Lexington, KY and the 2004 Shingo Prize Conference

Patrick M. Anderson

I did not realize that I was starting on an uncharted path of innovation when I boarded a flight at the Anchorage International Airport early on a Spring Day in May 2004 to attend the 16th Annual Shingo Prize Conference. I had only recently become aware of the Rogers Innovation Curve, a concept I knew back then from Malcolm Gladwell’s popular book, “The Tipping Point.” It was based on a 1957 academic theory popularized by Everett Rogers in his 1962 publication of “Diffusion of Innovation.” Innovators are the early enthusiasts who desire to use the latest ideas and technology. By then I had read a very early book that discussed the development of lean manufacturing, “The Machine that Changed the World.” Written by MIT researchers Dan Jones, Daniel Roos and James Womack are published in 1990, the book described the development of the “Toyota Management System,” and coined the phrase Lean Production.

The trip to Lexington is an all-day trip and I arrived late in the evening. I could only stay for 2 days but I wanted both days to be filled with learning. I sat through several plenary sessions that featured leaders in Lean Manufacturing like Brian Jones, the President of Nypro Precision Plastics. During the breakout sessions, I looked for any that mentioned administrative processes. I found a couple that were very helpful.

During one breakout session, we did a simulation for an order and assembly process with about 15 process steps and numerous handoffs of information and materials. As we measured throughput, various parts of the process were falling behind as they managed the numerous defects discovered in the process. We were frustrated at the end of the simulation, but I was energized by finding solutions to the defects and how quickly they were resolved as we began to implement certain countermeasures to the problems we encountered. IT SEEMED SO EASY.

I returned to Anchorage, and we scheduled an introduction to Lean session with one of the consultants I met. I was not particularly impressed but since we were attempting to shape Lean Manufacturing to Lean Administration and Lean Healthcare, I knew that there was going to be the learning curve frustration. That’s where Dr. Tom Jackson entered our organization. While I didn’t have a chance to attend his breakout sessions, he did call me as a follow-up and offered his services. My board approved a consulting contract for 6 Kaizen and my super learning began. He was leading out Kaizen in Seward when the Snoopy Dance story emerged. I tell the story of the front page of this website. We applied Lean Management principals to everything we did with amazing benefit for the tribes we served.