United Adds $25 Fee for 2nd Bag
Yahoo News Story By Mike R. Lopez: I saw this story about United Airlines charging customers to check a SECOND bag. Not the fifth or sixth bag, but NUMBER TWO! This reminded me of a training slide that we have…
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All posts from Mark Graban’s LeanBlog.org, including podcasts, announcements, articles, and more.
American-Made Footballs in the Super Bowl
At a Small Ohio Factory, Leather and Laces Mesh – New York Times It’s not a Lean story, per se, but it’s always nice to read about an American factory. The N.F.L. is the only major sports league whose balls…
Some Questions About Managers
Earlier this week, I asked some questions that managers and leaders should ask, prompted by an email I received through the blog. I’ve been thinking about this and I’ve been trying to keep my “no blaming” hat on. Managers are…
Two Michigan Lean Job Postings
There are two new Lean job postings on www.leanboard.org, links below. No need to register to read the postings, but you need to register (for free) to post jobs of your own (or to post a resume). No placement or…
Some Questions for Managers
Some rhetorical questions to managers who say they want to “be Lean”: Do you properly train new employees or do you just throw them into the job to figure it out themselves? Do you label those who speak up and…
Partly Correct on Rising Car Prices
GM Expects Car-Price Rise – WSJ.com GM is raising prices: “In December, GM raised its prices an average of 1.5%…” This is great news if you’re an employee, stockholder, or fan of General Motors. This means market demand is strong…
This Story Gets It Right On Healthcare Errors
‘It’s never just one thing’ that leads to serious error – Los Angeles Times This is a stunning headline, it’s pretty amazing (in a good way) to find an article that doesn’t focus on blaming individuals. “It’s never just one…
Toyota Gains Lead in Overproduction?
Toyota beats GM in global production; GM No. 1 in global sales So it turns out that GM *sold* more cars than Toyota in 2007, but it’s basically rounding error and a virtual tie (as pointed out well by the…
Also Working on "Respect for People?"
Article Link: Lifting specialists set to lose weight I’m always a bit skeptical when I hear about Lean being a “project.” Sure, a project can be a starting point, but as the first step to transitioning to a Lean management…
LeanBlog Podcast #35 – Former Toyota Leader David Meier, on Toyota Talent (Again)
Listen: LeanBlog Podcast #35 is another discussion with David Meier, co-author of the book Toyota Talent, written with Dr. Jeffrey Liker. In this podcast, we follow up our previous discussion (Podcast #31) to talk about the upcoming Toyota books, as…
An Example of Vehicle Error Proofing
Urban Legends Reference Pages: Cruise Control on Wet Roads Hazard This is sort of an old urban legend that has been making the rounds again, but there’s some truth to it in that we shouldn’t use cruise control in our…
Starting to Read "Toyota Culture"
I’ve read the first chapter of Toyota Culture: The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way. I’m obviously not going to get through the whole thing before my podcast interview with Jeff Liker tomorrow. If you have questions for the…
