Seeking Perfect Prices, CEO Tears Up the Rules – WSJ.com I haven’t mentioned it in a while, was trying to give it a rest for a bit, but the front page of the WSJ highlighted this basic economic concept: prices…
By Dan Markovitz Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal ran an article explaining that employees are more likely to embrace changes when they’re fully informed of the rationale behind those changes. What?!?!?!? You mean that performance relates to worker involvement?!?!? Shocking!!! Foremost…
Manufacturing Engineering December 2006 I was sent the link to this article by Professor Thomas Johnson, noted author of books including Profit Beyond Measure. After reading the article, I’m a bit confused (although he makes some excellent points). Dr. Johnson…
The LeanBlog Podcast is back with episode #20, our guest is Kevin Meyer, the founder of Superfactory Ventures, which can be found at Superfactory.com. You may know Kevin from his popular blog, Evolving Excellence. We’ll be talking about a number…
In this 2007 interview, Jim Womack reflects on The Machine That Changed the World and how its lessons on Lean and Toyota’s system are still misunderstood. Episode #19 of the Lean Blog Podcast brings the return of Jim Womack. Jim…
tl;dr: The andon cord isn’t a tool–it’s a trust signal. Toyota’s thousands of line stops reflect psychological safety and leadership support. Ford’s rare pulls reflected fear and mistrust. Lean succeeds or fails on culture, not mechanics. In 2007, a BBC…
Intel, Motion Develop Tablet PC for Nurses – WSJ.com More news stories via Google. Is this a “siren song” of technology for healthcare? Executives and managers in any industry, it seems, believe in the promise of technology as the solution…
The ‘Toyota Way’ Is Translated for a New Generation of Foreign Managers – New York Times Here’s a very good article from the NY Times, a few days ago, that talks about Toyota’s relatively new process training worldwide managers in…
Business Week Article Here’s a good story about how some doctors offices are trying to reduce backlogs and appointment delays, by adopting lean and operations management methods. As the head of a large primary care department at a Kaiser Permanente…
By Luke Van Dongen: Name of Book: Lean Kaizen: A Simplified Approach to Process Improvements Authors: George Alukal & Anthony Manos Publication Date: 2006 Reviewed By: Luke Van Dongen, February 2007 Book description: what’s the key message? This book is…
Here is the actual ad that ran during the game, after seeing the preview here. If you’re reading this via RSS or a news reader, come visit the actual blog page to view the commercial video. So, the “joke”…
Deming listed the annual review process as one of the “deadly diseases” of management. From this website: “Evaluation of performance, annual review, merit rating. nourishes short-term performance annihilates long-term planning demolishes teamwork promotes competition builds fear promotes playing politics destroys…