All posts from Mark Graban’s LeanBlog.org, including podcasts, announcements, articles, and more.
If You Can Make It Here … – New York Times: Here is a surprisingly positive article on American manufacturing, including Harley. The article points out that the U.S. is still #1 in the world in manufacturing, as a percentage…
Feature – Lean From The Get-Go – 07/05 Note how, in this case study, the company owners decided lean was going to be their primary business strategy. Many think that lean does not apply, or it tough to apply, to…
Sorry, not much in the mood for blogging this week, watching the tragedy unfold on TV.Catholic Relief Services Red CrossUnited Way Don’t get ripped off (CNN article) by fund raising scams. Check out Charity Navigator for tips on donating to…
Learning about Lean Interesting story here on Joe Ely’s lean blog… traditional supply/demand mismatch and waste in baking has typically led to “day old” product being donated to food banks. Reductions in overproduction mean less to donate. Maybe bakeries/restaurants/food producers…
Press Release: It’s pretty tough to cut through the buzzwords to figure out what this “lean software” does. “It creates a consistent view of demand for Lean calculation, kanban sizing and control, daily resource planning for labor and machine resources…
7Online.com: Investigation on After Surgical Error A scary example of the type of medical mistake that happens far too often. I hope that “augmenting their procedures” includes standard work and poka-yoke (error proofing) steps. Sad, sad case. Please check out…
Six Sigma Stigma (PDF) Here’s an article from Fast Company magazine. The author visited Toyota in Japan and asked a somewhat uninformed question: Eager to show we knew a thing or two about quality ourselves, we soft-balled our hosts with the…
St. Paul Pioneer Press | 08/26/2005 | Imation pins hopes on growth: It’s no surprise that lean author Bruce Henderson (Lean Transformation) would be using lean as a turnaround strategy at Imation. “Much of Imation’s optimism stems from a more…
Success Stories Good case study (with pictures) on applying lean thinking to non-manufacturing environments. The Canada Post team focused on flow, even going so far as to eliminate a giant automated sorting machine with a manual cell that was much…
siliconindia.com: “Quoting a new report from market research firm Gartner, Inc. CNN says that a labor crunch and rising wages could erode as much as 45 percent of India’s market share by 2007. “ Yes, an article about IT, but…
HeraldNet: Leaning on a role model: Another lean transformation snapshot story: “Three years ago, Buck Knives was manufacturing the old way, using long, specialized assembly lines that resulted in the need to store large amounts of partially completed knives that…
news – Toyota Production System Steers JAL Group Cargo Operations at Narita: Here is a nice adaptation of lean and TPS to a non-manufacturing environment: “JAL named their plan the M3 Project after the three main elements in the Toyota…