By Luke Van Dongen I am a huge fan of Jim Womack’s ability to identify and describe problems within complex systems simply and absolutely. Womack was a keynote speaker at the conference and used his time to convey his understanding…
Blue-collar exodus brings new challenges – 11/30/06 – The Detroit News Online: UPDATE: In case some of you don’t know my history of writing about how Ford and mass production companies typically don’t respect blue collar workers…. the word “Dummies”…
Before any of you give a knee jerk reaction about how “pull is good, push is bad” — I agree with you… pull is better than push. For manufacturing. In a factory, a “push” system pushes production and inventory along…
I give many lean overview presentations to healthcare audiences. While I mostly talk about the application of lean concepts to healthcare (problem-solving, improving flow, leveling workloads, reducing waste… pretty universal concepts), I do acknowledge that Lean originated in manufacturing. It…
This post is partly in tribute to Peter and his Little’s Law blogging at shmula.com (it’s not all Little’s Law all the time, however). More on Little’s Law at wikipedia. Or check out the excellent textbook Factory Physics for even…
by Mike Lopez A perfect example of a locally optimized system. According to an article in Businesweek, car rental firms have benefited from a “subsidy” from car makers eager to keep workers turning wrenches. For years, consumers and rental firms…
by Mike Lopez Are you a scientist practicing Lean in your research? Are you trying to apply Lean to your research? We need to talk. I can’t find any scientists using Lean through Google. I am looking to interview scientists…
My dad alerted me to this article from Automotive News. It’s not available free online, I have a pdf copy that I could post or email if you really want to see it (trying to avoid a cease-and-desist from them).…
cbs4boston.com – Pats Install Synthetic Turf At Gillette Stadium I was watching the Bears/Patriots game yesterday and the announcers mentioned that a new artificial turf surface was installed for the Patriots, replacing the old natural grass field that got real…
Here is LeanBlog Podcast #11, once again with Norman Bodek of PCS Press and the author of many books, including Kaikaku: The Power and Magic of Lean. In this Podcast, we discuss a topic posed by a podcast listener, Bruce…
Dr. Monica Tracey of Oakland University’s Pawley Institute and I have published another article on our original research on lean and HR. This one is published in World of Work Journal and a link can be found here for a…
Hospital-acquired infections take toll on bottom lines – USATODAY.com One of the problems that hospitals are trying to reduce, through lean methods and other good standard practices, is hospital-acquired infections — known as “nosocomial infections.” Obviously, health providers have incentives…
