I’ve always been a huge Simpsons fan, even if the show has gotten less funny in the past few years (flame away on that topic, if you must). The beginning of the this week’s episode made me chuckle a bit.…
Firms Race To Regain Control Over Inventories – WSJ.com With the dramatically slowing global economy, it’s no surprise that companies and supply chains are getting socked with excess inventories right now. The WSJ discussion very quickly turned to software: The…
Following the pattern of our good friend Ron Pereira at the Lean Six Sigma Academy, a number of us are going “Best of 2008” posts, in coordination with John Hunter and the Curious Cat blog. Click here for John’s compilation…
Earlier leanblog.org post and comment Last week, I posted about Deming’s 14 points and I got an interesting question from a blog reader, Brian: I found # 10 confounding: “Eliminate slogans, exhortations and targets.” Slogans are sometimes used to communicate…
Chrysler matches Toyota in efficiency – Detroit News I didn’t mean for this to become “beat up on the Detroit Three” week… this comes in waves. If you don’t like these posts, my short-term focus on the auto industry will…
Episode #43 of LeanBlog Podcast is a very special one. My guest is Mike Mickleright, writer, consultant, and performer — most interesting to me is his impersonation of Dr. W. Edwards Deming. As I wrote about before, I’ve seen his…
Why do so many Lean efforts fail at the leadership level? Jeffrey Liker explains how Toyota develops managers over time–through stability, daily coaching, and deep respect for people–rather than quick rotations or promotions. Here is LeanBlog Podcast #41 with Dr.…
Jeffrey Liker explains why Lean culture is difficult to replicate and why most organizations never move beyond tools and events. Sustainable Lean requires long-term leadership commitment, stability, and deep people development–not quick fixes. Here is LeanBlog Podcast #39, once again…
So I think things are back to normal after a somewhat stressful day of wondering why my blog “broke.” Unlike some web/blog outages and problems, it wasn’t due to anything I did or tried to change. It just broke. Settings…
Roger Smith, Former G.M. Chief, Dies – New York Times Roger Smith passed away at age 82. While he was demonized by Michael Moore and he’s been criticized here for his “lights out factory” vision, Roger Smith tried many innovative…
Role of Management in a Lean Manufacturing Environment If you want to learn about the Toyota style of leading people, one of the best sources is Gary Convis. Here is a link to a column written directly by him. For…
Reading this post about a Northwest Airlines employee feeling beaten down reminded me of my time at GM, circa 1996, and a superintendent whose approach contradicted the Lean leadership we were trying to develop. While we were in the midst…
