Ford to Reduce Overproduction

Ford making deep cuts in 2006 production – Yahoo! News:

It's sad to see factories shut down, temporarily or permanently, but it's sad that Ford can't sell enough vehicles to merit the production. Boring products (ala Ford Five Hundred) and lack of pickup/SUV sales are leading to this. “Overproduction” is one of the types of waste, as defined by Toyota.

“Mark Fields, Ford's president of the Americas, said the plan reflects the need ‘to match production and inventories with consumer demand.'”

So many times, we focus on “lean manufacturing”, but we really should focus on “lean enterprise” or the health of the entire business. What good would a lean factory be if you had no customer demand??