The supermarket is one of the three pull strategies that can be implemented as connection between to process steps when designing a Future State Value Stream Map. The supermarket will only be considered when One Piece flow and First In First out (FIFO) are no longer an option (as explained here).
A supermarket is a method of managing inventory in which a variation of parts can be kept without knowing in what order the parts will be taken from the inventory. This means an internal customer will take a random part from the supermarket, after which the (internal) supplier replenishes the taken parts supermarket at a certain interval. A Pull connection with supermarket is therefore also known as a replenishment pull system. To inform the (internal) supplier about the parts that need to be replenished, Kanban can be used.
This article describes situations in which the supermarket can be used, how the location and size of the supermarket can be determined and what a supermarket can look like in praxis.

In his book Dream Dare Do, Ben Tiggelaar describes three steps to change personal behavior. Most people who have failed to change their behavior to give up smoking, finish that course, or to lose weight for example, have failed because they did not define concrete actions to achieve their goals in advance. Their good intentions already end in the first step of change: Dreaming…

In One Small Step Can Change Your Life – the Kaizen Way, Robert Maurer describes the power of Kaizen in a personal environment. Implementing small and easy improvements, the basics of the Toyota Production System, can also be applied to achieving personal goals.
Maurer describes why you need to take small steps if you want to change people’s behavior and then describes six techniques to apply Kaizen in your personal life: Asking small questions (1), thinking small thoughts (2), taking small actions (3), solving small problems (4), bestowing small rewards (5) and identifying small moments (6).

The lean strategy focusses on creating flow of products and services in Value Stream. Flowing products means that they are constantly being worked on, without waiting times.
Waiting times traditionally cover 55-99% of the total order Lead time (Shingo, 1989) and are the result of inventories which can be found in raw materials (before production), Work in Process (in production) and as Finished goods (after production).
The First-In-First-Out (FIFO) principles after One Piece flow the most desirable inventory strategy, to keep inventories as small as possible and therefore waiting times as short as possible. This article describes when to use FIFO, how the number of slots can be calculated and four examples of the FIFO principle in praxis.

In his book First Things First, Stephen Covey describes setting priorities as the most important aspect of successful (personal) improvement. No matter how efficient you do your work, if you´re doing the wrong thing, nothing will really improve.
This is where Covey distinguishes himself from traditional time management theories which are designed around the efficiency of a task. He compares the difference between efficiency and setting priorities with a compass and the clock: how fast you go is not as important as where you´re going.

One-piece flow means products flow form workstation to workstation without waiting and is therefore the most desirable of the three different Pull connections. To facilitate production without waiting, the maximum number of products waiting between two workstations is 1. This maximum means that the upstream workstation is only allowed to start working on the next product when the slot behind it is empty.
The work cell is a way of organizing a flow between workstations and, according to Liker (2004) the only way or production in which all 8 wastes are reduced.
This article describes the advantages of One Piece Flow, the principle of work cells and when one piece flow can be implemented.

This fantastic book, thinking, fast and slow, is full of psychological explanations of humans behaving irrationally. Because of the high information intensity of this book, it is impossible to make a summary of 1000 words. This article will therefore only include the few lessons I found most interesting, liker reasons why people play the lotto even though the ´know´ their shot at winning is statistically small, why people overestimate their own performance and why people deteriorate from their (new year’s) resolutions when they are busy.

A Pull process is a process in which a workstation starts to work on his next order only when there is a free slot on the output side. This means the trigger for producing anything on the workstation comes from the customer side, which can be internal as well as external. The customer pulls orders through the process instead of a traditional Push connection in which products are produced no matter what happens on the output side of the workstation.
Because inventories between workstations are managed in a pull system, which directly influences and maximizes the Lead Time, Pull always has a preference over Push.
Three different forms of Pull connections can be identified: a work cell with Continuous Flow, Sequential Pull and Replenishment Pull.

In the Lean Philosophy, the ideal way of organizing a production line is described to be a One Piece Flow, in which products are moved through different workstations and worked on separately. Liker (2004) describes seven advantages of this type of production, which include increased quality, flexibility and productivity.
But, is One Piece Flow always a viable option? I believe, that just like with every Lean tool, one has to think about whether or not changing the lay-out would bring the organization to a higher level.
This article describes what could be the ideal Lay-out for different type of production processes.