Greatest Asset, My…
Circuit City’s harsh layoffs give glimpse of a new world First off, Circuit City is not a “Lean” company. So when people ask “is Lean always good for employees?,” you can also ask “when is traditional management always good for…
Year 2007
Challenges to "Respect for People"?
UAW, Toyota workers to talk We often talk about Toyota and “respect for people” as one of their main pillars. I’m sure most of us paint a pretty idealistic picture of Toyota when we talk to others: Safety and Quality…
Mark on the “Better Process” Podcast
PodcasterNews – Industry Report Mark and Dwight for a Lean Roundtable I am appearing again on Ken Rayment’s “Better Process” Podcast, the link is above. In the podcast, Dwight Bowen (of the Lean Thinking Network) and I both discuss Lean…
Workers, Supervisors, and Respect
The End of the Line as They Know It – New York Times The link above is an article about “Detroit Three” employees taking voluntary buyouts. There are some insights into the working world of the plants these employees leave…
Say "No" to Bad Drug Stores
The Blotter: ABC Report on Pharmacy Errors I first stumbled across this 20/20 report when I saw a preview on the ABC investigative reports video podcast. Pharmacy errors are a major problem (see this story): There are as many as…
My Bitchin’, Toyota
With apologies to the band the Dead Milkmen and their song “Bitchin’ Camaro.” Note the comma in my title, though. It’s ironic that my first-ever customer experience with Toyota would have some hiccups along the way. About a month ago,…
Quote from "Getting the Right Things Done"
So after getting such strong recommendations about the book from Norman Bodek and, then today, from Dwight Bowen, I finally started reading “Getting the Right Things Done” by Pascal Dennis. A line in the introduction struck me: “Strategy deployment is…
Toyota’s Top Suppliers
Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc. :: Toyota Honors Top Suppliers For 2006 Toyota Way Principle #11: Respect your extended network of partners and suppleirs by challenging them and helping them improve. I’m sure Toyota won’t be dumping…
Another Drug Error Waiting to Happen?
Hazard Warning – Brethine and Methergine mix-ups Can you tell the difference between these two drugs? You can even click on each photo for a larger view or compare them on the link above. This isn’t an isolated case, this…
Our Lean Horoscope
I’m not a horoscope guy, but my client team found these in the paper yesterday and we all had a good dorky lean chuckle about how these different horoscopes applied to lean! Click on each photo for a larger, more…
Boeing’s Lean Bet
Kevin Meyer at Evolving Excellence commented the other day on the Wall Street Journal article about Boeing’s recent supply chain challenges. I’d like to add to what he said from a broader perspective on the industry, and how I think…
What You’re Searching For
I routinely scan the list of keywords that people use in the course of finding the Lean Blog. It’s sometimes interesting (I think) to share some of those here. The most popular current terms aren’t surprising: lean manufacturing, leanblog, lean…
