Masaaki Imai interview! Masaaki Imai comments on the need to convert from batch to JIT and China ‘productivity’, among other topics. One highlight: “Kaizen is the means to achieve a corporate strategy, not the strategy. Every corporation needs to make…
Press Release Looks like great work by the Boeing 737 team! “We’re not going to stop at a 50 percent reduction, but improving our production system isn’t just about doing things fast. It’s about doing everything better, continuously enhancing the…
Business 2.0 – Magazine Article Improve. This was in a magazine that hit my mailbox yesterday, an interview with Toyota’s CEO. The company was named “Smartest Company of 2004” by the magazine. If you click on the link, there are…
(United Press International): “‘The initial budget came back from OMB … at zero.” The Manufacturing Extension Partnership is being threatened with budget cuts again (almost an annual event). The MEP offices around the country provide lean training and consulting, particularly…
The New York Times > Business > Decline in Sales Sends Mitsubishi Motors on a Search for Financing A look into Japan’s approach to company bailouts — similar to what we’ve seen here with airlines and some manufacturers. Is it…
KLTV 7 Tyler-Longview-Jacksonville, TX: Another company looking for handouts. I found it funny that the Dell VP would say “I’m worried for our country” if North Carolina didn’t give them a zero taxes for 20 years deal to open a…
The New York Times J.T. Battenberg, CEO of Delphi, is looking for federal handouts for health care, R&D, etc. How much money can we generate by eliminating waste rather than looking for help from others?
The Washington Times: Business – January 13, 2005 “The biggest surprise in yesterday’s deficit report from the Commerce Department was a 2.3 percent drop in exports during November.” Please check out my main blog page at www.leanblog.org The RSS feed…
Article 1: Report: U.S. lost 1.5M jobs to China from 1989-2003 – Jan. 11, 2005 Article 2: Taipei Times – archives Two articles today about jobs and China. The first focuses on currency issues, how Chinese goods are artificially cheap…
Yahoo! News Interesting. It seems like Toyota is being forced into using the technology, based on demographic trends (retiring workforce, fewer workers). I didn’t think it was Toyota’s philosophy to choose automation over thinking human workers, unless the job was…
Article 1 — Who’s Afraid of China? — from NYTArticle 2 ––Fast Company article “Living in Dell Time” Not sure if this web reprint is an example of China IP protection issues (original article on NYtimes.com requires payment), but this…
Johnson Controls Automotive Group Begins Largest Deployment of Lean Operations Software; Factory Logic Solution Extends and Enhances Company’s Lean Manufacturing Methodology Enterprise software for lean environments is different than the classic MRP or ERP systems. Many companies use “software” for…
