Lean For Everyone

Lean for Health: I'm performing a Kaizen on myself at MyFitnessPal.com

My wife K. started using My Fitness Pal to help her drop a few pounds and I was very intrigued as to how the program works.  I looked at it.... and of course I found some Lean Six Sigma in it!!

Use of Metrics: My Fitness Pal is a FREE online tracking system that tracks your calories, fat and protein intake for meals and snacks and let's you know if you're above or below what you're supposed to eat for the day.

The system starts by having you type in info about your height and weight and then lets you set a goal as to how much weight you want to loose each week.  It then tells you how many calories you should consume per day.

Use of Visual Controls: It has a simple intuitive interface that allows you to search and key in what you've eaten and lets you know in real time how much you can still eat for the day.  If you're over you're in the red and if you're under you're in the green.

Guess what...I signed myself up.  Will this be a life changing event?  Probably not...but I'm going to do it for 5 weeks just to see what happens.

I've set my goal at:  2.0 lbs / wk for 5 weeks  = 10 lbs by May 11th.

For full disclosure I weighed in at 225.5 on 4/6/2010

If you want to see how I'm doing you can go to  http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/LeanJon

To be 100% honest, I haven't even looked at most of what the site does nor am I endorsing it at this point however I'm willing to try anything for the sake of continuous improvement.  In this instance, I will be performing a Kaizen on myself.

I'll also be updating the blog each week about  what I discover about getting metrics from the system and tracking my progress.  Stay tuned!

Should Lean training be required for entrepreneurial programs?

Are we setting ourselves up for another recession 30 years from now by focusing on "job creation" as opposed to "business management training"?

 

While shooting the breeze with friends, we discussed what we would have done differently over the past 15 years if we knew then what we know now.  I realized that companies should require Lean training (or some other type of process excellence training) for new businesses. Something that none of us had when we started out.

I see many advertisements about how to start your own company and be an entrepreneur in these tough times.  The Kaufman Foundation is an excellent example of a great organization dedicated to entrepreneurship and education. However, if you search their site for "Lean" it gets 5 hits, but only to draw attention to the phrase "lean and mean" within the text.

The Kaufman Foundation does have an entrepreneurial program called FastTrac. The FastTrac search tool also didn't return any hits for "Lean". Although, it didn't return any hits for "FastTrac" either so I don't think it's searching as well as they would like.

I do know that some of the companies associated with FastTrac are lean organizations.  I strongly feel that learning this type of business methodology should be a "requirement" for participation in these types of programs and not and option.

I don't want anyone to think I'm pointing a finger at the Kaufman Foundation. They provide a wonderful program but as I've learned from Lean, there is always room for improvement.  

I feel that this is something that not just the Kaufman Foundation can improve upon but any organization that offers this type of assistance.

Thirty years from now I want the United States to be a powerhouse in area of process excellence as opposed to what it is today.   I believe giving entrepreneurs the training they need early is one way to ensure this.