Quality Digest Magazine: Another article by Jamie Flinchbaugh and Paul Mullenhour, of the Lean Learning Center. They outline failure modes, including: “One major way of failing is to do this improvement work strictly for the sake of lean or the…
Blackerby Associates Here is a piece from Phil Blackerby, of Blackerby Associates that details the pro’s (labor rates) and the con’s (too many to list here) of moving production operations overseas. Have you seen your company make a decision like…
David Hendricks Column A column that summarizes a San Antonio visit by Masaaki Imai. The talk was prompted by the upcoming Toyota assembly plant there. The article also has information about the new plant and links to recent articles about…
HBS Working Knowledge: Steven Spear is asked what makes a good TPS-style manager, he says it all comes down to problem solving. “The team leader and group leader were capable of teaching these [problem solving] skills in a directed, learn-by-doing…
Detroit News – 04/07/05 Well this is predictable. GM is in the news with profit problems and management shakeups. So what comes next? Let’s beat up on the suppliers and pressure them into China. When GM wants “aggressive cost cutting”…
Amazon.com: Books Speaking of Toyota Way (see below), I just noticed on amazon that the “Fieldbook” should be coming out in September. Please check out my main blog page at www.leanblog.org The RSS feed content you are reading is copyrighted…
Quality Digest Magazine Many lean practictioners have read The Toyota Way, Jeffrey Liker’s book on the management system and management principles of Toyota. How many of us see the implementation of tools (like 5S or kanban) without recognizing the need…
Click for Article Not much “lean stuff” in the news today, so I’ll point out another source of good lean articles, including this Norman Bodek piece on walking the “gemba”. Do your managers (and not just the first level managers)…
Masaaki Imai interview! Masaaki Imai (the author of the book “Kaizen”) comments on the need to convert from batch to JIT and China ‘productivity’ among other topics. Please check out my main blog page at www.leanblog.org The RSS feed content…
Strategos, Inc. — Quarterman Lee I have been receiving the excellent email newsletter from Quarterman Lee for a while now, always enlightening about lean manufacturing tools, concepts, and cultural aspects. There are many useful articles and features on his website.…
Click for Article Another interesting example of “lean health care”. I’ve had a chance to take a tour with the lean process improvement team at Osborn Medical Center here in Scottsdale, AZ. It’s amazing to see lean and Toyota concepts…
Click for Article Just a short while after Jim Womack’s “Lean Consumption” article came out, here’s a real life example of Toyota doing lean auto service in India. They say they are applying kaizen techniques and reducing non-value added processes…
