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…
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’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…
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,…
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…
WSJ.com – In the Lead ($$) The entire headline is “Executives Must Stop Jumping From Fad to Fad and Learn to Manage.” Amen. Excellent column in the WSJ saying that we need to avoid being “copycat managers.” The “program of…
Evolving Excellence: If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Drag ‘Em Down To Your Level I thought of Bill Waddell when I read this article in the Wall St. Journal today. For all of Toyota’s good practices, the idea of adopting some…
WSJ.com – Dunkin’ Donuts Tries to Go Upscale, But Not Too Far I haven’t seen one of these first hand, but the parent company of Dunkin’ Donuts has experimented with triple-branded restaurant buildings (a move they are backing down from).…
WSJ.com – $$ Subscription Required Front page article today about Chrysler and flexible manufacturing, focused on the retooled plant in Belvidere IL. Here is an earlier posting on their retooled team concept. The main point of the article is about…
WSJ.com – Lesser Than the Sum of Its Parts . . . The linked column requires a paid WSJ subscription, but I’ll try to summarize. The piece bemoans high labor costs as the things that are sinking Delphi and possibly…
WSJ.com – As Microsoft Fumbles, Marketers Supplant Tech Managers: I could care less, personally, if Microsoft delays their next version, “Windows Vista.” But, there’s an interesting manufacturing related item toward the end of the WSJ article. “Analysts briefed by Microsoft…
03/23/06 – The Detroit News (Welcome Slate.com readers. Click here or on the top banner to check out my main page and to learn more about lean and the Toyota Production System). It’s a rather optimistic headline in the Detroit…
