Looking for Lean New Year

This fall, I learned a concept that I knew immediately would be my 2009 New Year’s resolution. It’s called Lean Manufacturing, and it’s about seeking and employing small but continuous improvements to make production systems more efficient.

Lean manufacturing stems from a Japanese word and philosophy called Kaizan, which means continuous improvement. Japanese companies, led by Toyota, have been employing this philosophy since the 1950s and essentially driven American automakers to bankruptcy. (Perhaps you’ve noticed this in the news.)

This is intriguing testimony about the usefulness of Kaizan. A study comparing the improvement programs of Japanese versus American companies showed that in Japan, about 75 percent of employees participate in continuous improvement programs generating 37 ideas each on average. About 88 percent of these ideas are adopted, saving $126 per idea.

In the U.S., only 9 percent of employees surveyed participated in improvement programs, generating just .12 ideas per employee. Only 32 percent of these ideas were adopted. But each of them generated more than $6,000 in savings.

Impressive -- we are Americans afterall. We generate big, important ideas.

Not really. Even with our significant cost savings per idea, Japan blows us away with overall net savings per 100 employees of $422,000 compared to under $23,000 for every 100 U.S. employees.

Now, you might be wondering how lean manufacturing principles used by Japanese automakers relate to my New Year’s Resolution? I admit, it’s a bit of a stretch since I’ve never really manufactured anything except three meals a day, some unsightly crafts and, with heavy lifting from above, three children.

But one element of Kaizan appeals to me. The mantra states that small changes employed continuously add up to big savings.

The key word for me is small. Small changes -- I can do that. Don’t ask me to keep my kids’ faces clean or Legos and Bionicles separate. But, I can sort mail in the office rather than the kitchen. I can organize my closet according to color, and I can even give each child a specific hook for hanging their coat.

Every house has hundreds of systems in place. Often they develop by default, with little thought about purpose or efficiency, allowing us to function clumsily at best. Why do I keep all my cleaning rags on our top floor and the cleaning products someplace else? Why is mosquito repellent stored inside rather than out where the mosquitoes bite?

With a little effort, I’m certain I can improve the way we operate. As “LeanSpeak – The Productivity Business Improvement Dictionary” states, daily improvement in small amounts carried out in every job and function of the business (or home in this case) eventually accumulates into very large gains.

The end result might not save us a bunch of money, but saving time, frustration or stress even in small amounts will be a very large gain for this family.

Wishing you a happy (and lean) New Year.

Fighting for the Christmas Spirit

Fighting for the Christmas Spirit

Last year, Christmas got the best of me and I vowed never to repeat that frazzled state of affairs. So, this year, I had a plan for managing the craziness and keeping true to the stillness and reflection that are suppose to characterize the advent season.

I began implementing the plan – Operation Christmas Spirit -- last January. By mid-November I already had a stack of Christmas presents wrapped, quite beautifully I thought.

For the first part of this month, I listened smugly to others complain about their endless lists of things to do while I went sledding with my kids and calmly decorated the house.

But last week, my Christmas Spirit plan began to fray. The first threads appeared while we were braiding, one-by-one, candy cane cookies that looked adorable on Food Network but tasted like toothpaste.

Christmas lights further undermined “Operation Christmas Spirit.” I untangled and eventually threw away an entire tub of half-working or completely dark lights. After hours of struggling with wires and bulbs, I wound the strands of working lights around some the garland on our porch, and then lined up the kids to watch me turn them on.

Instead of cheers I heard groans of disappointment. Only half the lights lit. I had knocked one of the more than 300 little buggers loose. Someday I want to meet the Chinese engineer who designed Christmas lights. Clearly, they are a big joke on Americans.

Christmas lights are like kryptonite for the Christmas spirit. So are things like:

· The Chipmunks Christmas CD played on a continuous loop.

· Children who “order” extravagant (expensive) gifts from Santa because they are free.

· Ads that count down the remaining shopping or shipping days beginning in September.

· And presents purchased in advance that can not be found in their clever hiding place.

Christmas, for women, is almost universally a challenging and stressful time. In addition to our normal duties we attempt to:

• Redecorate our homes.
• Buy (or make) presents for family, friends, neighbors, teachers, service providers, clients, co-workers and needy children.
• Send cards with adorable pictures to everyone we’ve ever met and want to remain in contact with.
• Fill our homes with fancy, home-baked sweets.

“Operation Christmas Spirit” has been a revealing effort. I’ve had to fight harder than I expected to maintain calm and good cheer. There are many forces working against it -- most of them our own making.

We’ve turned the simplicity of that first Christmas upside down and transformed the advent season into a series of tasks -- things to check off rather than experience.

In the final week before Christmas, my plan needs to be fortified. It’s time to scale back the Martha Stewart expectations and refocus on the humility and faith of the Holy Family -- the real source of Christmas spirit.

Have a beautiful and peaceful Christmas. May your Christmas lights burn bright.

Free Play: Batteries Not Necessary

My friend was attempting to wrestle her three young children out the door for swimming lessons. She held her toddler on one hip while trying, rather unsuccessfully, to direct her other kids into their coats.

I would have helped but I was corralling my own kids to our car for guitar lessons.

As we exchanged exasperated looks, I blurted out the one thought popped into my mind, “Our moms did not do this.”

Actually, they did few of the activities that are common place for today’s parents. No pre-school at age three, music lessons for infants or all-day kindergarten. No swimming lessons for diaper-wearing babies or Itty Bitty anything.

Instead I cruised around with neighborhood friends, immersed in a world of make-believe games like “house on bikes” where our block was our city, our bikes were our cars and each house was a different store or location.

When I was bored or unruly, my parents usually offered two choices. Go outside or get to work. Today, parents have an entirely different box of tools: Nickelodeon, Nintendo, Wii, Webkinz, structured activities like sports and lessons and super stores brimming with passive toys that come with pre-written scripts.

A report last year from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) takes a hard look at today’s child-rearing practices and concludes that unstructured playtime for American children is seriously suffering. A variety of causes are to blame -- changing family structures, passive toys, increasing pressure for kids to perform, and education policies that have led to less recess and phy ed in many schools.

Author Kenneth R. Ginsburg, MD, says free play is vital in developing strong parent-child bonds and well-adjusted children. It helps children develop socially, emotionally, physically and cognitively and teaches them how to manage stress, solve problems and get along with others.

And I thought we were just having fun.

Authors were careful to note that organized activities have many benefits, but said it’s unclear when a child (or mom, I might add) may be “overscheduled” to their detriment, leading to anxiety, depression and other things that have no place in childhood.

Personally, I wish organized sports didn’t start so young. I love athletics, but right now my kids are perfectly satisfied with a shovel and snow bank. I hate to give that up and our limited family time when they are so young.

But if we wait too long, our kids will be too far behind to play some sports. This is the “treadmill” that Ginsburg said parents struggle to step off.

“The downtime that allows parents and children some of the most productive time for interaction is at a premium when schedules become highly packed with adult-supervised or adult-driven activities,” Ginsburg cautions.

These highly packed schedules have another downside. It takes away some of the pleasures of parenting. Hussling kids to and fro, in and out of cars and car seats isn’t a fun way to spend time with your family.

Obviously, times have changed. Most parents are employed now, and children can’t safely roam about town like I did as a child. Still, there are plenty of steps we can take to provide balance and room for free play. Here are some ideas from the AAP:

• Play and family togetherness are tried, trusted, and traditional methods of promoting success and happiness in children. Ignore messages that suggest otherwise.
• Chose “true toys”, such as blocks and dolls, in which children use their imagination fully.
• Read to your children, even at young ages.
• Allow children to explore a variety of interests in a balanced way without feeling pressured to excel at all of them.
• Seek a balanced schedule based on each child’s unique needs, skills, and temperament.
• Choose child care and early education programs that offer more than “academic preparedness.”

The website www.playborhood.com offers a wide variety of insights on this subject. The material was worth considering prior to Christmas shopping for my kids. Pass by the “baby Einstein” videos and reach instead for books, blocks and other battery-free classics.

Now excuse me. I have some shovels and gloves to wrap for two little warriors who are plotting a snowball attack on bad guys across the street.