I don't Asksunday

I think that some mundane tasks should never be outsourced. I cannot see myself using these services, like asksunday.com, because it doesn't seem to be worth it. If I need to make a reservation at a restaurant, I can go to opentable or call a place just as easily as I could ask someone else to do it for me.
It is just like when people write an e-mail to someone, asking them to write another person an e-mail. Why don't you just save the time and write that e-mail to start with? In some circumstances, these types of actions are understandable, but I tend to just get those small tasks over with fast because they take so little time.
At first I thought it would be great to hire someone to wait in line for me, but thinking about it, I'm not sure I would even want to pay for that. My life is already hectic, so freeing up the little down time that I have in order ot accomplish more tasks might just make life more stressful.
Although I do not plan to use these types of services soon, I suppose I need to work on allowing others to help out with the mundane beause I can see the advantage in certain circumstances.

The world became Flat in order to eliminate Muda

I will agree with Thomas Friedman that the World IS Flat. However, I found the first chapter much more intriguing than the second. Perhaps it goes into too much detail about internet browsers and optics, but he does use some great examples of flatteners, such as PayPal.
I wonder...Are all flatteners simply new methods or technologies that were developed in order to eliminate Muda? This appears to be the case because the world became flat as result of shared standards and easier communication, both of which increase productivity and eliminate non-value added steps such as transportation.

No E-mail Fridays?

Check out this article about "no e-mail Fridays" that are being implemented as employees uproar:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119205641656255234.html?mod=djem_jiesww&reflink=djem_jiesww

Since it is only 12:00 and I have already received 21...make that 22 e-mails today and sent 14, I can totally understand why employees would be enraged at the thought of not using e-mail for a day. E-mail is the once constant in all jobs. I constantly refresh my inbox at work and love to see the icon pop up when I get new mail. I cannot imagine a day without it.
I understand the idea behind this, that is having more face-to-face conversations and relations with customers, but does this good outweigh the bad? I think not.
Without e-mail I would have to call people often, which wastes a lot of time since you generally have to speak to a receptionist first, or leave a message, or keep calling back until someone picks up. Most of my e-mails are internal, which means that I would have to get up from my desk and walk to people's offices to talk to them. It appears that e-mail is an essential factor to eliminating muda in the workplace. I'm not sure this "no e-mail Friday" idea is the way to go. Afterall, is e-mail the root cause of the problem? I think not!

Is Vertical Integration the key to staying Lean?

A great piece of lean thinking advice: “to hell with your competitors; compete against perfection by identifying all activities that are muda and eliminating them.”

Who knew that the process of making a can had so much muda.

Is vertical integration the soultion to all problems relating to lean thinking and the value stream? It seems that one can never rely on their partners, or suppliers, as much as they should be able to because each company is run differently and has different values. Perhaps the only true solution is to own all companies in a value stream so that you can eliminate muda in every step of the process. I see no other solution when looking at processes like the cola example.