April is Quick and Easy Kaizen month!

In April, I will be posting Quick and Easy Kaizens all month.  Got any you would like to share?  Email me at lafever@gmail.com and I will post them.  Enjoy!

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer

Good bugs, 4-H, and how speaking can save thousands of dollars!

“Our Insect Allies” was my first speech in 4-H when I was eleven years old. It was absolutely terrifying. I was I was shaking so badly that my note cards kept scuffling by themselves. The whole point of the speech was to show how “good bugs” help the human race and to give me a little competitive experience. I was happy when the ordeal was finally over and I clocked in about three minutes total speaking time. Alas, the presentation paled in comparison to the other competitors that day. Penny, a girl that lived a few miles away on the same road, was a seasoned competitor and did a stellar job. As I recall Penny got 1st place in that competition. I don’t remember how I placed but the real win for me was getting over the fear of speaking at a young age.

As I reflect almost 40 years later, that first speech was one of the best things I ever did. I’m not doing much with other 4-H events like geology, models, or “share the fun” events, but I am speaking and leveraging that skill for financial benefits. The catalyst for my renewed speaking career in was when my children joined our high school speech team. I was so impressed at their training and what they were learning. It was amazing to see how hard they worked, how they improved, and to see them come home with state championships in both team and individual events. With this inspiration, I started to hone my speaking skills again and summoned the courage to submit presentations for organizations that I belong as a member.

So where does the financial savings come in? I have presented three times at an IT conference and each event I was selected to be faculty I was given a complimentary registration. That means my company saved $1700 dollars for each time I gave my presentation! Three years in a row presenting translates into over $5000 in savings. Faculty member status allows me to attend the full conference for around 40% of the budgeted cost.

What hidden talents and gifts do you have that you are not doing anything with? Make a list and start improving them. You may be surprised at your dormant skills that with practice could boost your confidence, increase your visibility, and enhance your career. I don’t think anyone but myself remembers my first speech, but I’ll never forget the benefits that little talk about bugs gave me.


What have you improved today?

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer

Quick and Easy Kaizen #14 - Using local hospital pharmacy

Before: We would use use various pharmacies to fill subscriptions.

After: My wife found that her local hospital pharmacy would beat the price on our subscription refills by $10 over all of retail pharmacies we used.

Effect: $40/month savings

What have you improved today?

Dan Lafever
Kaizeneer

Hotel clerk with great ideas

As I arrived at the hotel for my conference, I had a delightful experience with Jennifer, the clerk that checked me into the Rosen Shingle Creek hotel in Orlando, Florida. As she was completing the guest registration process, I fumbled the key card and dropped it into a hole in the front desk counter. She handled my butterfinger move with professionalism and grace and I didn't feel embarrassed at all. I asked her about how many guests drop cards and she said it happens a lot and it took a few seconds for her retrieve the card from the hole below. We then starting talking about how this room card hand off process could be improved and I was amazed at the number of small changes that Jennifer had at the tip of her tongue on how to make her work easier. I certainly hope that the Rosen Shingle Creek front desk manager listens to her ideas for improved processes and I encouraged her to write them down and share them.

Every company need more Jennifers.

Organizations spend thousands of dollars on training employees on their processes and here was a person that just naturally thinks as a kaizeneer. How cool. Our conversation lasted a few minutes and she shared several of her ideas and they appeared to flow effortlessly from her mind. Can you imagine that kind of extraordinary service hotels could offer if they would implement the improvement ideas from front line staff?

What have you improved today? Jennifer improved my day!

Dan Lafever
Kaizeneer

ASQ meeting review where I presented...

I was contacted by the Lafayette ASQ Section 0917 to present about my "Kaizeneering" and how we use Lean at home. Here is the review from that meeting from the January 2010 newsletter:

December Meeting Recap - if you did not attend

You missed a really good time! Dan Lafever (a.k.a "The Kaizeneer") proved to be an excellent speaker who used an extremely entertaining approach. He challenged us to use principles of Kaizen and continuous improvement in our daily lives. Dan shared success stories from simple reminder signs to cost savings ideas that amounted to thousands of dollars saved by his household! Of the 36 people in attendance, 33 provided program feedback. The overall score was 4.78 of a possible 5. One person commented that this was one of our best programs in several years. Another "It challenged me to take another look at the mundane tasks at work." Still another commented "powerful tools at work, what a great idea to use them at home also!"

You can read the entire recap at http://www.asq.org/sections/mini-sites/0917 and look under Newsletters.

Thank you for letting me present at your spouses night-it was great fun!

Visual quick and easy kaizen

Muda Monday - 2nd waste at home - Inventory

Muda is the Japanese word for waste and I hope to illuminate how the waste of inventory, too many and too much of anything, can be reduced at home saving time, money, and effort. The Toyota Production system the removal of waste as part of "lean" principles. Let's look at some examples of how the waste of inventory has played out in my home:

Food Inventory - unconsumed food excess on plates, food leftovers that spoil and are subsequently thrown away, food purchased but never consumed, etc.

So many examples of wasted food!

• We love to eat mashed potatoes and gravy but the gravy leftovers are hardly ever eaten. Our countermeasure is to make only enough gravy that is eaten at that meal.
• Don't buy things you won't eat...food drives are proof that people empty their cupboards with canned goods that no one wants.

The USDA estimated that 96 billions pounds of food or about 27% of food production is wasted each year.

Household inventory - too many clothes, excess household goods, garages overflowing with inventory, endless yards sales, and so on.

• Goodwill Industries and other second hand stores exists because of excess personal inventories
• Obsession with stuff leads to unhealthy behaviors and materialism
• Loved ones have to sort through mountains of junk once a person passes away
• Inventory can create a "denial of service" by taking up space that should be used for other purposes i.e. garage not used for cars but storing inventory

Our countermeasure was to start our Great Household purge last year which we are still in the process of doing. I recently sold a few things, had another round of donations and trash removal from my garage. We use the garage to park our car in. Also, buy only what you will need or find a way to make it, grow it, or trade for it so you don't accumulate uneeded items.

Information inventory - too much junk mail, endless electronic communications, excess information from TV, newspapers, and Internet, records retained beyond appropriate time, etc.

• Cable TV where there are hundreds of channels yet only a few are watched
• Mailboxes that are filled with expired emails that are not deleted
• Cellphones with volumes of text message still hanging around
• Telemarketing calls that waste your time
• Files with obsolete or redundant information

Countermeasures that we have taken include dropping cable TV, eliminating unnecessary email boxes, getting on the do not call lists, and purging information on a regular basis. In addition, we are working on better processes to address the over consumption and overproduction of data and information.

These are but a few examples of inventory muda. Consider how you can reduce the waste of inventory and live a simpler, happier, and calmer life.

What have you improved today?

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer