I’d like to welcome a new sponsor, the Lean Supermarket (www.leansupermarket.com). It’s a startup online store that offers a wide range of supplies for your Lean implementation efforts, run by an active lean practitioner. The owner of the site, Brent…
Following up on the LEI survey that was released and discussed here, I’ve been talking with a few folks offline about what the “root causes” really are for Lean struggles. Instead of pointing at “who?” what would we find if…
Explosions rock downtown Dallas | Latest News | WFAA.com Working from home with this news on in the background, the massive gas cylinder explosions at a business near downtown Dallas, about 30 miles from my home. What jumped out at…
by Dan Markovitz This blog has commented (here and here) on the WSJ’s rush to predict the folly of just-in-time manufacturing in the wake of the earthquake last week that crippled Japanese auto production. (“Blame it on kanban, the just-in-time…
The LEI is out with their annual survey (pdf) about our ongoing struggles implementing Lean, with articles (reprinting the press release) and blog posts already written, The results aren’t the views of the LEI, but are the views of the…
If you’re reading via RSS, that’s great, I support free full-text RSS feeds for my readers (over 800 now via RSS, compared to about 500 who visit the website). One thing you’re probably missing out on, unless you do visit…
Forbes.com – Partial Production to Start Tuesday Reuters Article – Toyota to Resume Full Production Wednesday What do the Chicken Littles at the WSJ have to say now? After the earthquake in Japan last week, the WSJ ran a predictable…
The magazine “Manufacturing Business Technology” (from Reed Publications) is launching their new website today. I’d invite you check them out at www.mbtmag.com. For their new site, MBT asked me to contribute content on Lean Manufacturing, which I’m happy to do…
At Ford, the ‘Outsider’ Is Optimistic – WSJ.com There’s an interview with Ford CEO Alan Mulally today, we’ve featured him before on the blog (click the “Ford” link at the bottom of the post for more on the company). The…
Starbucks Gossip: Is another price increase in the works at Starbucks? One of the random blogs in my blog reader is Starbucks Gossip. I’m a regular customer (grande drip, no room) and I like getting some insights into how the…
Link to Purchase on SME.org I was very honored to be asked to write an essay/case study on lean healthcare for the Society of Manufacturing Engineers new “Lean Yearbook” publication and that book is out now. It’s a large magazine…
Road Commission under fire – mlive.com: One of the two pillars of the Toyota Production System is “respect for people.” It’s a shame that we have to work on something so basic and fundamental, as this, but respect is often…