All posts from Mark Graban’s LeanBlog.org, including podcasts, announcements, articles, and more.
Lean was on my brain traveling home yesterday. Mostly bad examples, but one thing jumped out at me, somewhat positive. I love the TPS notion of “explaining why” (and blogged about it here after touring NUMMI). In the Lean and…
Sharing thoughts, ideas and suggestions on hardwiring success I’ve written before about former hospital CEO and healthcare consultant Quint Studer and his amazing book “Hardwiring Excellence.” I think it’s a great book even for manufacturing folks. Quint now has a…
Materials costs force GM to raise prices Yet another example of a non-lean mindset company thinking they are entitled to price increases because costs went up. General Motors Corp. has raised prices an average of 0.5 percent on about one-third…
By Luke Van Dongen For me, the topic of applying lean principles and tools to the classroom was the best part of the Linking Lean Thinking to Education conference. Admittedly, I am biased by the fact that this is the…
Tale of a Warehouse Shows How Chicago Weathers a Decline – WSJ.com The article linked to above is OK, about how Chicago is diversifying its economy away from manufacturing. What jumped out at me was this picture, though, also shown…
… and the system sucks!” That was the final line of a recent episode of ER that we just watched last night (thanks to the DVR). The major focus of the episode was a patient in court with a claim…
LeanBlog Podcast Episode #9 is a discussion with David Mann, the author of the excellent book Creating A Lean Culture: Tools To Sustain Lean Conversions. In this episode, we will talk about Steelcase’s experience with their lean efforts and the…
Deja Vu – WSJ.com “Early Industry Expert Soon Realized a Staff Had Its Own Efficiency” The WSJ has it wrong on manufacturing, once again. Not that I expect the Wall Street Journal to be a friend of the “working man,”…
Another month has rolled by whch means Assembly Magazine has released another excellent issue of their magazine, of which I am very pleased to contribute. This month, in my Leading Lean column, I tackle the issue of “convincing” those around…
NPR : Pay Helps Keep Workers at Western Burger Chain You should listen to this NPR story online, about the fast food chain In-N-Out. I’m not much into fast food burgers, but when I lived in Phoenix, I loved In-N-Out.…
I can’t think of an industry that could use lean or “process thinking” any more than the home contractor industry (ok, well maybe healthcare). I’m currently having a gas grill bricked in out on my back patio and I’ve been…
Burt’s Bees Selects i2 Solutions to Streamline the Supply Chain for Lean Manufacturing Another “Siren Song” in the world of manufacturing software. Once again, it’s i2 Technologies claiming their software is “Built on the principles of lean manufacturing and constraint-based…
