I've worked with a lot of companies whose primary operational strategy boils down to "cut costs". Others on Mark's blog have written about the many unintended consequences of cutting costs as a myopic strategy. But I'd like to share a trend among small manufacturers I've seen...
As a Lean change agent, I've made a lot of mistakes. Some mistakes I recognized early and recovered from; others were a blind spot that affected outcomes and success of the assignment. A few still haunt me from time to time when I suffer a case of "woulda, coulda, shoulda."
Mark’s Note: This is a guest post from an old friend of the blog, Mark Edmondson. See his older guest posts from years back. He originally posted this on the AME website and he agreed to have me re-post it.…
By Mark Edmondson, Lean Affilliates Lean Blog readers – I need your input. I’m looking for the best performing manufacturing companies who use MRP to signal delivery from their suppliers. In other words, who are the top performing manufacturing companies…
By Mark Edmondson, LEAN Affiliates Last week I had three unrelated yet similar phone conversations that you, an executive in pursuit of excellence, may find of interest. These calls had several similarities: – All are with experienced mid-level professionals (they…
By Mark Edmondson, LEAN Affiliates I made a day trip to the Assembly Technology Expo in Chicago last week. What an adventure. After all, here’s an event dedicated to the latest automated innovations for manufacturing: Over 600 leading suppliers were…
By Mark Edmonson, Lean Affiliates Mark Graban’s post earlier today “Lean Isn’t about ‘Productivity” and “Quality’” was inspired writing. I couldn’t agree more…Marketing and Product Development/Design are critical parts of the product value stream that many “high quality” companies neglect.…
Inspired by an article in Workforce Performance Solutions Journal Oct 2005 and personal experience. Waves of downsizing, employer demands, job disenchantment and technologies that keep employees plugged into their jobs both day and night have taken their toll. If recent…
By Bill Waddell (Note from Mark Edmondson: Here’s a recent article written by LEAN Affiliate Bill Waddell that I think many of you will find interesting.) The terms “Lean Manufacturing” and “Japanese” are hardly synonymous. This may come as a…
by Mark Edmondson This post may be shameless about poking fun at a real software product, but I couldn’t resist: Make better business decisions faster Achieve increased profitability Drive operational improvements Substantially decrease total cost of ownership Standardize best practices…
By Mark Edmondson As a lean professional, here are two facts you already know about you and your company: 1. Over 95% of your body mass consists of water. 2. Over 95% of your company’s activities consist of waste. Yet,…
By Mark Edmondson Seth Godin’s (author of Purple Cow and All Marketers are Liars) blog often has pearls of lean wisdom – even though he’s a marketing guy. Check out his recent post, “Please Hold”, wondering why companies spend so…
