Hello from the Global Lean Healthcare Summit in Warwickshire, England. It is amazing how truly global this movement is, as tonight I met or saw name badges of people from the US, Canada, UK, Italy, Denmark, South Africa, Germany, Netherlands,…
How H-P Reclaimed Its PC Lead Over Dell – WSJ.com Today’s WSJ article doesn’t focus on the Dell layoffs (although it does mention them, as did the Evolving Excellence blog post on the layoffs), but rather the competitive dynamics between…
Northwest Air, Out of Chapter 11, Aims to Mollify Customers, Labor – WSJ.com Mollify (v): to soften in feeling or temper, as a person; pacify; appease. I don’t understand airline management at all. Airlines, in general, seem to be one…
You have probably read the basic news story on the Chrysler buy out deal (check out the latest on the Detroit News Auto Insider page). On the way home, I heard this public radio Marketplace story about how Daimler is…
Russell Roberts on Cafe Hayek had an interesting commentary the other day about the Power of Competition, relaying a bit of the story of Billy Beane and the Oakland A’s told in the book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an…
‘Lean Production’ May Also be a Lean Toward Injuries People getting hurt would be a good indicator of Lean As Misguidedly Executed. The above link is from the American Psychology Association of all places, and they are talking about physical…
Nursing Spectrum- Career Fitness Online Here is a nice case study about the application of Lean, written by a nurse. Note for the IBM-er’s, this has nothing to do with layoffs or offshoring. This seems to be around real Lean.…
By Dan Markovitz There’s been some confusion over my recent post criticizing the Business Week article on Toyota’s “frugality.” I do not believe that Toyota is frugal (read: “cheap”). Rather, I believe that the company is simply focused on value.…
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…
Circuit City’s harsh layoffs give glimpse of a new world First off, Circuit City is not a “Lean” company. So when people ask “is Lean always good for employees?,” you can also ask “when is traditional management always good for…
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…
TL;DR: Many so-called “Lean failures” aren’t really Lean at all. They’re examples of L.A.M.E.–Lean As Misguidedly Executed, where organizations misuse Lean to justify understaffing, layoffs, bureaucracy, or demeaning management practices. Real Lean, rooted in the Toyota Production System, focuses on…
