Monday Circle - Waste & Solutions

Journal

Monday Circle

Every Monday at 10 o’clock sharp, our crew of 20 drops whatever they’re doing and circles up to share their thoughts on the topic of the week. It’s a time to be candid, it’s a time to connect and strengthen our bonds. This is a transcript.

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Muda, one of the core lean manufacturing principles, is Japanese for waste which can manifest itself in many forms.

"IDENTIFY ONE TYPE OF MUDA (WASTE) AND AN IDEA FOR ELIMINATING IT."

BEN WOOD: "Waiting. Problem solving as a group wastes time. Speaking specifically about the morning meeting, a solution is that people could separate and only those directly involved can solve the problems."

JUSTIN ABUAN: "Demos! Large groups are better because people will ask more questions which can be captured on the videos."

BRODIE GORDON: "Leather! We've come so far from carving large blocks of bamboo but leather ain't perfect and we can't waste it trying to get there."

TOMMY GUSTOVICH: "Waiting. Don't just stand there while the CNCs or laser programs are running for a few moments. No solution yet."

SYLVIA CHOI: "Use the leather waste to send samples to customers to educate them about the quality."

EDMUND SANDOVAL: "Returns involve a lot of movement; walking back and forth feels wasteful. No solution because he doesn't want to disrupt others' work spaces."

VICTOR NGUYEN: "Sapwood. I receive conflicting messages about if it's go or no go and then it gets killed at the end. Let's mark it good or bad when it is received."

MISBAH AFSHARI: "Leather! Changing the leather vendor helped with the flaws but it could always get better."

GALEN LEE: "Materials waste. What if we take the buckets filled with scrap to prototyping so they can use it?"

SEAN KELLY: "Always be prepared! Not being ready wastes time. He spends time looking for things like his pens, he keeps his tools on him in an apron. Also keeping the work tables clean helps avoid confusion about what is relevant to the task at hand."

DASHIA FONTLEROY: "Material waste! We have a lot of waste and sometimes it's just one tiny flaw in FG. What if we could sell them online or in the retail store at a discount?"

KEVIN DO: "Confusion. In all hands he noticed a lack of training. "That's why I was taught" is being given as a reason instead of knowing why."

MAX BROWN: "Setting an alarm for 7:59 was huge because before he'd waste time wondering about when he needed to be there. Now 7:58 is much more productive."

GINGER WEIDENHOF: "Time is waste. Delivering accurate information in advance could help. Ex: email with question about leather on the mouse pads and she had to spend 20 minutes asking questions to figure it out. Also work spaces aren't very ergonomic, and changing those will help."

CHRISTOPHER DONN: "Confusion. We've changed a lot of accounting practices but flexibility can hinder productivity. We may be pulling the wrong info for long-term cash flow forecasting."

DIXIE GRIFFIN: "Time is wasted looking for proper supplies when they should be back in the work space. The solution is to put things back when you're done with them, especially if you've borrowed them from a different work space."

KEN TOMITA: "Time. Over processing data- don't do the work if you're not going to use it. Use the 5 Why's."

JIM HASSERT: "Doing a lot of transition due to all hands which can lead to waiting. We can attack it, focus, and tighten it up by rearranging physical work spaces."