Eliminating Motion, not Fun

A major component of continuous improvement is the elimination of waste. WAste is the opposite of value. Value added activities are ones that the customer wants and wants to pay for. Activities classified as waste include excess motion, transportation, rework, inventory, over production, over processing, and waiting.

Sometimes people think about continuous improvement and images of heartless, soulless consultants who want to cut and slash come to mind. Try applying lean/kaizen, etc. at camp and it's worse sometimes. People don't want to hear it. It's a ministry, not a business. My answer to that is simple - use everything to the glory of God - which means using our resources wisely - which means being a good steward - which, to me, means eliminating waste.

Continuous improvement/elimination of waste happens at camp, we just don't call it that and we don't live and breath that culture. For example - for as long as I can remember the bikes and the bike repair area have been about 200 yards apart. Today, we've eliminated that waste by putting a bike hospital in the bike area, posting standard signs for repairs and provided the pathway for people to get bikes fixed.

We eliminated excess motion, transportation, waiting (the bikes get fixed and back into use faster) and we did not eliminate an OUNCE of fun! By brining the problem to the surface and the tools to the point of use we are able to serve the camp better and improve our process.