Chicago Auto Supplier Lean Example In The News

www.dailysouthtown.com/:

Here is a nice example of a Chicago-area company using lean to respond to the market, which is forcing prices downward. To keep profits up, they'll have to reduce costs and lean is obviously a great way to do that. They'll benefit more from focusing beyond cost, on quality and employee satisfaction.

"Taking a cue from one of its customers, UGN has been implementing the Toyota Production System at its factories.

Developed decades ago by the automaker, it aims to ferret out waste at every turn in the manufacturing process, from reducing the number of defective parts to how far a worker has to go to grab a particular tool. Many U.S. companies have adapted aspects of TPS in 'lean' manufacturing initiatives.

'We are trying to implement as many aspects of TPS as possible,' Anthony said."

Toyota-GM factory faces possible strike

Toyota-GM factory faces possible strike:

It will be interesting to see if Toyota would ever walk away from NUMMI, even as (or because) they are building more plants of their own throughout North America.

"The plant has a strong track record of quality, productivity and cooperation, and executives have said they expect to keep the partnership going.

But some could make the argument that the plant's strategic usefulness has been exhausted: Toyota has learned about the quality of American workers and GM has learned about Toyota's manufacturing practices."

A Lean "Plant Rat" Becomes CEO

TOM WALSH: DCX shifts into future

LaSorda's challenge: Keep up momentum

Chrysler's Tom LaSorda, a "plant rat" turns CEO

Tom LaSorda, a former GM guy who moved to DCX, has been named Chrysler Group president and chief executive. It's nice to see a manufacturing guy heading any automotive organization, rather than the finance or marketing guys.

"Chrysler is for real. Tom LaSorda is the strongest lean-manufacturing guy at a top level," Ron Harbour, president of Harbour Consulting, told the Free Press in June. "He's taking his background in lean manufacturing and drilling it into product people, purchasing and other departments and getting them to all buy in."

Most businesses are "Soviet" in character?

WSJ.com - Workers of Europe Innovate (subscription required)

Great article in the WSJ today about a company in France that sounds like it's doing many "lean" things without invoking Toyota.

The leader of this company says, in part:

Most businesses, in his view, are "Soviet" in character -- they rely on centralized control by bosses, whose priority is the reduction of risks to themselves. This in turn means control of "how" things are done and the assertion of authority of managerial nomenklatura through deference and perks. At FAVI, what matters is "why" and "for whom," not "how." That is, workers aren't told how to do their jobs, but whom they are doing them for -- the customer, not their boss.

I believe what he's saying is that, in keeping with Toyota principles, the role of the "boss" is not to tell people "how" to do things. The people doing value-added work need to define their own standard work and to take responsibility for continuously improving and focusing on the customer.

I'm glad to see someone else making the Soviet comparison, I've thought this for some time, based on experience at multiple companies. I'd say also that many companies rely on propoganda coming down from management ("Everything here is great!") rather than dealing with reality. I'd also argue many big companies don't want real competition, rather they want protected markets. It's the small companies, for the most part, that are really customer focused, from my experience.

"There is virtually no middle management at FAVI; the company is organized into teams, which each serve one customer -- one automaker, for example. Those teams choose their own leader, who reports to Mr. Zobrist. Thus, the organizational chart is only three layers deep.

Instead of obedience, Mr. Zobrist seeks responsibility and initiative from his employees. And to get it, he gives them freedom -- to innovate and experiment, but also the freedom to solve customers' problems in their own way. He tells them they work for the customer, and gets out of the way. His only demand, just about, is that they always look for ways to do it "better and cheaper" -- and never deliver late."

It's a great article, it's on news stands today, or get an online WSJ subscription, it's well worth it.

Curious Cat Blog: New Toyota CEO's Views

Curious Cat Management Improvement - including economics, investment and more: New Toyota CEO's Views

The Curious Cat blog found a Business Week article with quotes from Toyota's CEO.

As they pointed out, how true this quote is:

"Management has to visit the shop floor and gain first-hand experience of what's taking place. We need to look at the manufacturing processes, listen to voices, and clearly recognize problems."

Kaizen Swimming?

Runner's Web and Triathlete's Web, a Running, Track and Field and Triathlon Resource Portal

I don't know how much this swimmer has studied lean, but I like his comments on swimming. They can apply to lean anywhere!

"1. Working hard doesn’t help. I swim in many different pools and with many Masters groups. Everywhere I go, most of my pool mates are working harder than they should. They think they’re doing what it takes to improve, but when I watch from underwater, most of their energy and effort is spent mainly on creating turbulence and making waves. Few use that effort effectively. Working hard has become so ingrained in the culture of swimming because “real swimmers” and their coaches talk a lot about “pushing through pain barriers.”"

How often are we "working hard", but doing wasteful activities and motions. It's cliche, but "working smarter not harder" applies here, it sounds like.

"5. Never push off without a plan. Never leave a wall, for any set or repeat, without a clear sense of one thing you’re trying to do really well."

Sounds like good lean advice.... never set off on a lean transformation without some clear idea where you are going. You can't completely plan out everything that will happen, but you should have some clear direction!

KAIZEN License Plate

Driving to work today, I saw a new Nissan Z with the Arizona license plate "KAIZEN". I couldn't see who was driving (the way we all have to tint our windows here thanks to the sun), but the driver did NOT pull into my company's parking lot, unfortunately... any other cool lean license plates out there?

Toyota, Moving Northward

New York Times

Without getting into politics (is Toyota growing in Canada because of their education and health care systems, as proposed by Krugman), when reading this something struck me about this "Canada vs. Alabama" argument that came up a few weeks back.

Krugman says, "What made Toyota so sensitive to labor quality issues? Maybe we should discount remarks from the president of the Toronto-based Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association, who claimed that the educational level in the Southern United States was so low that trainers for Japanese plants in Alabama had to use "pictorials" to teach some illiterate workers how to use high-tech equipment."

Isn't it possible that the use of "pictorals" is just a best practice around clear, understandable standard work? I have Toyota publications that use "pictorals" to describe TPS/lean concepts. I don't think they did that because they thought their readers were stupid. I'd rather see work instructions with photos and diagrams instead of the typical American ISO-900x work instructions with tons of words that can be misinterpreted.

Amazon's Jeff Bezos Learning About Lean

TIME.com: 10 Questions for Jeff Bezos -- Aug. 01, 2005:

"HERE'S A QUESTION YOU PROBABLY HEAR ALL THE TIME: READ ANY GOOD BOOKS LATELY? [Laughs.] I read a book recently about Toyota's lean production methodology, which is very interesting."

This isn't too surprising, considering that Amazon's chief operations person, Jeff Wilke, is a former manufacturing guy from Allied Signal (now Honeywell) who has been bringing Six Sigma (and now I assume lean) principles to Amazon the past few years.

China currency move may help/hurt U.S. companies

Detroit News - 07/22/05

This really is a complex issue, the China currency pegging. It's not just a China vs. U.S. issue, but within the U.S. it's also a Automakers vs. High Tech issue. The Detroit News article points out how the currency valuation changes will help American automakers because the cost of goods imported from China will increase. But, this second article (link here) points out how it will hurt American high-tech companies (and consumers to some extent) because the costs of products contracted out to China will be higher.

The WSJ quotes (link here for subscribers) include:

"American manufacturers and labor unions hope the change will help U.S. factory sales and jobs by making U.S. goods a little more affordable abroad. The National Association of Manufacturers, which long has lobbied for a get-tough policy on China, greeted the announcement as vindication. "While the initial 2.1% revaluation is inadequate, we view it as the beginning of what should be a significant revaluation," said John Engler, the association's president. "China's new system appears to allow revaluing the yuan as much as three-tenths of a percent each day, meaning it could move as much as 1% every three days."

At Caterpillar Inc., the big Peoria, Ill., producer of heavy equipment, investor-relations chief Mike DeWalt said, "We think the action hey take was good, and we are supportive." He added, however, that the small immediate strengthening of the yuan "is not going to have a very significant effect at all on our results.

Bringing up a much-discussed lean topic, will American tech companies that produce in China whine about the increased costs and say they have to pass them on to consumers (the old Price = Cost + Desired Profit formula) or will they reduce waste and keep costs down (the lean model of Profit = Market Price - Cost)??

What is your reaction to this? Click "comments" to chime in.

Could Toyota Fix GM? (revisited)

Curious Cat Management Improvement

The Deming-focused blog, Curious Cat, has comments on an earlier article I posted about Toyota and GM.

Six Sigma Blog: Book Review: Lean Six Sigma for Service

Six Sigma Blog

The Six Sigma Blog has a link to a review of the Michael George book, Lean Six Sigma for Service.

I Don't Care That Your Regular Driver Was Out

Twice in the past week now, our department has had this similar problem happen. First, a global logistics company (rhymes with sledex) did not empty our overnight letter receptacle, even though they did pick up our freight. The second incident was a supplier delivering parts to the wrong dock door.

In both cases, the answer back was "our regular driver was out." In both cases, my response was simple and direct: "I don't care."

How often is that an excuse from you to your customers? If you focus on standard work and training, it wouldn't matter "who" is doing the work. With lean, we need to move from "people focused" to "process focused", where we aren't dependent on a single person who is the only one who can do something properly. Rather than blaming the fact that somebody was out on vacation, management should have been blaming themselves for not having a robust system in place.

If you're an auto company, do you think your customers want to hear "oh, our regular assembly guy was out, sorry your engine failed"??

MI Governor works to lure Toyota plant

Detroit News - 07/20/05

Here is a column that discusses a trip taken by the MIchigan governor to Japan to meet with companies including Toyota. Many states are lobbying for the next rumored Toyota plant (in addition to the one recently announced for Ontario).

Quoting the article:
And she'll make the debatable case that this union stronghold should not be the obstacle to foreign automotive investment that many think it is.

The United Auto Workers "would not be a roadblock," Granholm insists. "I have spoken with (UAW President) Ron Gettelfinger, and they welcome international investment. "It's not something that would be a negative. Outsiders have a harder (time) shifting the paradigm than Toyota does."

An Interview with a Lean Hospital COO

RedNova News - Health - Q & A With Matthew Furlan

The subject of this article apparently received some top-notch lean training from Shingujitsu and HON Industries before moving into healthcare. Many of the things he says can also be applied to those of us in manufacturing.

"My job is to drive improvement in the dayto-day running of the hospital, in terms of quality and cost. It's very introspective, you look at what you do well, what you don't do well, and you work at what you don't do well and try to expose those problems on a continuous basis, and solve them. You do it so relentlessly that it becomes part of everybody's mindset and culture."

Notice he didn't say that his job is "to implement 5S" or "to put in kanban."

In the article, he also talks about value stream mapping, waste reduction, and his insistence on a "no-layoff" policy, as most lean people willl advocate.

Two Common HR Practices That Sabotage Lean Initiatives

Our consulting firm has two HR requirements before we’ll work with a client:

1. No regular employee will lose their job as a result of improvement activities.

2. No “forced ranking”. This means that there is no ongoing practice for selecting a predetermined number of employees for termination. See the article “The ABCs of Rank and Fire Management” for more about this:
http://www.leanlibrary.com/RankandFireManagement.html

Our team has decided to not work with several prospective clients because of these requirements. Why?

First, we have a conscience. Our mission is to improve the quality of people’s work – not take it away.

Second, we’re pragmatic. We know from experience that layoffs as a result of improvement activities and forced ranking will sabotage any lean initiative. Creating an environment of fear destroys teamwork, and the process of engaging employees grinds to a halt.

What are your thoughts?

Do you know of a company that practices on-going layoffs or forced ranking, yet also has a successful lean initiative?

Or maybe you have an example of a lean initiative that failed because of these issues?

Mark Edmondson
www.LEANaffiliates.com

Seven Criteria for an Earnest Lean Enterprise Transformation

This post comes from Mark Edmondson, President of LEAN Affiliates.

Our team periodically visits a new client site that has a lean initiative in place. In these situations, we're trained to rapidly assess the status of their efforts. Recently, after visiting a client site and meeting with the leadership team for the first time, we realized that their Lean initiative was missing some key elements. We went through with them what we’ve learned from experience distinguishes a successful Lean Enterprise Transformation. This includes:

1. Active sponsorship by the CEO or business owner.

2. A systemic management process that links activities to key business objectives, and tracks their progress on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis.

3. An appreciation by senior leadership that “Lean” is not a program or project. It’s an ongoing business system that guides how they manage their company and their people.

4. Although breakthrough results are achieved, it's not just a rapid cost cutting program.

5. It goes beyond “manufacturing”, “black belts”, and tools. It’s about management’s responsibility to actively engage everyone, everyday in continuous improvement. This is pursued across the extended enterprise.

6. There’s a respect for humanity. Employees are valued as a strategic asset rather than a variable cost. When you meet employees, overall they seem energized, positive, and engaged. They don't have the "whipped puppy" look in their eyes.

7. A sense of learning by doing. There’s some form of engrained feedback process (PDCA, DMAIC, etc.) to learn from successes, and to avoid the same mistakes again.

As a lean professional, how do you assess a lean transformation? Your comments about the above 7? Do you have additional criteria that you look for? Click "comments" to chime in.

Does Lean Equal Honesty?

Here is a story from my plant, where we are in the early stages of a company wide lean implementation. I think this story shows how "old habits" can be hard to break.

Inside the front door, we have a large freestanding traffic light that serves as a "visual control" of sorts for safety. If the light is green, all is good. Yellow means we had a recordable injury in the last day, and red means we had a lost work day case.

Our plant manager was fretting to a group of us that there was an ergonomic recordable injury (a carpal tunnel type problem). He was mostly concerned, it seemed, about all of the phone calls he was going to get and how they would have to explain away the injury.

More disturbing though, he made a comment, "that traffic light out front was broken for a few days... we should have documented the recordable when the light was out, we could have hidden it."

Wow. I don't think he was joking, unfortunately. In a lean environment, isn't half the battle being honest about the daily reality and not covering things up or hiding problems? If we can't be honest about problems, how are we going to be honest about finding solutions and driving continuous improvement.

I'm starting to think our plant manager is one of these "concrete heads that I read about."

Preventing Lean Failures: Reason #2: Lack of Communication

Preventing Lean Failures: Reason #2: Lack of Communication

Come discuss the importance of management communication in your lean implementation efforts. Do you have any horror stories or tips to share? Check out the "Preventing Lean Failures" blog.

Another Misguided Lean Article

Uncommon Sense: Is It Lean...or Just Anemic?

Every once in a while I run across a very misguided article/column on lean, this one falls into that category. If you're experienced with lean/TPS, you'll recognize the traps this author has fallen into. I think the only value here is to recognize how some people might misunderstand lean so you can be prepared to work against the misunderstandings.

To summarize my quick responses to this:
1) Can we get over Pearl Harbor already? Articles that mention that or other WWII issues lose all credibility with me.

2) Lean is not just about getting employee suggestions and ideas. There are lean principles that must be taught to help drive improvements in the right direction. Having respect for and listening to your employees in a critical piece, but that's not enough to be "lean".

3) Lean is not merely a method for reducing direct labor cost. Of course direct labor cost is typically a small percentage of total cost, that's why we also address other costs and the "7 Wastes" (or "8 Wastes")

4) If you shrink inventories to the point where you really hurt production, you're doing it wrong. You need to fix quality and uptime issues, among other things, using lean tools and management principles. Reducing inventory should provide some positive pressure on the system to drive kaizen, but don't hurt your customers in the process.

5) Lean is certainly not "management abdication," far from it. It requires leadership and top-level involvement to help drive shop-floor level improvements.

Chinese car makers gear up to take on western competitors

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports :

This article talks about the coming wave of Chinese-produced cars (people are also starting to import them into the U.S.).

"In the short term, this is unlikely to worry rival European manufacturers. Many consumers are also initially likely to dismiss an unknown brand from a country better known for producing toys and buttons. But if past experience of Japanese and Korean car imports is any guide, the scorn will be replaced by respect."

This will be interesting to watch. If China is going to compete solely on "cheap labor", I wouldn't expect their quality to improve over time, as the Japansese improved, let by Toyota. But, if China is adapting lean concepts as well, they will be a scary competitor to fight against.

LAPD Working on Lean Jails

L.A. Daily News

Lean manufacturing, lean healthcare, now..... lean jails.

The LAPD has gone through lean enterprise and TPS training through Toyota.

"Last week, Chief William Bratton told the Board of Police Commissioners that Toyota methods have produced dramatic changes in a jail division once beset by delays, inefficient transportation, personnel shortages and troubles with medical treatment."

Like other good lean implementations, they are not doing "lean for lean's sake", but they are looking for real time and cost savings, as well as waste elimination.

It also looks like beyond time savings, they are trying to address aspects of the daily culture:

"Inspired by the focus on tiny things and egged on to trace problems to their root cause, jailers in recent weeks have reassigned staff members, changed medical procedures, reworked policies on inmate clothing and even reorganized their desks."

Flextronics eyes Malaysia as alternative to China

Reuters Recommends News Article | Reuters.com

Another article on the theme of chasing cheap. If your production strategy is based on being based in a cheap location, that seems like a losing strategy to me. You'll constantly be moving and building new facilities, adding cost and losing capabilities from changing people.

Why not considering using lean as the core business strategy? I thought Flextronics was winning awards and recognition for lean efforts. Why not locate close to your customers and rely on your people to drive costs down with lean improvements? That seems to work well for Toyota. You don't read about them wanting to move their Kentucky factory to Alabama because it's cheaper.

Preventing Lean Failures -- New Blog

Click Here for the Blog: Reason #1: Lack of Top Down Management Support

Click Here for the Blog: Reason #2: Lack of Communication

I have been working with Larry Rubrich, from WCM Associates, and author of the recent book "How to Prevent Lean Implementation Failures".

With his permission, I have created a blog for people to share their "Lean Failures" stories and to discuss them online. We're experimenting with the blog format to see how this works out. For now, "Reason #1" is listed on the blog. I will add more details for the other 9 Reasons over the next few weeks and will announce it here.

More Whining About Not Being Able to Pass Along Costs

JS Online: Manufacturing outlook dips, but index is still strong:

When I saw this headline (also a WSJ article today), I expected to read something like this:

"'On profits, I think what you are seeing is pressure coming from higher energy and commodity prices,' Norman said. 'Many companies have difficulty passing these costs on to their customers in today's competitive environment.'"

In any environment, let alone "today's competitive environment", what entitles you to pass along costs to customers? The quote above demonstrates the "old" thinking of Price = Cost + Desired Profit.

In the lean mindset, price is driven by the market. In limited cases do you actually have control over prices (say if you have a unique patented product with no competitors). Remember, Profit = Market Price - Your Costs.

If you want to maintain profits, instead of thinking to raise prices (which will almost always drive volume down, it's basic economics), think of how to get lean and reduce costs by eliminating waste.

Keep an eye out for that "old" thinking. It's scary how often you see it and read about it, even in 2005.

Want to complain about Dell? Forget it

The Register

This isn't really a "lean" story, but the idea of customer focus strikes me here. As a company, how do you handle things when customers can so openly communicate with each other on the internet? Customers were complaining about Dell on a webpage paid for by Dell and hosted on Dell's own servers.

Dell cut off that message board. Isn't that genie already out of the bottle though? Won't another non-Dell-sponsored message board pop up?

Rather than cutting off the information, shouldn't Dell focus instead on improving quality and improving their processes that frustrate people? Dell says they want customers to communicate directly with them, instead of using the message boards. But many people will give up while waiting on hold.

Dell is probably losing a potentially priceless source of customer feedback here.

Does Toyota have a similar online complaint board, either sponsored or independent? Should they? What do you think? Click comments to participate.

Toyota Runs Low on Expertise To Power Global Push

WSJ.com - Requires Subscription

As Toyota grows, they are struggling with finding/keeping enough people who truly understand TPS tools and the Toyota Way.

I'll try to find a "free" version of this article but here are a few highlights (trust me, the WSJ subscription at $79 a year is worth it).

"Many quality gurus at those subsidiaries are well-versed in Toyota's methods. But one big risk to the auto maker is their level of expertise as younger and less-experienced engineers are entrusted with managing some day-to-day operations outside Japan."

Below, this is an issue that any company with a very strong unique culture and operating system struggles with, including a company like Dell Computer (which isn't really a "Toyota Way" company even if some people call them "lean").

"In another effort to deal with the lack of manufacturing resources in North America, Toyota is likely to locate a future plant close to an existing facility in what the company calls a "concept of satellite plants" to share the experience and expertise of an existing assembly plant."

'Lean' manufacturing tested at local (NC) company

The Kinston Free Press

Here is a nice little local story about a small (26 employees) company that started with lean (sounds like they did some training and a 5-day kaizen event to improve their production line).

It's always interesting to see how lean is portrayed in articles like this. The picture is skewed by the particular consultant, the company, and particularly the reporter who write the piece.

This article defined lean as "The idea behind lean manufacturing is to measure efficiency and reduce waste of time on the production lines of large manufacturers." The reporter was a bit off in saying that Toyota started lean in "the 1970's".

I hope the company involved, and the owners, realize that lean is an ongoing mind set and approach, not a one time event. I'm sure the reporter won't do a follow up to see if they could sustain their lean efforts, but it would be interesting to see.

The article also focused on employee involvement and employee input, saying "Oddly enough, when the training begins, company owners are asked not to participate." I can understand how the consultant/trainer might have wanted to create an environment where people felt free to make suggestions and improvements without fear of looking bad or being "wrong." But, I hope the co-owners of the company realize that they DO have a very critical role to play in lean, if it's a long-term process (see Failure Reason #1 from this book).

Toyota's Chief Bets on Hybrids, Squeezing Rivals

WSJ.com - Requires Subscription:

In an article that talks about Toyota's lead (along with Honda) in hybrid vehicles, Toyota's new President references Kaizen.

"Mr. Watanabe said Toyota, through its storied manufacturing system of kaizen, or continuous improvement, can reduce by half the premium it now charges for hybrid technology. Analysts aren't so sure, noting that batteries use rare metals, and prices of these materials could rise along with demand for hybrids. Moreover, any success in lowering prices will either take years or what Mr. Watanabe concedes would be a technological breakthrough. 'But it can be done,' Mr. Watanabe said."

I wonder how this will be a continuous improvement approach (I'm sure he doesn't mean kaizen in the typical American perspective of "kaizen event").

Why are you wasting time at work?

Marshall Loeb's Daily Money Tip - General News - Personal Finance

First off, are you reading this at work? ;-)

This has been in the news the past few days and all of the blame seems to be pointed at "the workers", as in "why are you workers wasting time?" What about the role of management and leadership? Aren't they paid the big bucks partly because they are supposed to design the workplace and inspire people? Wishful thinking, I know.

What are some reasons why people might waste time? I can think of a few broad categories, with "lack of trust" layered on top of that.

Category #1: Not enough to do. This could come from a lack of level workload (we have time to waste early in the quarter but man will we get slammed next month), an imbalance in workloads, basically the "Mura and Muri" forms of waste. Lack of trust enters in because people might be afraid to tell management that they have time on their hands for fear of job cuts or worse.

Category #2: Don't care anymore. How many employees waste time on their first day of work? Typically, people are very motivated early on. But if they're treated unfairly, punished for taking initiative or for things that aren't their fault, or if they don't believe in the mission of the company, they might decide it's better to waste time than to be productive. Lack of trust and fear can also paralyze people, leading them to "waste time".

Think of the main character from the movie Office Space. I'm paraphrasing, but his argument for wasting time and doing nothing is that "If I do everything right, do I see one more dime? No. But if I do something wrong, I have eight different bosses telling me about it!"

I'm not saying people shouldn't be responsible for their own actions and their own careers (wasting time is hardly a way to get ahead in any company). If you're wasting that much time, you should find a new job or find your real passion career wise, or accept a mediocre, go-nowhere career.

Do "lean" managers do a better job of designing a workplace and culture where people don't waste time? What do you think? Click comments....

Acheiving Basic Stability Before One-Piece Flow

EMS Consulting

Here is another newsletter article from EMS Consulting and Darren Dolcemascolo, a friend of this blog.

His article reminds me of my days at GM, in an engine plant. Our plant had studied a Toyota engine plant and they did their best to copy the block machining line -- the same equipment vendors, process, and even the layout of the lines. The idea was a "single piece flow" transfer line that had at best 5 units of WIP in between stations.

After the GM line was up and running, our pieces per hour productivity (OEE) was HALF that of Toyota (circa 1995). Why was that?

Well, let's see what was missing: the TPS management philosophy, preventative maintenance, operator training and standard work, all of the support processes.

Because the line was far from stable, we got killed because "we didn't have enough WIP" (according to the non-lean management perspective). Instead of fixing the underlying problems and missing processes, the managers encouraged operators to offload parts and create WIP pallet piles off to the side of the line (often the parts were re-loaded into the wrong machine, missing an operation -- now that was expensive WIP and expensive uptime!).

I was glad when we finally began our lean transformation (except "lean" was a dirty word with the UAW). It was a great lesson that you can't just copy the physical equipment, you have to adopt the lean tools and management philosophies as well.

Can Infosys do a Toyota ?

Management & Marketing:

Since we were talking about "lean software" yesterday.... I'm not an expert on Toyota history so I can't validate every assumption made in this article. If you can, please click "Comments" below and let us know what you think.

"It may seem like we are comparing apples and oranges but a comparison between the evolution of the Japanese automobile industry between 1960 and 1985 and the growth of the Indian IT industry, starting 1995, throws up some striking similarities. And one day perhaps Indian IT firms will get there.

James Abraham, director of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), agrees. “There’s no reason not to believe that the Indian IT industry could have as significant an impact on the global IT industry as the Japanese have had on the automotive industry.”"

Updated: The Talent Behind 'China Inc.'

Free Career Journal Link -- new link for July 12

This article talks about Chinese manufacturing companies not in the context of cheap labor, but in the context of management skill. Most successful Chinese companies are the result of turning around formerly government owned (and inefficient) companies. As companies like Haier look to buy American brands like Maytag, they hope to use that management skill in turning around the American company.

A few other ideas jump out from the article:

1) Haier makes their larger refrigerators here in the U.S., I'm sure due to logistics and shipping costs. Here is an example of a Chinese company creating jobs in the U.S. and being smart about their global production locations.

2) "The CEOs of Haier, Wanxiang, and CIMC all started and spent their careers on the factory floor." Now here's a major difference between these companies and most U.S. firms. Most American executives come from finance or marketing -- doesn't that hamper our lean efforts, American CEO's not understanding the shop floor?

Lean Software Development: differentiating push- and pull-based development

Steve Hebert's Development Blog

Keeping with the lean software theme, here is another in-depth post with references to other lean software websites, articles, and whitepapers. "Agile" development, along with another methodology called "Extreme Programming" are other lean-type methodologies that try to get away from the huge push-based project.

Lean Software Development Overview

Darrell Norton's Blog [MVP]

We've had "lean healthcare day" before, maybe today is "lean software day." A recent visitor to this blog is a software developer and pointed me to some resources on applying lean methods and principles to software development.

I'm not a software expert, although I have been involved in software projects. It always frustrated me that software development for lean manufacturing applications (in both the auto industry and PC manufacturing) used PUSH software methodologies.

The push software approach had many of the hallmarks of push production:
1) Throwing the design over the wall, with little contact between the customer and production (coding)
2) The whole development process was scheduled out ala MRP, assuming that all lead times were predictable and achievable
3) Quality control was focused on inspection rather than building in quality at the source.

The linked article here talks about 7 principles of "Lean Software Development". They don't map perfectly to the 7 Forms of Waste or even the 5 Lean Thinking principles, but it's an interesting list and application of lean.

Andy & Me: Crisis and Transformation on the Lean Journey

Productivity Press

I've mentioned this lean "business novel" before. I'm linking to this ad for the book because I was quoted in an email marketing campaign that Productivity Press sent out about the book. I do believe that the book is helpful, especially for those trying to understand elements of the lean transformation culture or certain daily management practices involved in running a lean line. It's not a perfectly comprehensive lean book, but it does fill an important role in the lean literature.

You can also order Andy & Me here through Amazon.com as well (happy 10th anniversary to Amazon!)