01
Best first exercise
The Bottleneck Finder
Where does work consistently slow down, wait, or require a workaround?
Managers and team members record the problems they notice during a normal workweek. In a 30-minute discovery meeting, the observations are grouped to reveal concentrated operational hot spots and the priorities with the strongest shared support.
- Customer-branded field guides
- Five observation notes per participant
- Facilitator guide and whiteboard map
- A physical bottle-neck reminder
Run timeOne week plus 30 minutesBest forCross-functional leadership teams
02
Floor observation
The Waste Walk
Where are time, motion, material, and capacity being consumed without creating value?
Small teams walk a real process with prompt cards that help them notice waiting, excess movement, defects, overprocessing, inventory, and unused capability without blaming the people doing the work.
- Eight waste prompt cards
- Pocket observation pads
- Route markers and tally dots
- Opportunity ranking board
Run time60 to 90 minutesBest forProduction floors and warehouses
03
End-to-end flow
The Process on a Wall
What actually happens between a customer request and a completed delivery?
The people closest to the work build one shared map using activity, decision, wait, rework, and handoff cards. The completed wall exposes loops and queues that are usually hidden inside departments and software.
- Reusable process cards
- Mapping tape and sequence arrows
- Wait-time and rework markers
- Future-state discussion guide
Run time90 minutesBest forMulti-step order and production flows
04
Cross-functional work
The Handoff Relay
What gets lost, delayed, or misunderstood when work moves between people?
Each function documents what it receives, what it needs, what it produces, and what regularly arrives incomplete. Comparing both sides of every handoff makes ownership gaps and mismatched expectations hard to miss.
- Sender and receiver worksheets
- Handoff baton cards
- Expectation-matching board
- Ownership agreement template
Run time60 minutesBest forOffice-to-floor coordination
05
Capacity recovery
The Changeover Challenge
How much productive time disappears while preparing for the next job?
The team observes one setup or transition, separates work that requires downtime from work that can happen beforehand, and redesigns the sequence to reduce searching, walking, waiting, and adjustment.
- Changeover timing cards
- Internal and external task markers
- Preparation checklist builder
- Before-and-after scorecard
Run timeOne observed changeover plus 45 minutesBest forMachines, lines, crews, and job setups
06
Recurring problems
The Root Cause Lab
Why does the same problem return after everyone thought it was fixed?
A structured evidence exercise helps the team move beyond the first explanation. Participants separate symptoms from causes, test assumptions, and choose a countermeasure that addresses the system instead of adding another reminder.
- Problem framing canvas
- Five Whys question cards
- Cause-category markers
- Countermeasure experiment sheet
Run time60 to 75 minutesBest forQuality, downtime, and repeat failures