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The Lean Post / Articles / How do I love thee? Let me count the ways – on a Valentine’s Day A3

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways – on a Valentine’s Day A3

Problem Solving

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways – on a Valentine’s Day A3

By Ernie Richardson and Tracey Richardson

February 14, 2018

The question lean practitioners Tracy and Ernie Richardson get more than any other isn’t about problem-solving, takt time, standardization, or their book. It’s about their “lean” marriage.

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The question lean practitioners Tracy and Ernie Richardson get more than any other isn’t about problem-solving, takt time, standardization, or their book. It’s about their marriage.

The question, “How do you deal with it?” comes when an interlocutor learns that not only are they married, they work together as co-owners of Teaching Lean Inc., and travel together three weeks per month.  

“We’re together about 97%” of the time; pretty much 24 x 7,” Tracey says in this entertaining Lean Talks presentation that they call “The Lean Marriage with Tracy and Ernie Richardson.”

They met when both worked at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky. They continue to apply the lean principles learned there in their personal and married lives.

“Lean wasn’t something we just did at work,” says Ernie.

He’s not kidding. They have a takt time for grocery shopping. They’ve organized the attic by numbered boxes so finding anything is as easy as looking up its location on the downstairs master sheet.

“We even talk about how we level load running errands,” says Tracey.

Timeline

  • 0:45 – Data analysis: together 97% of the time.”
  • 1:35 – “I do” and TPS expectations
  • 3:15 – Loving lean in our personal lives
  • 3:43 – Early marital clash: powertrain versus plastics
  • 5:26 – “Some people think we’re a little crazy”
  • 5:50 – Takt time for shopping
  • 8:00 – Standards for travel
  • 9:40 – Coaching your spouse when he or she interrupts
  • 11:00 – The last-word standard

Are you interested in learning from other lean practitioners?

The pilot Lean Talks session at the 2017 Lean Transformation Summit was a hit, so we’re bringing them back for the 2018 Summit.

Save your seat now for Lean Talks, Monday evening, March 26, and register for the 2018 Lean Transformation Summit.

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Written by:

Ernie Richardson
|
Tracey Richardson

About Ernie Richardson

Ernie has 25 years of Manufacturing and Human Resources management experience which allows him to see the cultural dynamics from both functional areas of a company. He gained this experience at Toyota Motor Manufacturing where he grew from Team Leader, to Group Leader, to Assistant Manager on the manufacturing side.…

Read more about Ernie Richardson

About Tracey Richardson

Tracey has over 29 years of combined experience in various roles within Toyota and learned lean practices as a group leader at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky from 198 to 1998. She was one of the first team members hired, with the fortunate opportunity to learn directly from Japanese trainers. As…

Read more about Tracey Richardson

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