All Posts on Lean Blog

WSJ.com (registration required) Not really "new" news, but an article that discusses Boeing and Airbus "copying" Toyota. Interesting quote:"We always thought airplanes were different because they had four million parts," says Alan…
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Detroit Free Press The article doesn't say directly that Steelcase is cutting jobs "because of" lean manufacturing, but it seems hard not to draw that relationship. If the company is cutting jobs in the midst of a lean effort, that can't…
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JS Online Nice case studies of older midwestern companies fighting Chinese competition with lean manufacturing, in some cases bringing work back from overseas. Staying close to the customer and being responsive is key.Please check out my…
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The Hindu Business LineInteresting to read that China is supposed spending time and effort on lean training. I assumed that China factories were not "lean" because labor was so cheap - but this sure would make the competitive threat that…
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OK, so this isn't strictly a standard work document, but this is an overview of the Lean Blog. I did update it on 7/19/05, though, in the spirit of continuous improvement. Updated 5/15/18 1) I run this blog strictly as a small (focus on…
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Masaaki Imai interview! Masaaki Imai comments on the need to convert from batch to JIT and China 'productivity' among other topics.
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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…
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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 some…
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(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…
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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 too…
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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 new…
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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?
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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…
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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 due…
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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…
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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 is a…
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Society of Manufacturing Engineers Good discussion of lean culture change and a real overall lean management system, as opposed to "fake lean", consisting of use of lean "tools" and a reliance on kaizen events. Real lean is about…
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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…
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