Lean Six Sigma Mindset

Fast Company's December 2006 issue covers "The Secret of Toyota's Success." Big surprise: it's not just making better cars; it's how to make better cars and teaching everyone how to make cars better. Author, Charles Fishman, says: "It's not just the way Toyota makes cars--it's the way Toyota thinksabout making cars.

It's about developing a Lean Six Sigma mindset.

Fishman says: "By constantly questioning how you do things, by constantly tweaking, you don't outflank your competition next quarter. You outflank them next decade." That's the power of a Lean Six Sigma mindset.

Thousands of Improvements

Typical Toyota assembly lines make thousands of improvements each year. They don't have occasional Lean Six Sigma projects that they manage to completion. They do this all the time and everywhere. It's a mindset.

Toyota Loves Problems

Because it gives them something to improve. Most managers in most companies want to know what they did right and report how well everything is going so that they can get their bonus every year. Toyota wants to know: What have you fixed?

Loving problems is a different mindset, isn't it?

It's the Process!

John Shook, a faculty member at University of Michigan and former Toyota employee, says: "Once you realize that it's the process itself--that you're not seeking a plateau--you can relax. Doing the task and doint the task better become one and the same thing."

Here's My Point

It's a process mindset. 
It's a problem solving mindset.
It's a never rest on your current performance mindset.

If you use it to optimize your morning routine, cooking, cleaning and household chores as well as your work, you've got it. If you park it on a bookshelf and only pull it down when you're called to be on an improvement team, you don't have it.

Do You Have a Lean Six Sigma Mindset?

Take the Test Here

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