the next improvement

Another great thing happened today. We all walked the shop floor to see the process to build the three-legged part of the Original Candle Lantern (this is the part that slides closed). We put a kanban system in place to control the flow of parts through the process. After bouncing several ideas back and forth the shop manager got a clear idea of what he wanted and went off to build it. With help from another employee, three hours later they had a completed cart. It's got four drawers, takes half the floor space of the old design, and completely eliminates one of the wasteful steps in the old process (namely using a bucket to scoop parts from one bin to another). It's a wonderful improvement and they took a vague idea and turned it into a product in just half a day! Miraculous and wonderful!