My guest for episode three of the Lean Blog Podcast is Dr. Jeffrey Liker, professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan and author of The Toyota Way. Liker has spent decades studying how Toyota actually works,…
When people talk about labor, they often focus on unions, disengaged employees and high wages. But there is a much bigger problem facing manufacturers today – a real skills shortage. Industry Week focused on this topic in a special report…
WSJ.com – Toyota May Delay New Models To Address Rising Quality Issues I haven’t found a free version of this article yet. Here is another article with a brief summary and a blog posting that references the article. The Gemba…
AME – The Association For Manufacturing Excellence Looks like a great event that AME is running up in Seattle. Virginia Mason has a great reputation as one of the leaders in the lean healthcare world. Here are some articles about…
Google Trends: lean manufacturing, six sigma More fun with “Google Trends.” Six Sigma (red line) is a much more popular search term in Google than Lean Manufacdturing (blue line). It looks like about a 7:1 ratio. That surprises me. Does…
Sandia’s neutron generator production wins Shingo Prize – New Mexico Business Weekly: I’m surprised that the U.S. government would spent time and energy trying to win a Shingo Prize. I don’t doubt their lean efforts, don’t get me wrong. Sandia…
Lean Blog: Companies Use Lean to Offset Cost Increases I posted last year about an Industry Week article about a company called Esselte. It sounded like a nice success story, a case where they were offsetting lower market prices (that…
Kanban Calculation at Lean Sigma Supply Chain The “Lean Sigma Supply Chain” blog has a post about the multiple variations of kanban formulas, the blogger writes: “How can something so simple have so many variations. No wonder this tool has…
The Hindu Business Line : In Toyota land Here is an article written by an Indian who visited Toyota City in Japan. The cars seen to the left are tiny electric vehicles that are used to “drive between the helipad,…
shmula » Interview with Mary Poppendieck I know many of you are interested in lean/agile software development and that’s not always a topic that I cover well. My friend Pete, at the shmula blog, has an upcoming interview with Mary…
Exciting news, I’m going to record a LeanBlog Podcast interview with Dr. Jeffrey Liker, of the University of Michigan and “The Toyota Way” fame. The interview will be Friday morning, Aug 25. Update: Here is the podcast. If you have…
Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Business Columnists Here is an article about the upcoming Toyota San Antonio plant and its leader, “T.J. Tajima.” Is it unique to have a guy from purchasing in charge of a…
