How Many Clicks to Get Home?
I’m on the road alot, as a consultant. I’m flying home to Texas today, so I’m about to check out of the hotel via the TV “On Command” menu. For all of the buttons on this remote, it sure would…
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All posts from Mark Graban’s LeanBlog.org, including podcasts, announcements, articles, and more.
Everyday Lean
I’ve been very interested in applying lean to daily work routines and practices and have been (unfortunately very slowly) working on a series of posts that provide various ideas and examples on how lean practices can be applied to every…
Everyday Lean – Email Inventory
For the first installment of the Everyday Lean series, I thought I would stay with the email theme that originally got me started thinking down this path. Email is a part of just about everyone’s modern workday. There are many…
Have We Found a Winning Bet?
After my “Shingo Investing” analysis last week, someone asked “what about the Industry Week Best Plants winners?” I conducted a similar analysis. Because the IW awards are typically given in October, I looked at the stock prices from Oct 1…
Bosses in love with claptrap…
The Observer | Business | Simon Caulkin Here’s a provocative column from the UK. A few lean-type thoughts: “It’s no use putting good people to work in a crappy system; conversely, putting people in a good system and expecting them…
Q&A with Jamie Flinchbaugh, Part 1
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.” I’ve known Jamie for many years and have always found him to be…
Shingo Winners "Control Their Destiny"??
News: 14 Companies Earn Shingo Recognition I could believe it more if the Shingo people merely claimed that the prize rewarded local examples of some good lean practices, but they claim much more. Company competitiveness depends on factors less easily…
Shingo Prize Winning Books
Financial News – Yahoo! Finance So is the Shingo Prize more indicative of book quality than it is for lean company performance? Either way, congrats to Jim Womack, Dan Jones, Freddy Balle, and Michael Balle for their Shingo winning books.…
Shingo Investing: A Losing Bet
I’ve always wondered how you would do investing in Shingo Prize-winning companies. There is quite a bit of debate in the lean blog world about the Shingo committee continuously awarding plant-level lean achievement prizes to bankrupt companies, namely Delphi. I’m…
NUMMI and Worker Health
Inside Bay Area – IBA – Alameda Times-Star – Home Here’s a pretty glowing article about how NUMMI, the Toyota/GM joint venture plant in Fremont CA, focuses on employee health and safety. When I visited NUMMI last year, one of…
Frustrated – Coping with Waste in Management Reviews
I’ve decided to write today about some personal frustration that I am experiencing as part of my daily work. My discontent stems from a form of waste that I have thus far been unsuccessful in helping others to see, yet…
PhD Student Question on "Lean Org Design"
I received a question from a PhD student in Indiana, he asked if I could post it here. If you have any ideas or responses for him, please use the “comments” feature of the blog. “I’ve redesigned organizational charts for…
