Continuous Improvement Archives

Why even bother with Continuous Improvement?

In the spring of 2021, on the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month, Kaas Tailored is hosting a series on Problem Solving & Continuous Improvement. To register to join in on the fun, please go here. What is a system? Before talking about Improvement Systems, let’s make sure we are talking about the same […]

How Kaas Tailored Uses Visual Management Tools

In the fall of 2020, Kaas Tailored hosted a series of Zoom calls unpacking our Daily Management System (DMS). Each month we focused on a different element of our DMS, starting with strategy, then discussing daily huddles, then talking about Visual Management Systems (VMS), and ending with Leader Standard Work. In this post, we look […]

How Does an Organization Adopt a Daily Management System?

For a lot of you, this is really being done to you by the corner office and there’s not a lot you can do in the structure you have. Trying to fight the government or the City Hall is probably not so smart. I would just say, “Start where you’re at.”

How Visual Management Systems Help Reduce Waste

One of the advantages of having such a diverse workgroup as we have at our company (with over 14 languages spoken in our factory) is that Kaas has to be thinking of ways that we can allow people to know the truth so that they can move freely without waste.

How Kaas Tailored Runs Daily Huddles

At Kaas Tailored, we have various huddles that meet daily to walk through our “information factory.” There are a variety of tools to choose from to help organize daily huddles, but we use Trello and Zoom. I participate in a huddle every day at 7:30. We all call in from wherever we are in the world. When I say “we all,” I mean all the responsible parties over our entire organization. We could not have successful huddles if we left out a section of our organization. So there are 11 leaders on the call every day.

How to Reduce Waste by 30% in Your Organization

Today we are going to focus on huddles, a main way that we know and show the truth, and how they relate to our values. The premise of today’s talk was supposed to be “how daily huddles can help organizations achieve flow,” but I am not sure that all of you even want flow. The question I think that most organizations need to start with is, “What is flow, and why should I even care?”

Does Kaas Tailored Have a Strategic Plan Document?

Do we have a strategic plan document? Absolutely not. This is an area where I am super weak. At Kaas Tailored, the reality of our business is that we have everything on the wall, and this is intentional. We use a Visual Management System (VMS). Our Visual Management System is based on one of our values: that we want to know and show the truth. We know that human beings can take in a lot of information through their eyes, so we put our plans on the walls, so our team can know the truth.

How Daily Huddles Help Organizations Achieve Flow

First off, what is a huddle? A huddle is a meeting of all the necessary people in a particular system that happens daily, weekly, or monthly to remove blocks and keep information flowing. It’s sometimes hard to see how people get blocked from creating value or working in flow. Things like the 7 Wastes get in the way of flow. It’s easy to look at the flow of a piece of furniture and see what can block it. It’s harder to identify what stops flow for team members. The whole purpose of a huddle is to ensure that value creation never stops.

How GLDN Uses Strategy in Their DMS

In this post, we’re hearing from special guest Mark Johnson, COO of GLDN, an online direct-to-consumer jewelry company.

How Kaas Tailored Uses Strategy in Their DMS

At Kaas Tailored, when we say strategy, what we mean is starting with who we are trying to become as an organization. It all starts with the question of, “Where are we going? Why are we building this beautiful thing together? Why are we collaborating?”