Aaron U. Bolin, Ph.D.

By some strange mistake in judgment, the MAES chapter from Colorado University-Boulder ended up with me as their mentor for the college decathlon event held during the annual symposium. I'm enjoying the experience, but I wonder how useful I've really been to my team (this is my first college decathlon, so they have to spend a little extra time teaching me how to mentor them). For the "Blog Post" event, my students have posted a short article to the MAES Facebook page. The measure of success in this event is the number of "Likes" they get on Facebook by this afternoon. If you have a few seconds, please like and share at the link below. Go Buffaloes! top-10-things-to-remember-for-the-next-maes-symposium

As the toner supply in her home office started to run low, wise Ms. Owl placed an order. She needed to stock up for a long winter, so she doubled her normal order and submitted all of the proper forms to Jonny Badger, the supply clerk. When the requested toner did not arrive on the scheduled delivery date, Ms. Owl called Jonny Badger to determine the cause of the delay. "Banker Frog cancelled your order," explained Jonny. "Several other people in the village will also need toner, so banker Frog decided to bundle the orders to reduce the overall cost to the village." "When will I get my toner?" asked Ms. Owl. "Banker Frog is consolidating the orders now. We'll submit the larger order today. It should arrive by next Friday." "What should I do in the meantime?" asked Ms. Owl. "I waited to order the toner until I needed it - just as Banker Frog directed. Now, I've run completely out. Without toner, I w

The other day, I was invited to attend a meeting with 11 top executives, the Big Wigs. The Big Wigs meet every Friday to discuss strategy. As a little wig, I was attending to fill the role of note taker. The topic of the day was about refreshing IT resources in the field. There was no meeting agenda. The meeting started 7 minutes late. One Big Wig had already laid out papers to work on during the meeting. Four of the Big Wigs sent their deputies to “cover” the meeting. The 2nd highest ranked Wig in the room began checking messages on his phone (or playing video games, I’m not sure which) after only 3 minutes. At the end of 60 minutes, I had not recorded a single meaningful discussion or action item. Not one. To hold this particular meeting cost the organization roughly $800 in salaries and benefits. We spent $800 to teach 11 Big Wigs that field reps are getting new laptops – even though all 11 knew that new laptops were on the way before the meeting started. I'm relaying

Today and Tomorrow: Commemorative Edition of Ford's 1926 Classic by Henry Ford My rating: 4 of 5 stars Brilliant, though somewhat utopian in outlook. I was somewhat surprised to see that Henry Ford outlined a complete and modern continuous process improvement program back in 1926 -- long before quality circles, total quality management, and lean six sigma. The basic message of the book is that good business management can save the world. Ford cites multiple examples from Ford Motors where better management improved the bottom line and also improved the lives of his workers. The book reads somewhat like an Ayn Rand novel - the producers of the world carry the load for the moochers. Ford does offer ample advice and has a very quotable writing style. The only thing that kept me from giving it five stars was the constant droning about how Ford Motors is the best thing since sliced bread. Otherwise, this is a very good book, maybe a must read, for those interested in continuou

We just completed the first annual training cycle (Oct 2012-Sept 2012) of our resurrected Continuous Process Improvement program. Our first year goals (and invested resources) were fairly modest. We planned to train an initial cadre of practitioners (check), execute several proof-of-concept projects (check), re-institute the local CPI collaborative (check), grow an in-house instructional capability (check), and embed CPI as an integral part of the strategic planning process (semi-check). In some ways, I think we might have aimed too low. It is common to achieve 1000% improvements in simulated processes during training. In our most recent class, we improved over a baseline production of 4 products in 10 minutes to a final production of 46 products in 10 minutes -- 1150% improvement in production and a cycle time improvement from 150 seconds per product down to about 13 seconds per product. If we could accomplish that in real life -- our biggest problem would be trying to figure out ho

Two overlapping tidbits of information caught my eye this last week. First, I am trying to persuade my boss to send me to a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt course. In the description of the course, a Master Black Belt candidate is described as a Black Belt with an experience level equivalent to 50 process improvement projects. Second, I visited the blog of a very well-known practitioner who indicates that his experience level consists of "over 250 projects" completed. It got me thinking: I wonder how many projects I have completed? I found it surprisingly hard to count projects, even harder to count them honestly. The hard part isn't remembering the work. The hard part is determining what constitutes a project, and which projects count as personal experience. Do all projects have to be continuous process improvement to count?  Does a rapid improvement event count as a project, or should I only count full projects? If I manage the project manager (i.e., he or she works

In business projects, the metaphorical language of picking the low-hanging fruit almost always comes up. Just to be clear, the low-hanging fruit refers to the idea that the easiest or lowest cost work should get done first. Examples of low-hanging fruit include things like eliminating obvious waste, cutting overtime, reducing excessive stockpiles, and removing self-inflicted policy constraints. Good things generally happen when you pick the low-hanging fruit. First, the project team can satisfy an immediate need to be successful, if only on a small scale. Because the low-hanging fruit is so easy to get, harvesting it early in a project can generate momentum for a more sustained effort. Second, everyone on the team can agree. Because the low-hanging fruit is obvious, disagreements on the obvious course of action are normally quite easy to resolve. Third, the project team can de-clutter the solution space. Getting the little things out of the way can help the team stay focused on the