All posts from Mark Graban’s LeanBlog.org, including podcasts, announcements, articles, and more.
Article Toyota plans on rolling out hybrid tech across all of their product lines by 2012. Now I can probably be accused of being a Toyota cheerleader, everything they do is great, etc. I have pointed out before, though, that…
Thinking of employee suggestions, I had a flashback this week. Back when I worked at General Motors, we had a typical non-lean suggestion system. People could fill out a form with the idea, in triplicate, keep the green copy, something…
IndustryWeek : Lean: Closing the Reality Gap Here is an article with a link to an upcoming Industry Week webcast (there will be software vendors on the call, you’ve been warned). One focus of the webcast is supposed to be…
I spend a good amount of time working in Excel, analyzing data and such. I often accidentally hit the “F1” key in a clumsy attempt to hit “Esc”. The keys are right next to each other and each key is…
In the age of file sharing, FTP sites, all sorts of web based collaboration tools and the ever dreaded email attachment, it’s as though everyone’s file cabinet is open to everyone else. This can be a great asset to any…
Here are two contrasting stories from my past week. The stories made me think of muda (waste) and kaizen, or at least the promise of kaizen. Waste in Customer Service: Last week, I wrote about the need to take my…
New York Times: Here is an interesting spin on the ideas of employee involvement and bottom-up problem solving: “Most companies operate under the assumption that big ideas come from a few big brains: the inspired founder, the eccentric inventor, the…
Latest Business News and Financial Information | Reuters.com I like the idea of the IKEA founder and CEO “following the rules” of the company and setting an example of frugality by flying coach. I was always taught that Toyota was…
The Cincinnati Post – Don’t blame Japan Here’s the latest column from Jim Womack (read my Q&A with him here). On Nov. 22 after a speech at the National Press Club, Ford Motor Co. Chairman Bill Ford told the media,…
I’m pleased to present the latest in my Lean Thinker Q&A series, this time with Jamie Flinchbaugh, co-author of the recently-published book “The Hitchhiker’s Guide To Lean.” Here is part #2 of our Q&A, below. Part #1 is here. Jamie’s…
No Thanks By Melonyce McAfee Slate.com is a pretty well-known web news/commentary site. The Lean Blog was linked to today by a column summarizing blogs that commented on today’s news. There are other links there regarding the GM/Delphi buyout, check…
03/23/06 – The Detroit News (Welcome Slate.com readers. Click here or on the top banner to check out my main page and to learn more about lean and the Toyota Production System). It’s a rather optimistic headline in the Detroit…
