Want to win then your team better do CI

First congratulations to Ryder Hesjedal on an utterly awesome win at the the Giro d'Italia
In cycling the Giro is right up these only just behind the Tour de France in prestige.  To win the Giro is a massive achievement against some of the very best riders in the world.

Picture from Velonews.com

So what on earth has that got to do with continuous improvement.  Ryder's margin of win was 16 seconds.  That is 16 seconds out of 91 hours 39 minutes and 02 seconds.  That comes out at 0.0048% a very small margin.  If you are racing for 3 weeks and winning (brilliantly) by seconds the smallest difference make the difference.  The time gab between winning and not making the podium was 100 secs. 

Garmin-Barracuda has a strong reputation for pushing the limits on technology and innovation.  There are dozens of tiny improvements that our sponsors and sports science director Robby Ketchell have developed that could have made up the 16 seconds that finally delivered the victory.
Personally, I think that a big part of the final 16-second gap can be found somewhere else.  It is in the people.  I strongly believe that good people in the right jobs are what make the difference.  - Garmin-Barracuda sports director Charly Wegelius

Small changes in life and work are often overlooked, they should not be.  Added together as we see they make a wonderful difference.

Example of Process Muda

As a consultant and therefore an outside pair of eyes to the companies I work with process waste can often be one of the more difficult wastes for me to identify.  It can also be the easiest to see in the "why do you do it that way?" scenarios.
This example of Process muda was dumped on me when I decided to update some software on my laptop.   Normal ordering method, went to the suppliers website, selected the software I wanted and completed the purchase screen.  First email promptly delivered to me confirming the order.  Next a second email was delivered to me with the invoice details.  All good to date.  Then I waited.  And I waited some more.  Three weeks later this parcel arrived.

I opened it, curious why the company had sent me such a big box. Was it that they generously wished to send me packaging materials?  If you look closely you will notice the box has been labelled three separate times, was one not enough?

 Now under all this stuff I don't need and now have to take out and dispose of was what I wanted.

Well, not quite, when you open the package what I really wanted was this

Actually what I really wanted was the 25 character code.
A whole lot of unnecessary work went into delivering these 25 characters to me.  The muda included packaging, delivery, handling, me opening and disposing of the packaging which included the cardboard box and the nice plastic software box the key card was in.  And lets not forget the three weeks of waiting I did.
And to top it off, the next day in the mail came a copy of the invoice.

The reason this is all so frustrating is I paid for it.  I didn't get to pay for what I wanted.  I got to pay for a whole lot more, which I didn't want.

Productivity

Productivity in 11 Words

One thing at a time.
Most important thing first.
Start now.

borrowed from http://www.skelliewag.org/productivity-in-11-words-1040.htm 

also a perfect description for just in time work