Thoughts on Driving a Prius
Car Keys Could Go the Way of Tail Fins – New York Times So I’ve finally become a Toyota driver, driving an employer-provided Prius for over a month now. Answer to the first question I usually get, 42.9 MPG is…
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Lean & Six Sigma Traps to Avoid
Article Link Thanks to Ron for sending this article my way. Check out his excellent blog post on the difference between being fast and “playing fast,” tying the football idea to manufacturing (although I’m hoping my Wildcats can finally beat…
Job Opportunity with the "Dell Lean Model"
Lean opportunities coming to Central Texas I’ve been critical of folks who lump Dell into the “lean” world, since Dell hasn’t really done much according to the Toyota model (previous posts on Dell). Dell developed its own model, the Dell…
Not such a "Lean" Plant Tour
Since I’ve been working exclusively in healthcare for almost two years, I haven’t been in too many factories lately. I was excited to get an invitation from the local Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) chapter to tour a local factory.…
TX Paper Accuses Mulally of Insulting Salespeople
Star-Telegram.com | 04/06/2007 | America’s Great Automotive Stuntmen Local car columnist Ed Wallace seems like a friendly curmudgeon. This week, he writes about Ford’s CEO Allan Mulally and his adventures at Village Ford (back in Dearborn). Wallace rightfully takes on…
L.A.M.E.: Thinking Lean = "Zero Inventories"
When inventory is not waste – The Manufacturer.com It’s unfortunate that one of the early (1983) popular books about lean (or “just in time,” as was the fashion of the day) was titled “Zero Inventories.” Many people who didn’t read…
Challenges to "Respect for People"?
UAW, Toyota workers to talk We often talk about Toyota and “respect for people” as one of their main pillars. I’m sure most of us paint a pretty idealistic picture of Toyota when we talk to others: Safety and Quality…
My Bitchin’, Toyota
With apologies to the band the Dead Milkmen and their song “Bitchin’ Camaro.” Note the comma in my title, though. It’s ironic that my first-ever customer experience with Toyota would have some hiccups along the way. About a month ago,…
Toyota’s Top Suppliers
Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc. :: Toyota Honors Top Suppliers For 2006 Toyota Way Principle #11: Respect your extended network of partners and suppleirs by challenging them and helping them improve. I’m sure Toyota won’t be dumping…
Our Lean Horoscope
I’m not a horoscope guy, but my client team found these in the paper yesterday and we all had a good dorky lean chuckle about how these different horoscopes applied to lean! Click on each photo for a larger, more…
What You’re Searching For
I routinely scan the list of keywords that people use in the course of finding the Lean Blog. It’s sometimes interesting (I think) to share some of those here. The most popular current terms aren’t surprising: lean manufacturing, leanblog, lean…
Dell, Wall St., and Toyota
Goldman upgrades Dell on turnaround hopes Here’s another contrast between Toyota and Dell, particularly striking in context of my recent podcast with Norman Bodek: Dell shares rallied nearly 3 percent Monday after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to “buy” from…