Most people reading this blog probably had to take a Christmas tree down in the last month.  Now, my Christmas tree is a pretty cheap plastic one I picked up at the local supermarket and requires some assembly.  This got me thinking about the lean concept of process flow.  Let’s analyze what’s involved in getting the tree put away for next year: I have to take the branches off the tree I have to “un-spread”, or flatten, the branches.  This involves me gathering all of the sub-branches together and twisting until they stay...