Toyota and the “Thinking Production System”
Many interesting comments here from someone who worked directly for/with Taiichi Ohno. He comments on developing workers who can think — TPS being the “Thinking Production System.”
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Shingo Prize Awarded to Kaikaku The Power and Magic of Lean
Click for Article This past year has been a good one for new lean manufacturing books. I haven’t read this one yet, so I can’t give it a personal recommendation, but I’ve heard many good things. Has anyone read this,…
Is Quality and "Do It Right the First Time" Obsolete?
Beware the product death cycle | CNET News.com: This article raises some interesting questions about the role of quality in today’s marketplace. It argues that quality standards have definitely gone downhill, at least in consumer products, but the market is…
Toyota Won’t Raise Prices to Help Rivals
Toyota Won’t Raise Prices to Help Rivals There was a surprising headline yesterday that said Toyota *was* considering raising prices to “help” Ford and GM. Here is a link to an Auto Blog discussion of that. According to the Wall…
Professor’s book wins 2 awards
Click for Article Congratulations to Dr. Jeffrey Liker for the awards his book The Toyota Way has won. Has your organization made use of the Toyota Way concepts? Are there many un-read copies sitting on managers desks? What have you…
Overrated: Business ‘superstars’
USATODAY.com This article, although about CEO’s, made me think about leadership styles and lean. Whether a CEO or not, do the most effective managers always try to be in the limelight? Is the typical mindset one that managers do everything,…
Big 3 talent jumps ship to rivals
Detroit News Interesting article on the flow of talent from the Big 3 to Toyota, as well as the other Asian auto manufacturers. The article also talks about the flow from Toyota back to the others. The article also goes…
“A Case Study of Lean Manufacturing and Its Benefits When Well Executed”
Click for PDF Report In case you’re not on the Lean Enterprise Institute mailing list (and if you’re reading this, you should be), here is a Wall St. financial analyst report on Solectron. The report highlights the impact that lean…
How American Leather Reinvented the Upholstery Business
Virginia Postrel Article (NY Times article Feb 2005) Here is a great example of a company using lean to compete in the furniture industry, where most everything else is moving to China (or is already there). For anyone who has ever…
Adam Smith an Early "Lean Thinker"?
Quotes from Adam Smith – Adam Smith Institute: “Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production; and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to, only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that…
Workbooks on Lean Material Handling and Pull Production Win Shingo Prizes
Lean Enterprise Institute Congratulations to the LEI authors. I’ve used “Making Materials Flow” in factory settings and found that it gives a very structured framework for a materials group that has never implemented kanban, proper part presentation, or delivery routes…
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Hello, reader. Thanks for visiting my Lean Blog! If you’d like to share anything about your background and/or interest in lean, please leave comment, which you can do without registering. You can even comment anonymously. Here are some reader/listener comments.…
