Hear Davie dive right in with no introduction needed as he talks about his growing up in Scotland and how he was a polished turd when it comes to skilled trade wood working and/or metal work! Experience with building a cassette tape rack and bottle opener key ring! A great story about his interview going into the trades and witnessing what others were doing at the same time! A humbling experience.

The basics of lean are three simple things for Davie Thomson:

1. Strategic Alignment – Know what you’re going to do, how it’s going to be cascaded and involve the people in the process.
2. Appropriate tools – Only bring the tools that the project needs. There is no need to force tools just to claim doing lean.
3. People Engagement, give people the training, empowerment, and permission to use the tools to deliver strategic goals. It’s ok to fail early and often! Failure is learning.

There is only ONE WASTE according to Davie – That is a waste of time. If you are operating in any of the muda (8 wastes) drives to the same waste of time.

Davie tells us exactly where the term No Bullshido comes from. Quick hint, it’s all of the western misinterpretation of martial arts and/or Japanese concepts. Even lean can be classified as bullshido to a point because people have classified it as a bunch of tools. Sound familiar construction world?

Discover where the term lean comes from, a couple of MIT grads who decided to coin the term in 1988. Davie discusses his stance on lean six sigma and the belt structures that are out there. They really mean nothing other than the ability to perform but it is the experience that ultimately counts and qualifies you for performance!

Learn how Hoots on the Ground crossed swords with Davie early on LinkedIn as they went back and forth on an improvement video. After Hoots thought that Davie was trolling him, Hoots requested a video meeting to better understand where Davie was coming from. Turns out after a half a dozen calls or more, Davie has taught Hoots a lot about true lean from Davie’s own experience. 

Davie has a great way of talking about lean as being more than tools. Once again, another lean practitioner (from a different industry) explaining how important the people are with regards to successful lean implementation! He also discusses the difference between the types of work that lean considers:

• Value added
• Non-Value added but unavoidable
• Non-Value added and avoidable

This is a concept that Hoots on the Ground took from a book titled Lean Thinking by Daniel Womack and others.

ABOUT HOOTS ON THE GROUND PODCAST:

The Lean Builder’s absolutely, positively NO bullshido podcast. Join Host Adam Hoots and his guests as they dig deep into the topics that are relevant to those of us who “get it”: the men and women with the dirty boots, the ones who work in the field, doing the hands-on business of construction each day. Listen in as we keep it real while stories from the trenches are shared along with lessons learned and some laughter along the way.

RESOURCE LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• theleanbuilder.com | Our main blog, book, resources, news & events website
• linkedin.com/company/the-lean-builder | Our LinkedIn community
• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/standards-discipline-doing-right-things-davie-thomson/ | Standards and Discipline – Doing the right things, right by Davie Thomson
• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/belts-bullshido-davie-thomson/ | The Belts of Bullshido by Davie Thomson

GUESTS FEATURED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Adam Hoots | linkedin.com/in/adam-hoots-4645519/ | podcast host for “Hoots on the Ground” and Lean Construction Shepherd with ConstructionACHEsolutions
• Davie Thomson | https://www.linkedin.com/in/daviethomson/
• Davie’s Email: [email protected]