What can we learn from Medtronic Plant in Jacksonville, FL?

Not long ago I had the opportunity to visit the Medtronic plant in Jacksonville, FL and talked with their CI manager, Chad, and the operations manager, Emmanuel, to whom I thank for the opportunity. It was a refreshing experience on what Lean really is about. Here, key learning points that I would like to share with you:

• Keep it simple, lean thinking and solutions strive for its simplicity; which is different from simplistic. An example is their policy deployment approach: one wall, key drivers cascading down to specific task and actions that anyone can see. A simple and elegant solution:

• Make it visual, if we don't see what is wrong, little chance that we would deal with it. An example is their daily management board, take a look:

These are two of the key principles that we always need to remind ourselves and others.