey since 1997 and could probably use our software…I need to get over there and peddle my wares!

Great quote I just read in “Lean Enterprise Systems: Using IT for Continuous Improvement” authored by Steve Bell (I downloaded the pdf version, but can’t seem to remember from where right now):

“Society has reached the point where one can push a button and be immediately deluged with technical and managerial information. This is all very convenient, of course, but if one is not careful there is a danger of losing the ability to think. We must remember that in the end it is the individual human being who must solve the problems.” Eiji Toyoda, 1983

(emphasis mine) I love this because it resonates with the Thrive tagline of “Software doesn’t innovate. Software doesn’t make decisions. Software can’t manage people.”  The software does not solve the problems.  The software improves your ability to solve the problems.  Even if you want to argue that software does solve problems, it is only because we humans built the formula/algorithm to solve the problem…so it still goes back to people.

Considering I haven’t made it past the opening quote and I’m already referencing the book, I suspect I might like it.

…in Schaumburg, IL on October 6-8.  "Lean Tools for Maintenance & Reliability" is the tagline for the event.  Look for us at booth #112.  This is a first for Lean Tech, so we’ll see how it goes!  Should be a good opportunity to see how we can help people, as a lot of Lean Tech’s customers have used Thrive to drive improvement in machine reliability as a part of their lean efforts.  Looking forward to it.

Rob Tracy at Intek Plastics (one of my customers) has written this excellent synopsis on Driving Lean through Your Supply Chain.  Aside from discussing how the breakdown of your supply chain can negatively impact you and your customers and including a supplier checklist for your use, he also talks about the incorrect assumption that going overseas for suppliers is the best way to improve your supply chain.

In the global economy, you often get a better deal by choosing suppliers in low-cost countries — assuming that upfront cost is your only consideration. Forward-thinking domestic suppliers combat this threat by using lean methodologies to define and maximize value from their customers’ point of view. This could include services such as part design, ready-to-use components, shorter lead times, zero defect products and stockless production.

This kind of thought (that cheaper overseas suppliers is the way to go) and the thought that US manufacturing is on the decline are myths that Kevin Meyer at Evolving Excellence has been working to dispel quite often lately.

Now, my tech tool for the day.  How did I come across the aforementioned Intek Plastics white paper?  I recently started using Google Alerts.  They are a great way to get current information about new stuff popping up around the net about your favorite topics.  I’ve been using it to get news and info about lean, technology, and even my customers.  Great stuff!

Surprisingly great example of how to treat customers (thanks to Evolving Excellence)…surprising because it is coming out of the airline industry.  Some true servant leadership is being displayed by United Airlines captain Denny Flanagan.  Imagine being stuck at the airport and having the captain buy you lunch?  (insert your own joke about pigs flying here).

An example of un-servant leadership (?) (disservice leadership?) was displayed here.  This is a situation that should have every business saying, "make sure we never put someone through this."  (it’s all about micro-interactions, right?)

And, for more info on how to succeed in providing a positive customer experience, check out this free pamphlet-book-handout thingy (only 12 pages): "The 6 Laws of Customer Experience: The Fundamental Truths that Define how Organizations Treat Customers".  One item author Bruce Temkin discusses in this booklet is the importance of everyone in an organization understanding customers:

Since many of the decisions that impact customers aren’t debated or discussed, they just happen, it helps for as many people as possible to understand customers.

And continuing my stream-of-consciousness, Bruce’s discussion reminded me of this white paper (Zero Time Thinking), which I read nearly eight years ago, about "zero-time" organizations, which are capable (empowered) to bring all necessary resources to bear on any situation to solve problems or customer needs.

How about that for an onslaught of customer experience thoughts!

…and software can’t manage people.  This is the tag-line for our Thrive product.  Why?  Because this is true.  Software by itself typically adds no value to the process it is analyzing (this is a very scary thing for a software vendor to say!).  It is the interaction with software…the entering of data, the analysis of data, the interaction with the data, the interaction of people together in response to the data.  That is where the value comes into play.  Software enables people to be more productive..it streamlines operations in collecting, analyzing, and managing information that surely could be accomplished manually, but when was the last time you used an abacus?  It enables them to see data in an aggregated visual manner that otherwise couldn’t be accomplished with a cursory glance at a set of data.

Robert X Cringely discusses SAP implementations on his blog (link courtesy of Kevin Meyer at Evolving Excellence from his blog entry).

Putting in an ERP system isn’t going to improve the business by itself: you still have to figure out what the data means and make decisions.

Of course, this is often the case: that people expect that just by putting the system in place they will see impact to the bottom line.  He goes on to say:

The problem is there is not enough return on investment from the ERP system itself to justify the cost. You need more. The real savings must come from improving your firm’s business processes. So a huge business redesign project is often coupled with many ERP projects.

And this is where I would argue you generally don’t get the information you need to improve your business processes.  The ERP is so financially focused (and the information is always end-of-the-month reactionary data), it does not effectively expose where the true operational waste is coming from.  A department that appears to be over budget could be that way because of waste caused by upstream or downstream operations.

Cringely’s article is interesting, because he argues that ERP’s are difficult to use by design, so that the ERP companies can pull in more revenue through consulting.

Stumbled on this article which was posted on Thursday (7/17/08) about the Air Force District of Washington and its efforts to improve operations.  The article lists these five areas of focus: Productivity, Assets Availability, Response Time, Safety, and Energy Conservation.

These desired effects guide improvement initiatives that contribute to the demands of the warfighter—our most important customer. In other words, linking mission and customer may encourage doing more things the right way, with the same or less effort. Every Air Force process can be improved; none is immune from critical reviews. These effects help identify opportunities that could have the greatest immediate effect for the Air Force.

Great focus on the customer and also on the fact that there is always opportunity for improvement.  They also list key elements in ensuring success in implementation:

It requires a start-to-finish process review; strong leadership buy-in; knowledgeable participants with a vested interest in an improved process; an implementation plan; and good follow-up to ensure traction.

This is all great stuff from the military.  And, in true lean fashion, they’ve got lots of acronyms: JDI (Just Do Its), RIE (Rapid Improvement Events), and AFSO21 (Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century)!

Seth Godin posted that on his blog today.  It may become my new mantra.  When I first started Lean Technologies, I was nervous talking to people because of how small we were (are).  Eventually I realized how smallness is part of my advantage.  In fact, it was the "largeness" of other software companies that got me into this in the first place.  The "largeness" that: couldn’t give me personal service, didn’t know how customers actually used their product, couldn’t implement new features quickly, and couldn’t even understand the problems with their own applications.  All of these are things that are easily accomplished when you’re small.   I realize now how much my customers value these items.  If you want pre-packaged solutions with impersonal service, there are plenty of choices.  If you want someone to build an application who understands your situation, small may well be your best choice.  Check out these guitars, that Seth also refers to, for an example.

Cannon gave me a D-, and it was honestly the best D- I ever recieved. Godspeed Lars. The education world will miss you.

–From Larry Cannon’s on-line guest book.  Hard to believe a statement like that could be heart-warming.  If you knew my high school physics teacher Larry Cannon, it would make sense, though.  He passed away a little over a year ago, and tomorrow his on-line guest book comes down.  He was a great person.  And an outstanding educator.  He accomplished the seemingly impossible: making physics fun to learn.  Here’s another tribute:

Dear Cannon Family, please accept our condolences on the loss of your father. All three of my sons had the honor to have Mr. Cannon for a teacher. Not only was he an inspiration and mentor, he had a great sense of humor. He was the only teacher that could get away with giving his students nick names and the students would love it. He fondly called the boys "stupid, the ace, and meathead". Our family truly respected him and will always appreciate his dedication and memory.

I suffer from a problem.  I love learning.  And I love learning about anything.  Which puts me in the over-used category of "jack of all trades, master of none."  My knowledge probably generally goes very wide instead of deep.  At least not as deep as I would like.

I love programming and solving peoples’ problems with software solutions.  That’s why I’m in the business I’m in.  I love learning about marketing and sales.  I love learning about better lean manufacturing practices.  And now learning about those in practices in healthcare.  I love learning about the latest technologies.  The latest business trends.  I wish I had time to learn more.  There’s just not enough time to soak in all the good stuff that’s out there.

Here is some of the good stuff I read:

On business: Tom Peters

On sales: Bill Caskey (although really I listen to his podcasts more than read his blog)

On lean: Evolving Excellence, Get Lean and Prosper, Lean Blog

On technology and trends and more: Guy Kawasaki

On marketing: David Armano

I suppose I should add a "blog roll" on my page that includes these…seems to be the common way to give props to your favorite blogs.