All posts from Mark Graban’s LeanBlog.org, including podcasts, announcements, articles, and more.
Autos Talk – The Detroit News Online – 01/18/06 I’m surprised the “yes” vote is only 88.84% for this question, posed by the Detroit News: “Ford workers, is anxiety over anticipated plant closings affecting your workplace?”Seems like rather obvious human…
Kaizen and Lean Manufacturing thoughts | Gemba Panta Rei I was going to blog about this, but Jon Miller from the excellent Gemba Panta Rei blog beat me to it and had some outstanding comments. So, I’ll just point you…
WSJ.com – As Airlines Pull Out of Dive, United Charts Its Own Course ($$ Subscription) Most of what we hear about airlines is “low cost” this or “cutting costs” that. Everyone is chasing Southwest’s low labor costs or copying them…
So here was some breakfast discussion from my house this morning…. why do companies waste money marketing to existing customers who already have these services? The form of marketing I’m referring to is our cable company sending a generic “sign…
Last night I attended a panel discussion hosted by the Detroit Economic Club’s Junior Executive Committee. The focus of the panel was in-vehicle technology and one of the major discussion points was around the challenge vehicle manufacturers’ face in trying…
GM’s Lutz: Don’t cut exec pay-He shoots down Kerkorian’s idea to reduce salaries, says ‘I gave at the office.’ A follow up to yesterday’s article (see below): Bob Lutz responds: “Here’s where people get this wrong: They say, ‘Why are…
Society of Manufacturing Engineers Here’s a good overview of the Toyota/GM “Joint Venture” plant, NUMMI. I put “JV” in quotes because, sure there is joint ownership, but it’s not really jointly managed. A manager at NUMMI says: Most people are…
Leading Lean (Jamie Flinchbaugh) Here is the first installment of a new column that appears in Assembly Magazine, written by Jamie Flinchbaugh. Jamie writes about the importance of “lean thinking” and the power of that, as compared to and in…
Toyota considers West Michigan plant; UAW not pleased — WWMT – Digital Channel 3 You’d think a new auto plant in Michigan, any plant, would be cause of celebration. Not for this UAW member. The article says one reason the…
Yesterday was grocery day. I know what you’re thinking – what fun! Anyway, one of the items on my list was a pound of ground beef. I’ve never paid much attention to this before, but while looking through the pile…
iPod Rivals Ready for Prime Time at Last This article was posted today at cnet News.com. I own, and absolutely love my iPod. It’s perfect for the gym, when I’m traveling and many other times. It is incredibly simple, very…
I watched some Tivo-ed episodes of the Science Channel (part of the Discovery Channel family of networks) show “How It’s Made.” The show is pretty informative, showing how things like screw caps are made (the sheer production volume of some…