Category: Lean Thinking

John Jaszczak, Ph.D, is a professor of physics as well as the director and John and Phyllis Seaman endowed  curator of the A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum here at Michigan Tech. In this video, he goes over how he used different Lean tools, especially the Plan Do Check Act model, to make improvements to different aspects of the museum. This includes the layout, tours, and how to deliver the messages they want to convey to their visitors.

Watch this continuous improvement journey by clicking on the video below!

Want to learn more about Continuous Improvement and see more videos like this one? Visit our YouTube channel by clicking on this link!

Play John Jaszczak Messaging and Wayfinding Project video

John Jaszczak Messaging and Wayfinding Project

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The Campus Store at MTU offers mailing and shipping supplies and services. However, they were running into a multitude of issues with those services that needed to be addressed. In this video, it is shown how using the Plan Do Check Act model as well as other Lean tools can lead to rapid improvement.

Watch this continuous improvement journey by clicking on the video below!

Want to learn more about Continuous Improvement and see more videos like this one? Visit our YouTube channel by clicking on this link!

Play Mailing and Shipping at Campus Store video

Mailing and Shipping at Campus Store

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At the time of this video, Julia was an intern with MTU dining services while she was getting her Master’s degree in clinical dietetics at Grand Valley State University. In this video, she goes over a useful Lean tool known as Spaghetti diagrams. These diagrams are a visual map that show where there is waste of motion and movement in a process.

Watch Julia’s video by clicking on the video below!

Want to learn more about Continuous Improvement and see more videos like this one? Visit our YouTube channel by clicking on this link!

Play Julia Semaan – Spaghetti Diagram Discussion video

Julia Semaan – Spaghetti Diagram Discussion

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Julie Stark currently works at the A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum here at Michigan Technological University. Julie is attempting to receive her Lean White Belt certification. She led a teach back as a part of her training that goes over Fish Bone diagrams and how powerful of a tool they can be for root cause analysis.

You can watch Julie’s teach back by clicking on the video below.

To view other useful continuous improvement videos, check out our YouTube channel by clicking this link.

Play Julie Stark Fishbone Diagram Teachback video

Julie Stark Fishbone Diagram Teachback

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Hello,

My name is Sydney Dankert. I was born in Omaha, Nebraska and lived there for 11 months before moving to my hometown of Pewaukee, Wisconsin. I am currently in my second semester of my first year here at Michigan Tech pursuing a degree in Chemical Engineering. I am delighted at how my first year has progressed as I joined the Undergraduate Student Government, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and College Republicans here on campus. Along with these fun activities I’ve found time to make friends and experience campus from hockey games to trivia nights. 

I have just finished my training as a Student Process Improvement Coordinator, and I am learning the principles of Lean and the language of Continuous improvement. I have always had a passion for system improvement and I am looking forward to the professional experiences I will have here at both Michigan Tech, and at the Office of Continuous Improvement.

My name is Jon Sturm. I was born in Kalamazoo, MI and moved to a town called Kingsford in the U.P. at a young age. My dad’s side of the family has lived in Kingsford for four generations. I am pursuing a degree in chemical engineering at Michigan Tech. Even though the classes can give me more stress than I need at times, the people I have met here and the experiences I’ve had have been amazing. When I am not in class or at work, I enjoy hanging out with my friends, working out, and being outside (hiking, fly fishing, hunting, etc.)

Although my favorite subject is chemistry, I have thoroughly enjoyed learning about Lean facilitating and continuous improvement. I love how the principles are applicable to a seemingly endless list of real-life situations. I am excited to finish the Canvas training and have my duties around the office expand and develop.

Sometimes it can be hard to really grasp the concept of what Lean is and what it really means to use it, and it can be even harder to explain Lean to someone else. When I say I have an on-campus job many of my peers give the normal response of “where do you work?” and to that I reply with “The Office of Continuous Improvement.” While I get a couple responses to this like “Where is that at?” or “I didn’t know we had one of those,” the most common response I experience is “What do you do there?” When I first started working as a Student Process Improvement Coordinator I would just reply with “oh, I help do Lean for the school.” But after seeing the confused look on peoples’ faces I realized that they probably had no idea what I was talking about and I was going to have to start explaining what Lean was.  So, I started thinking about how to describe Lean in my own words with out using any Lean lingo.

To me, Lean is a complex concept that ultimately always puts the customer and people first. Lean is based on waste elimination, respect for people and customer value. In Lean practices, it is important to simplify and standardize everything, to stream line it. In the end Lean should be more of a culture or a way of life than a practice or set of rules. I feel as if Lean is hard to define. The more information I’m introduced to the more broad Lean is and the more it can include.

I’m sure many others have different definitions of Lean than mine but that is kind of the interesting aspect of it. Lean is such a broad topic that encompasses so many aspects of our day-to-day lives. It’s much more than the tools and terms–its a way of thinking and a culture, which is why it is so hard to describe and define. So, what is your definition of Lean and Continuous Improvement?

Good afternoon! I hope you all have had a successful week. So much is going on. Career fair, industry days, interviews and more! Take advantage of every opportunity presented to you this week. Here in the Office of Continuous Improvement, we are looking forward to seeing you succeed and we would like to give you some tools to be more successful.

We have books on every part of improvement. From how to improve your office and efficiency on a personal level to the grander scale of Lean implementation throughout your workforce. In addition to our books, we have tools we can teach you about and classes in lean at Michigan tech that you can take. If you decide to read a book about self-improvement in lean, I would recommend “Organize your office”. This is an easy to read book for beginners, outlining simple steps on self-improvement in your office space. Just try a few tips a week and you will see tremendous results. Just imagine the reaction you could get from your boss if you manage to eliminate wasted time in the office.

If you would like more information regarding lean and how it can help you with your job, please feel free to reach out to improvement@mtu.edu or stop by our office in 136 W Wadsworth Hall between 9-5 during the week. We look forward to seeing you there!

School is back, and my schedule is busier then ever! I’m sure everyone is feeling a little bit of this chaos with getting back into the swing of things, having student back on campus, and starting classes. With this chaos everyone has their own way of organization to make sure they can remember everything. Actually, many people use personal kanbans and aren’t even aware. A personal kanban is a very versatile productivity system that has basically only two rules, visualize your work and limit your work in progress. Personal kanbans can be made in many different way to organize many different aspect of your life.

Personally, I use my personal kanban to keep track of events that I have and tasks that need to get done. During the school year, I have classes, work, homeowner/study time, and multiple extra curricular that I need to plan out to make sure I get to everything on time and prepared. My personal kanban helps me do that by allowing me to see all that information in one spot and mark things complete when I have accomplished them. Many others use personal kanbans for tasks such as work meetings or projects, home tasks or chores, and homework completion. Some also use them to keep track of all of these things at once.

While there are many different ways to use a personal kanban, there are also many different ways to make a personal kanban. It could be electronically, in a book, on a white board, or maybe even just a piece of paper. I used to use a laminated A3 piece of paper, however I found that I didn’t look at it as often as I needed to. I switched to google calendar and have found great success with that. This way I was able to color code my events, add tasks that I could mark complete, and the best part it was basically always available on my phone. While google calendar worked for me, different platforms work for different people, electronic or not.

Personal kanbans are a life-saver for me and I think they could be for you too! Next time you feel over whelmed and don’t know where to start, try making this visual management system to help you figure out where you are with everything. Also, if you would like help or more information always feel free to stop by the Office of Continuous Improvement and we would be happy to give you a hand. This tool might just be the right step to turn your hectic year into a breeze.