Andon Calls and Muri

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I’m currently working my way through Mike Rother’s book Toyota Kata.  A formal review will follow in the future as I’m approximately half done but I can already say there are many great insights into TPS.  However, one of the insights has sparked up an old fire that I always seem to struggle with understanding as I have never been employed by Toyota.

Mike talks about how a Toyota assembly plant was staffed to handle about 1,000 andon calls per shift and they became very concerned when the calls dropped to 700 per shift.  Toyota found that this could only mean two things: 

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Lean Healthcare – Good Experience in KS

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We unfortunately had to take my daughter to urgent care on Christmas Eve day and I got to experience some Lean Healthcare.  I must say I was impressed.  However, I also avoid doctor’s offices at all costs and maybe my experience is now commonplace.  The source of my doctors circumvention is my frustration at the waste I see and pay for afterwards!

Hurry Up and Wait! – Muri

[tweetmeme source="leanisgood" service="ow.ly"]“Hurry up and wait.”  That was our saying way back when I was a young, and spritely United States Marine.  Our standard practice was to arrive for everything really early then wait for something to happen, the Air Force people to let us board a plane, the Navy people to stick needles in us — the intent was to never be late, get done whatever we needed to get done, and move on (the hard part was occupying your Marines while they waited – they tend to be creative and biased towards action – if you don’t keep them busy they will either damage important government property