CIO Magazine Article Hat tip to Curious Cat for finding this and blogging about it first. I couldn’t resist chiming in. The author brings up the old Deming philosophy approach that you can’t really motivate people, you can only demotivate…
I’ve fallen behind in my blogging the past few days, but I’ll be back on track. I saw a number of news stories that did catch my eye, non-manufacturing stories about systems (or lack thereof) and blame. What do the…
At Ford, the ‘Outsider’ Is Optimistic – WSJ.com There’s an interview with Ford CEO Alan Mulally today, we’ve featured him before on the blog (click the “Ford” link at the bottom of the post for more on the company). The…
Lean Insider – Toyota Shifting Production to Lower Labor Costs? It Could Happen The Lean Insider blog poses an interesting question…. is it keeping with the “respect for people” principle of the Toyota Production System if Toyota wants to move…
Worker productivity weaker than first thought | Reuters.com I heard this phase listening to Marketplace on the way home, I’ve heard it many times in the economic reports, but it struck me today…. “worker productivity.” I know I read too…
SI.com – Writers – The Bonus: Bobby Valentine’s Super Terrific Happy Hour As a lifelong baseball fan (especially as a kid), I found the above article interesting when I saw it yesterday. It’s about former Rangers and Mets manager Bobby…
NPR : Reasons for GM Slide Go Beyond Work Force Honestly, I’d expect more from liberal NPR and their headline. You’d expect NPR to be the friend of the UAW “working man” (or woman), but I don’t appreciate how their…
Toyota: A Carmaker Wired to Win: Dan Markovitz beat me to the punch, but I also wanted to comment on some things in the article: The article says: “Visit any Toyota plant in Japan, and it’s easy to grin at…
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…
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…
Why Toyota Is Afraid Of Being Number One In this Business Week piece about Toyota’s fear of a backlash against them, with their continued success, there was this tidbit I found interesting: “That same year [as NUMMI opened], a Ron…
GM Got Gamed (Or, How to Fudge Your Production Numbers to Keep the Boss Happy) TL;DR: At a GM engine plant, fear-based leadership pushed supervisors to falsify production data to avoid punishment. The numbers looked good, but real problems stayed…