Made in America? Your Choice.
WSJ.com – Made in USA? Now, Customers Get to Choose Back when the Chinese iPod factory was in the news (prison or not?), I asked if people would be willing to pay more for an American made iPod, you know,…
Search Results for WSJ just in time
Operational Problems Slow Starbucks Growth
“Starbucks’ Sales Slide on Frozen Drinks” Starbucks is blaming operational problems for their sales slide (actually, it’s just the rate of sales increase that fell, from 7% to 4% – let’s ignore the faulty Wall Street math that views a…
We’re Not Done with Waste
WSJ.com – In the Lead “For Now, the FocusIs More on Innovation Than on Budget Cuts” Free version hereThis column goes into the category, almost, of the “what’s beyond lean?” article that pops up from time to time. The trend…
An MBO Case Study in China
WSJ.com – In China, 3,500 Test the Waters Of the Pearl River I’ve written before about how polluted China’s rivers are, the cost of unbridled factory growth and an unregulated environment. While you might think the article linked to above…
GM Gaming the Cash Metric
WSJ.com – Can Mr. Fix-It Find Time for GM?: I knew companies played games with inventory numbers. Although there’s no rational business reason to do so, a lot of public companies purposefully “drain out” inventory (raw material, WIP, and finished…
It’s a Value Problem, not a Cost Problem
WSJ.com – Can Mr. Fix-It Find Time for GM? Part of the discussion about a GM-Nisssan/Renault alliance has been the old “purchasing efficiencies” driven by the idea of economies of scale. This means, if you’re bigger, you get a better…
Being Careful Isn’t Enough, Particularly in Pathology
One of the core ideas of the Toyota Production System is the recognition that people are indeed human and are therefore fallible (part of the “respect for humanity” tenet of TPS). No amount of “be careful” warnings will prevent all…
Cars in Indiana and Legos being Outsourced
Outsourcing continues to be a hot topic. It is especially true in Michigan, where the Governor’s race is heating up. It is the topic of the race. Incumbent Granholm is trying to woo Toyota into building an engine plant here…
The Need for Lean Laboratories
Hospitals move to cut dangerous lab errors Here is a free version of a WSJ article from last week. I know I’ve been posting about “lean healthcare” a lot this week, I hope that is of interest to the manufacturing…
Ford; Red, White, and Hypocrite
Ford’s Swipe At Toyota Sounds “Desperate” So we’ve been reading all year about Mark Fields, who has the best executive mullet (a.ka. “hockey hair“) I’ve seen in some time, and his “Way Forward” plan for saving Ford. From a marketing…
Reducing NVA Office Work
WSJ.com – Work & Family Free version of Article Another good article in the WSJ that brings up lean concepts, without mentioning lean. This time, it’s focused on overworked employees in areas like consulting and finance. A lot of times,…
Asian Automakers "Perceived" to be Winning
Honda gets closer to picking site for plant (Detroit Free Press) There’s also an article in today’s WSJ about Honda’s growth plans. It also talks about more job cuts announced by GM in the UK. The WSJ (probably channeling a…
