Year 2007

Lean & Six Sigma Traps to Avoid

Article Link Thanks to Ron for sending this article my way. Check out his excellent blog post on the difference between being fast and “playing fast,” tying the football idea to manufacturing (although I’m hoping my Wildcats can finally beat…

Nice Lean Healthcare Overview

Business Report – Toyota production system has the cure for the industry’s ills Much of the material in this summary, by a professor who teaches a Lean course, has been covered on this blog before, but it’s a nice summary…

Yay! Lean is Popular

IndustryWeek : Ranking Continuous Improvement Methods According to a recent survey of 745 companies, 40.5% of them say they are using Lean as a continuous improvement strategy. The number is higher if you include “Lean Six Sigma,” “Agile manufacturing,” and…

Job Opportunity with the "Dell Lean Model"

Lean opportunities coming to Central Texas I’ve been critical of folks who lump Dell into the “lean” world, since Dell hasn’t really done much according to the Toyota model (previous posts on Dell). Dell developed its own model, the Dell…

Free Peeks into Lean Books

lean – Google Book Search A friend just tipped me off to this Google feature, the ability to view limited pages from books, including a wide selection of Lean books. This list includes Jamie Flinchbaugh’s “Hitchhiker’s Guide to Lean.” It’s…

Not such a "Lean" Plant Tour

Since I’ve been working exclusively in healthcare for almost two years, I haven’t been in too many factories lately. I was excited to get an invitation from the local Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) chapter to tour a local factory.…

"Open Wide and Say ‘Lean’"

By Dean Bliss (bio below) At the recent Shingo Prize conference, I was reminded of the power of Lean. Not just because of the award winners, but because of a humble dentist who practices in Jacksonville, Florida. And who practices…

UPS Reducing Driving Waste

ABC News: UPS Figures Out the ‘Right Way’ to Save Money, Time and Gas “Efficiency is so much a part of the culture at UPS…” UPS has always been known as an Industrial Engineering driven company. Here’s an example of…

You Still "Gotta Ask"

IndustryWeek : Where Is Your Company’s Next Big Idea Coming From? Chuck Yorke was co-author, along with our friend Norman Bodek, of the book All You Gotta Do Is Ask. In an Industry Week column, Chuck continues to make the…

Video: Boeing’s Moving Line

Here’s an interesting video showing Boeing’s 737 line, moving at a takt time pace of 2 inches per minute. The referenced video has been removed at Boeing’s request (5/18/2010). I was embedding a video from YouTube that Boeing considered an…

Will Lean Outperform Bureaucracy?

Worldandnation: Scandal sires bureaucracy It’s too bad that the Lean Six Sigma component of the response to the problems at Walter Reed has been lumped into the category of “bureaucracy.” There are no less than nine blue-ribbon committees, task forces…