Lean Manufacturing - Lean Improvement Walk - FastCap

In the spirit of Kaizen (Lean continuous improvement) and Lean Manufacturing, Paul Akers takes a morning walk around the facility to see how, and what can be improved every day.
#lean #fastcap #fastcapproducts
If you like this video, give it a thumbs up & subscribe to our channel.
Paul Akers is the founder and president of FastCap, based in Ferndale, WA. FastCap is an international product development company founded in 1997 with over 2000 distributors worldwide. A prolific inventor, Paul holds many US and international patents. FastCap launches 30+ innovative products per year and has won Business of the Year multiple times. Paul and his wife, Leanne, have built FastCap from their garage into a multi-million dollar company. At its core, FastCap is a lean manufacturing company, determined to improve everything every day continuously. Our products reflect the idea that everything can be improved and the best ideas come from the shop floor.
For more information on FastCap, visit our website www.fastcap.com/
For Spanish videos, visit our FastCap Spanish KZbin Channel. www.youtube.com/@FastCapEspanol
Paul Akers is an entrepreneur, business owner, author, speaker, & Lean maniac. He has written six books on Lean (2 Second Lean, Lean Health, Lean Travel, Lean Life, Banish Sloppiness, & Impact), and he travels the world to educate & speak about 2 Second Lean, Lean principles, & Lean manufacturing. Paul has a podcast called The American Innovator, where he shares his Lean travel adventures. For more information on Paul Akers and Lean, visit his website. paulakers.net/
To receive news regarding FastCap, New Products, & 2 Second Lean, go to this link: bit.ly/FastCap-Subscribe

[@christopherarmstrong2710]

Great video. Loved the enthusiasm and energy.

[@andygullion5182]

What a beautiful use of energy. This is what success looks like.

[@drfelgood5]

I like the way you talk up your employees. You have a positive attitude and your not talking down to them. Your encouraging them to improve there own surroundings and areas and your praising them for doing so. Lots can be learned from your management technique.

[@FastCapLLC]

"To anyone discovering Paul Akers and FastCap video's for the first time, I have been implementing this methodology (would you call it that Paul?) over the past 6 months into my company in the UK with PHENOMENAL results! My employees have never been as engaged in their work as they are today, and every day it just gets better. Their personal development has been staggering and I have a better company for it. Do not be put off by the simplicity of fixing what bugs you, it works!" Ashley Bailey

[@FastCapLLC]

It works perfectly. People come from around the world to tour our facilities and are in awe of our culture and each person's ability to improve in their area and collaborate with others on their area. Just today we had someone walk into the Engineering area and notice something we had missed. It was earth shattering. We loved implementing it. Paul

[@cpubuild]

Thanks for sharing...I'm starting my lean journey as a shipping manager and I'm definitely taking notes.

[@MarkGraban]

Thanks for all of your awesome videos!

[@FastCapLLC]

Thanks for your kind words. Keep it up! Paul

[@FastCapLLC]

Thanks for your kind words! Paul

[@summerswoodworking]

Well organized and great leadership Paul! I bet your employees appreciate you!

[@FastCapLLC]

Thanks so much! Well I know I appreciate them! Paul

[@FastCapLLC]

Rod i am sure all the people around you are glad that you continued to improve in your language skills from when you spoke your first words. Lean is simply a thoughtful and deliberate way to make sure we all continually place improvement, as a priority in our life,.the benefits are endless. I actually don't do the morning walk any more, our people are self motivated by the daily improvements they make, so sorry that my video didn't make the point of continuous improvement more clear for you.

[@mjrwey]

What an awesome company and great ideas. Love all my Fastcap products.

[@FastCapLLC]

We love hearing this. Thanks!

[@clozueyz]

Whaoo, what an impressive CI way! Salute on your great ideas. I am doing the same on my place and again, thank you for making my job secure and enriching the world with better manufacturing improvement ideas!!!! :) Thanks

[@benbiedenkopf8623]

Here i start my lean journey for my headstone company. Thanks a lot paul

[@paul-akers]

Well make sure to make before/after videos. I'd love to see them!

[@FastCapLLC]

Thanks, Paul

[@FastCapLLC]

Primarily, we make woodworking tools for professional cabinet makers. First thing in the morning we train, improve, and have our morning meeting. Then we work for 6 hours for the rest of the day. Everyone is assigned a specific area, but most are crossed trained to work other places depending on demand. Paul

[@FastCapLLC]

@mgraban Thanks for the feedback. We love making them!

[@rodneyshorette]

Paul no need to be sorry. My comment was not from a lack of clarity about continuous improvement. Obviously my language skills have not improved enough to communicate my actual point. Congratulations on implementing my suggested improvement. I'm sure the employees at FastCap are relieved, I know I would be.

[@reginaldmorton2162]

thanks for all the videos

[@FastCapLLC]

You are very welcome, Reginald!

[@werdlyfe9577]

Im sure the employees absolutely love working there...............................

[@midcitygym]

Would love a tour of this plant, this guys eployees are a credit to him

[@FastCapLLC]

@midcitygym Thanks for your kind words. Tours are available. We do them 2 times per month on Fridays at 7:15 am. To find out the next available opening you can contact Marla at [e-mail].

[@herpadiana]

inspiring

[@khansaetahri9542]

Im so inspired by your job , im almost to start for the first time a lean project in an Aircraft Wiring Harnesses Manufacturer and I need some instructions on the way how i should start , Thanks a lot Fast cap.

[@FastCapLLC]

Hi Khansae: There are a ton of Lean resources on my website. Check it out. paulakers.net/

[@FastCapLLC]

@mgraban fixed it. thanks!

[@124php]

I FINISHED A FORMATION IN QUALITY MANAGEMENT AND MADE A PAPER ABOUT KAIZEN IN A TOYOTA PARTS FACTORY. YOUR VIDEO IS ENLARGING MY KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE IMPLEMENTATION OF K. GREAT IDEA - 2 SECONDS A DAY IMPROVEMENT AND MORNING WALK !

[@FastCapLLC]

I wrote a book about it that is available online for free. paulakers.net/2sl

[@124php]

I have downloaded it. Time to read.

[@FastCapLLC]

Super. Let me know what you think!

[@danafulghum3897]

I understand the concept and think it is a good way to involve employees in the organization and improvement process. However, I question the validity in the long term. Can you expect an improvement idea from the same people every day till the end of time? At some point doesn’t it create a stressful situation when they feel they must come up with and idea the rest of their days? I feel the pressure and I do not even work for the guy.

[@DK-lz7kg]

I’ve been working for Paul for over 3 years now, some days I’m making 5-10 improvements a day, it’s honestly so fun and it’s not even difficult to find them. Basically anything that is not orderly, functioning properly, or just simply bugs you is something you can improve and it’s that easy! To me it’s like a game :-)

[@perryyaremchuk4569]

ONE COMMENT ON LISA'S STACK 'O BOXES.....I did something similar, but cut the hole in the SIDE of the box, so you could retrieve small parts without even moving them...still lots of room to tape the bag and label the contents. If you have the luxury of slanting them in a stand, preferably on wheels, that would ensure the product slides to the front as pieces are used up....nice work Fascap!

[@FastCapLLC]

All good ideas!

[@ashkanmoughari1578]

THANKS

[@FastCapLLC]

You're welcome.

[@kevinb.2249]

This is a perfect example of true leadership and an engaged owner, developing his people, I'd like to do a 2 week internship just to learn form his people and his practices, is this possible?

[@FastCapLLC]

Hi Kevin: There are tons of resources available on my website, include my book, 2 Second Lean (no cost for electronic versions), and the Lean Hub. Maybe you can find an organization close to you. paulakers.net/

[@MrProdigiosus]

The music almost ruins the video for me. So loud, can barely hear what they're saying.. :l

[@FastCapLLC]

+MrProdigiosus Sorry about that! We continue to work on getting that better.

[@BenVillagrana]

Not bad... how much time off production you take every day for continuous improvement?

[@FastCapLLC]

Most employees spend 15-30 minutes per day, but if an improvement takes longer there is no restriction on how much time they can spend.

[@SonofIsrael1]

Very well. That's should be implemented in every working place. P.S. Ignore the losers, and their opinion.

[@tamirluria1041]

Hi Paul - this and the morning meeting is very inspiring. I am wondering, would you recommend doing the meeting and walk right off the bat as the gateway to lean? Or do you feel that these tools are a way to refine your lean facility? How long after your commitment to lean did you start with morning meeting and walk?

[@FastCapLLC]

I recommend doing it exactly as follows...but of course, you must do it the way that's best for you. - first thing in the morning everyone sweeps sorts and standardizes the entire facility for between 15 minutes to 30 minutes. - during the 3S'ing time, you're looking for things that need to be fixed, repaired, improved, labeled, or enhanced. - during the 3S'ing time, the leaders of the company are doing the improvement walk. At this time, you are teaching, coaching, assisting, sweeping, scrubbing toilets, and all the above. - We spend 15-45 minutes doing this and we've never missed and we been doing it for 10 years. Caution we have developed this habit over a long period of time. This might be too much for most organizations in the beginning. - The next step is to have the morning meeting and discuss what is been accomplished, the mistakes, the improvements, a little history lesson, stretching and then go to work. Often times companies will take my book and read one page a day and discuss it or take another book like Good To Great and do the same thing. The goal is to elevate and improve your people, which is just as important as elevating and improving processes. I stand corrected, elevating your people is more important than improving your processes because if you improve your people you will automatically improve your processes. - the end goal is quality. A quality product, quality facility, quality people, and a quality contribution to society and the world. Thanks, Paul

[@tamirluria1041]

FastCap You rock. Thanks, Paul!

[@monte6614]

Somewhere Dr. Demming is smiling.

[@FastCapLLC]

robert montalbano Thanks Robert :)

[@bobichina]

Awesome video!!! No music please!

[@FastCapLLC]

Thanks, and thanks for the feedback. Paul

[@MarkGraban]

One improvement -- the spelling of "improvment"... Thanks for sharing the video though!!

[@lucs1981]

Are all these only 15-30 min to do? They look like it would take longer to do. Or they go back to making customer orders for Today and then continue next day on the improvement? What about bigger changes? So its 30 min of cleaning, 30 min of improvement then go do orders for customers?

[@FastCapLLC]

This video should help. kzbin.info/www/bejne/jmfcgpesaLubd9k

[@lucs1981]

Cool it helps a lot. Is there a specific time for 3S and then specific time for process improvements? Sometimes it may be the same but sometimes it may not. Do you split this 1st hour between the 2?

[@FastCapLLC]

We 3S and do 2SL improvement first thing in the morning.

[@jerryhunt9499]

The man talking needs to let the employee talk about what they did.

[@FastCapLLC]

We have a lot of videos where our employees are explaining their improvements. Here is one. kzbin.info/www/bejne/baPHhKmurdKZbJI

[@navazabdulla3189]

I thought he did a great job. He made them all feel comfortable while a camera was on them.

[@Navisworker]

Such inspiring stuff. I have a point of improvement for your video's. Seems your camera has a stereo microphone which means that your voice can appear very directional or more prominent on one side. You can hear it on the tail end of this video as Paul is dominant on the left side (You hear it well with headphones). I suggest getting a shotgun microphone and attaching it to your camera. here is what I mean: www.rodemic.com/videomic Remember that sound is always half the video. Keep up the good work.

[@FastCapLLC]

Great feedback. I appreciate the suggestion I have since switched to Sony PJ 790 as a phenomenal microphone system and the quality of the audio is getting better all the time. I will be extremely careful to make sure the audio quality is up to par. Thanks for the great idea. Paul

[@clintsmith202006]

FastCap Are you using the iphone now? In your book you mention the waste that comes from all the extra camera time with editing and what not. Just curious if this video process has changed?

[@FastCapLLC]

Clint Smith For every video that is spontaneous, the iPhone is used...which means 95% of all the videos I make are done with the iPhone. When I'm trying to do a more production quality where I know there will be a little more tedious editing (e.g., product videos) I use my Sony PJ 790 and edit it in Final Cut Pro. Thanks, Paul

[@gmcfalls]

What if an employee had an idea that required massive changes? Not 2 seconds, but a major change to the production system. How is that handled in this model? This is great stuff, but I'm wondering how you manage bigger ideas. There is a lady at the 1:30 that has a great idea with the boxes. What if her idea was to print the labels on demand instead of the 20 or so rolls she has in front of her? That would save her a bunch of time, but it's a bit more involved. What's your process for handling those ideas?

[@FastCapLLC]

Simply make a plan, evaluate what we're trying to do, do a test, and see what the outcome produces.

[@CapeCodAudioVisual]

Sorry paul I'm not seeing how this fits with the systems of TQM that I am familar with. First it isn't a team effort if each person is trying to come up with an improvement and the improvements may be counter productive to the other workers if not discussed in team meetings. They would be better to wait for the team meeting and comming out with their ideas then and get feedback from the team and agree. Also with the Boss walking around asking each person is more old school--Sorry but wrong.

[@leanfreakshow6590]

That's a great idea. I like the idea of everyone doing a quick improvement project everyday. We do that with safety, but continuous improvement in 5S too. Nice job. kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y6K0iJZugLeArKs

[@FastCapLLC]

Start implementing it and let me know how it goes! Paul

[@floridalatina5459]

Can you say OCD, first all employees look young and fit, next he does not like clutter but the worse is his annoying focous on aesthetics. My questions: are these employees happy with their job? paid a fair wage? Are there no middle age people who want to work at this place?

[@rodneyshorette]

He has got to be one of the most annoying bosses I've ever seen. One big improvement would be to stop him from doing his morning improvement walk.

[@FastCapLLC]

I couldn't resist. I made you video just for you! (search for BJNts20l_0E). Enjoy, Paul