Lean vs Waste

Lean Manufacturing, Lean Ops, Lean Whatever....many people haven't heard of it, have heard of it but don't know anything about it, have heard of it but only know a little about it...and so on.

"Reducing waste" - almost everyone understands what this means, right away, without further explanation for context about what certifications the person holds to help reduce waste or why reducing waste might be a good thing.

Why don't we speak more plainly about Lean and about what we do?

Let's reduce waste. In manufacturing, in service, in everyday lives. We can call out waste, in whatever form and location we find it, and work to reduce it.

Benchmarking a hemisphere away

I'm currently traveling in Phnom Penh, Cambodia doing multiple things, but one of them is always keeping an eye out for lateral benchmarks. 

Cambodia has a large manufacturing industry, with garment production being a large part of that. I'll be visiting several factories this week. 

Benchmarking can be done close to home or far away. I hope to have some good best practices to share from factories and operations here that can travel back with me to Chicago.

Right side Red

Sailors use red to mark the starboard side of the boat and guide into port with the red lights on that side.

"red to the right" is easy to remember and makes it simple when deciding how to mark a set of cables or other connectors. Here is a piece of equipment with two sides, that's likely going to be taken apart several times.


I've added a small piece of red marking tape to the right side, so whenever I pull the pieces apart in a hurry, I don't need to worry about remembering which side is which.

Ode to a Siphon Pump

Siphon pumps! What a wonderful tool. They:

-are inexpensive
-work without electricity
-take up very little space

They are a great way to move liquids around without needing to lift a heavy container. Here are some ways we use them:

1. transferring water between full 5-gallon buckets for cleaning up, rather than needing to lift one full bucket
2. emergency backup pump for any container size. We use lovely, convenient, electrical gas-station-style pumps for our 55-gallon containers, but the motors can wear out or the pumps can get clogged. Rather than stare at the full 55-gallon drums wishing we could get the liquid out, we've got a few extra siphon pumps around: a few-dollar insurance policy to give us a manual option until a new pump can arrive and get us back to normal.
3. Final emptying of containers that are an odd size for our standard electrical pumps.
4. Regular use for any liquid ingredients when we only need a little at a time, as an inexpensive start before getting a higher-flow rate electrical pump.

Here are some options:
5 gallon siphon pump on Amazon
55 gallon siphon pump on Amazon