The Squawk Point

Organisational Mechanics

  • Home
  • Blog
    • People
    • Data
    • Process
    • Wild Cards
    • Index
  • Podcast
  • Book

Rule 15: Remove the Waste

20 August, 2015 by James Lawther 4 Comments

Improving the work is easy

All you have to do is take out all the waste.  If you could take out all the waste then the workplace would be perfect.

But what is waste?

If you don’t know then you could try reading this, or maybe these.

Experience is the best teacher

I have a game you can use to explain waste to others.

Like all good games it involves Lego and takes about an hour to play.

Download the instructions by clicking here.

The only source of knowledge is experience ~ Albert Einstein

Rule 15: Remove the waste

Thanks to Greg Cox for teaching me the game.

If you enjoyed this post click here to get the next

lean lego

Read about another game

Image by Pioneer Library System

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement, Tools & Techniques Tagged With: gemba, lean thinking, waste

About the Author

James Lawther
James Lawther

James Lawther is a middle-aged, middle manager.

To reach this highly elevated position he has worked in numerous industries, from supermarket retailing to tax collecting.  He has had several operational roles, including running the night shift in a frozen pea packing factory and carrying out operational research for a credit card company.

As you can see from his C.V. he has either a wealth of experience or is incapable of holding down a job.  If the latter is true this post isn’t worth a minute of your attention.

Unfortunately, the only way to find out is to read it and decide for yourself.

www.squawkpoint.com/

Comments

  1. Adrian Swinscoe says

    27 August, 2015 at 4:26 pm

    Great game, James.

    But, who is this Tim Woods fellow? ;)

    Adrian

    Reply
  2. James Lawther says

    31 August, 2015 at 11:08 am

    I’m sure you have worked with him.

    I tried to get him the sack but the HR guys were up in arms

    Reply
  3. Sienna Hills says

    7 October, 2015 at 1:21 pm

    Great job! I think that you should teach that game to all the people out there! Because, it seems, we cannot handle our waste management properly. I’ll show it to our customers as well, hoping for the best, xixi. Greetings!

    Reply
    • James Lawther says

      7 October, 2015 at 8:42 pm

      That has to be a spam comment, but it was an original one

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Explore

accountability assumptions beliefs best practice blame bureaucracy capability clarity command and control communication complexity continuous improvement cost saving culture customer focus data is not information decisions employee performance measures empowerment error proofing fessing up gemba human nature incentives information technology innovation key performance indicators learning management style measurement motivation performance management poor service process control purpose reinforcing behaviour service design silo management systems thinking targets teamwork test and learn trust video waste

Receive Posts by e-Mail

Get the next post delivered straight to your inbox

Creative Commons

This information from The Squawk Point is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Creative Commons Licence
Customer Experience Update

Try This:

  • Fish Bone Diagrams – Helpful or Not?

  • Should You Punish Mistakes?

  • Regression to The Mean

  • Brilliance Alone Won’t Take You Far

Connect

  • E-mail
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • YouTube
  • Cookies
  • Contact Me

Copyright © 2025 · Enterprise Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in