Comments on: It’s a Small World After All http://oldleandude.com/2013/12/09/its-a-small-world-after-all/ A Blog About Understanding TPS and Gaining Its Full Benefits, brought to you by "The Toast Guy" Mon, 09 Dec 2013 16:57:04 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Jeff Hockemeyer http://oldleandude.com/2013/12/09/its-a-small-world-after-all/#comment-1288 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 16:57:04 +0000 http://oldleandude.com/?p=1411#comment-1288 Love your posts, wrote a Lean/TPM kids story on a dare from my stepson, thought you might enjoy it.

A Silly/Sensible Improvement Story

Opened my electric bill, $120…yikes

I contacted the power company and they allowed me to come in and observe the process so I could find opportunities for improvements. (silly, right?)

I found that instead of fossil fuels the power was produced by six hamsters each walking in a large wheel. (silly right?) Animal rights was okay with this because the hamsters were well compensated with a generous benefits package and employed hamsters were in much better physical condition then their unemployed counterparts.

Upon observing the process three things stood out to me. One was that the wheels being used were extremely large so that the efforts of each hamster were turning their wheel quite slowly. The second observation was that all of the wheels were squeaking. The third was that each night a person would come out and take ten minutes cleaning black debris that was collecting underneath the wheel.

My first idea was to make the wheels smaller so that the same efforts from the hamsters would produce more power, also found that the spare pieces of wheels could be used to make additional wheels for the companies increasing power needs. (sensible right?)

My second idea was an “aha” moment. The squeaking wheel was screaming for lubrication. So the person that came out each night to clean the debris from under the wheel would take a couple minutes and grease the wheel. I found after the first night that if the wheel was greased each night that there would be no debris produced to clean. And instead of replacing parts on the wheel once a month, the power company only had to replace parts once every year. (sensible right?)

One more “unintended” payoff was discovered during my interview with the hamsters after the improvements were made. They said the lubricated wheel made their job a lot easier.
When all was said and done it took only three hamsters to produce my power and they were able to do it with considerably less effort.

Opened my electric bill, $60…cool! I’m calling the gas company next!

]]> By: Jason Rekker http://oldleandude.com/2013/12/09/its-a-small-world-after-all/#comment-1287 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 16:09:40 +0000 http://oldleandude.com/?p=1411#comment-1287 Hi Bruce, is that 5s Wetlabs exercise available as a training resource? Sounds like an effective training tool I wouldn’t mind running here.

Jason Rekker
Nursery Manager
Valleybrook Gardens (Ont.) Ltd.
jr@valleybrook.com
905.468.4210 ext. 35

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