A USA Today article offered a small but telling example of how Toyota applies root cause problem solving and kaizen in everyday work. Even in times of financial pressure–or when business is going well–this kind of employee-driven improvement shows what…
A Garden party – Nowadays, the games are just part of the show While we’re on the topic of basketball (thanks to Jamie’s post last Thursday for the NCAA playoffs), I wanted to talk about the NBA. This example might…
By Adam Zak, Adam Zak Executive Search: “Respect for people: Very few businesses start up only on the backs of the sole founder. It takes a team.” Jamie Flinchbaugh Earlier this week, Jamie blogged about the Lean Entrepreneur. With layoffs…
There is no question at this point that 2009 is the worst economy we’ve all seen since the great depression. Good people are getting laid off left and right because their employer just doesn’t have work for them. And of…
Taking the Wheel as Toyota Skids – NYTimes.com Toyota’s Cost Cutting Plan to Include Buyouts for Factory Workers Toyota famously has avoided layoffs of permanent employees since 1950 and they’ve also taken extraordinary measures to avoid them in recent downtimes.…
UAW suspends jobs bank, delays retiree fund payments – USATODAY.com So this might be the end of the infamous Jobs Bank that we’ve talked about here a lot. When I started working at GM in the mid 90’s as an…
Downturn Forces Cutbacks Big and Small – WSJ.com There’s a lot of town during any downturn about cutting costs in businesses or organizations. Often, the talk is about “cutting heads” — a cruel way of talking about firing people. Or,…
Lean gamble has paid off for United Southern Industries I hate to criticize anyone who’s been really successful with Lean. The worst thing I can say about United Southern is to ask, “What made you think Lean was such a…
1) Guardian (U.K.) Story 2) Houston Chronicle Story 3) Chicago Tribune Story Look at those articles. How amazing is this illustration of Toyota’s “respect for people” principle? You can treat people as expendable costs or an asset to train and invest…
The Idris Jala way A colleague of mine in the UK came back from a holiday in Borneo, talking about seeing the CEO of Malaysia Airlines on TV, talking about Toyota. How random is that? I can’t find the video…
GM preps for new hires after buyouts This is a particularly sad story. We often debate the proper role of layoffs and headcount reductions in the Lean community. It’s “conventional wisdom” perhaps in the Lean movement that we should not…
I’ve often done posts titled “A Lean Guy Reads the WSJ” — I would create a link to them, but I’m currently suffering a bit of an internet glitch (can anyone help?) I’m in the UK, but my hotel’s internet…
