By Norman Bodek, PCS Press Note: This originally appeared recently on the NWLean email list. This is re-printed with Norman’s permission. Consider it a preview of an upcoming LeanBlog Podcast. I believe that Toyota has always wanted to make great…
Ford Adopts Focus Time – Detroit News By Andy Wagner: I have blogged before on the inefficiency of multi-tasking and the virtues of more single-piece flow in the engineering environment. Judging by this article, it looks like somebody at Ford…
Seth’s Blog: “It’s always like this” Seth Godin has an example of chronic waste and poor planning at New York’s Javits Convention Center. He, with some colleagues, had to sit on the floor in the food court to eat because…
We had a similar post/discussion before about software for Value Stream Mapping. Now, I’d like to ask/survey the blog audience about software for work measurement or time studies. The category of software I’m talking about includes these: UMT Plus, from…
Toyota Motor Corp.: Information from Answers.com Left: Banner that reads “Good Thinking, Good Products” (Toyota, circa early 1950’s, source: Toyota) Here’s a fairly complete seeming Toyota company history, including a few interesting tidbits: Although its profits declined substantially during the…
Mock Assembly Lines Work Out Glitches: Financial News – Yahoo! Finance Nissan has struggled with quality (particularly in their Mississippi plant), so they are taking some dramatic steps to improve their handoff and collaboration between design and production with a…
By Mark Edmondson, Lean Affilliates Lean Blog readers – I need your input. I’m looking for the best performing manufacturing companies who use MRP to signal delivery from their suppliers. In other words, who are the top performing manufacturing companies…
JS Online: Editorial: A new way of thinking: Wisconsin is mentioned frequently here on the Lean Blog, with many small and mid-sized companies, in particular, getting great benefits from Lean (such as this case). Now, the Milwaukee newspaper is promoting…
Two Buck Chuck still making waves – Yahoo! News Wine making is still a very non-level process… those darn grapes only ripen once a year! That’s not what this is about. Anyway, one item jumped out in this article about…
By Dan Markovitz Last week the Wall Street Journal interviewed George David, the CEO of United Technologies. Though the conversation didn’t address his views on lean, he decries all forms of waste: You can’t walk through life with a trained…
In Bid for Better Care, Surgery With a Warranty – New York Times This outstanding NY Times article isn’t about “Lean” per se (they don’t call it out by name), but you can definitely see elements of Lean Thinking abound.…
Here’s a follow up to my earlier post on 5S not being about neatness (or for neatness’ sake). A reader submitted this anonymous comment that’s worth highlighting: Our plant has started a 5S program that is very counter productive. Tools…
