Have you ever heard the terms Six Sigma, 5S, Lean Manufacturing, Just In Time (JIT) or The Toyota Production System (TPS)? Don’t worry, neither had I 5 years ago. They are all methods/tools to run a business efficiently. To me and my family they have become more than that. They are a way of thinking that permeates our life.
Brandi, my wife, and I often joke that our family motto is:
A place for everything and everything in it’s place.
…but it wasn’t always that way. In 2004 my life was an organized chaos. I had just finished my undergraduate degree and was finally out of the system and structure that school had provided me. All of those years of school and no one had given me the curriculum for life. I had enough experience and knowledge to be dangerous. I was missing a key element and I didn’t even know it.
At the time, I would have described what was missing as “work ethic.” In retrospect, I was unconsciously incompetant — I didn’t know, what I didn’t know. I was a scholar athlete, coach, teacher, designer and photographer. I was countlessly on the dean’s list, had 2 degrees, a minor, a certificate and graduated with 160 units. I had an insatiable thirst for knowledge and growth. Why would think I was missing “Work Ethic?”
Organized chaos reigned over the next 6 years of my life. I would gleefully start projects and struggle to complete the last 10% of them. I burned a few bridges along the way. In the height of it, I was working 70-80hrs/wk and commuting from South Orange County to LAX 5 days a week. I just kept throwing more at it. More time. More energy. More of my life.
Fast forward to 2015. I have successfully planted a brand new production facility in a new region of the United States. I designed it all from the ground up. I managed the build out. I trained all of the employees and wrote the book on how to accomplish every task. (yes, there literally is a 300 page book) I wrote an OSHA compliance manual, from scratch and I have more time than ever to spend with my family.
How did I go from Chaos to Order?
In 2010, I was hired by a forward thinking entrepreneur. He had a web-to-print solution and invented “the cloud” before the mainstream was even aware. Upon hiring me he gave me two books: “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and “From Good to Great.” I read them and liked them. I always enjoyed self help books and these felt like that category to me. I began to implement principles and saw improvements on and off the field.
In 2011, he sent me to a Print Expo in Chicago. I was there to check out the “new” technology and see if anything would make us better. He encouraged me to take a few seminars. I found myself in a room hearing about “Lean Manufacturing.” A light flicked on. A passion deep in the pit of my stomach stirred. This was the answer.
That night I was in my hotel room learning more about this method. A tremendous relief came over me. I realized that I don’t have to be who I want to be, I merely need to take the steps to become that person. This was something I could implement at work, but it also impacted my worldview. The concept was clear and achievable: practice a continual improvement to increase productivity and reduce waste. The Japanese have a word for this. It’s Kaizen.
Kaizen affects all that you do. It affects your faith and spirituality. It affects your interpersonal relationships. It affects your philosophy of raising a family and the livelihood that you use to provide for them. I have not yet achieved this goal, but every day I am 1 step closer.
As the old adage goes:
How do you eat an elephant?
1 bite at a time.