Masaaki Imai (the author of the book “Kaizen”) comments on the need to convert from batch to JIT and China ‘productivity' among other topics.
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Mark Graban
Mark Graban is an internationally-recognized consultant, author, and professional speaker who has worked in healthcare, manufacturing, and startups. His latest book is Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More. He is author of the Shingo Award-winning books Lean Hospitals and Healthcare Kaizen, as well as The Executive Guide to Healthcare Kaizen. He also published the anthology Practicing Lean that benefits the Louise H. Batz Patient Safety Foundation, where Mark is a board member. Mark is also a Senior Advisor to the technology company KaiNexus.
Great chat. If anything I think this one statement is so true.
“Managers today are obsessed by a ‘growth’ mentality? Do you think growth is a smart strategy?
I can say that 99.9 per cent of all companies in the world today are obsessed by a growth mentality. These are companies that can make profits only when the market is growing.”
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We have a goal here. $xxx per quarter. If sales makes this magical number we make money. If not we lose. Never mind with our mix of products the margins fluctuate.
At our site, we are given a “daily sales rate” that manufacturing is expected to hit. Not any sort of forecast of what exact products are going to have to be built next week or anything useful like that. If it’s a sales driven company, apparently they don’t pay any attention what manufacturing needs to run effectively (or for our customers’ sake). Hence, we’re a screwed up business.