In the midst of economic struggles, fighting to bring work into the office, staying flexible when seeking and choosing work, making difficult decisions to downsize or modify the team, one cannot lose sight of the continual pursuit of perfection. I don't think we can afford to lose sight of Lean principles.
Lean is what can makes the difference between me and my competition. In the present and in the future. There has never been a time when this is more important to the life of my company.
I find it is not necessary to have achieved a specific level of Lean business practice. People do not look for that from me. But it is necessary to be dedicated to Lean. People do look for that. It is necessary to be dedicated to the fifth and most important Lean Principle. Continual pursuit of perfection.
Continual pursuit of perfection. Continual means continuing indefinitely over time, without interruption. Quite simply, this means we can never stop.
So in times of difficulty, I do what I have to do. I change focus, I place emphasis on doing the work. But I do not stop making notes in the background. I do not stop analyzing. I focus on the work at hand, but I keep my eyes open. I use all that we have developed to get our work done faster, of better quality with the reliability of our defined process. But I take the time to make a few notes. I continually take a look at what is going right and what may be going wrong. I save these notes.
The time will come very soon to bring out the notes and make some more improvements. The time will come when those notes will help us make up the next A3 and help us to discover the root cause just a little bit quicker than we expected.
I think I have to fous on the driving, but I cannot take my eyes completely off the dashboard.
Yes, I just talked circles around the time at hand at Genoa. We are focused on the work. We don't have a spare dime to invest in a well-needed improvement at this time.... but we are still making notes.
We all need to be taking notes.
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