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…
Some of you might have read my “ChangeThis” manifesto, “How Toyota Can Save Your Life… At The Hospital.” I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from lean professionals, healthcare professionals (including an MD), and lean healthcare professionals. Thanks for that,…
In the past, I’ve referenced a story I had heard about a GM plant in 1980’s where the “completed” vehicles went to one of two areas: “minor repair” or “major repair”, the implications being that the factory relied on inspection…
Investor’s Business Daily: He Pointed Firms To Quality For those of you not familiar with W. Edwards Deming, here is a nice overview article from a newspaper. Dr. Deming passed away well over a decade ago, but it’s nice to…
In this 2007 interview, Jim Womack reflects on The Machine That Changed the World and how its lessons on Lean and Toyota’s system are still misunderstood. Episode #19 of the Lean Blog Podcast brings the return of Jim Womack. Jim…
For some context, here are my complaints about UPS ads from earlier today and from last year. Thanks to the “create your own whiteboard” feature on the UPS website, I created this Lean Message. Check it out: Click this link…
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…
A few of you may know that a couple weeks ago I did a webcast for Industry Week. For those of you attended, thank you for the great comments. As part of it, the sponsor, Infor, asked me to answer…
From 0 to 60 to World Domination – New York Times More from Sunday’s long NY Times piece… We’re used to Jeff Liker saying good things about Toyota, but also Bill Gates? “It’s influencing just about every major company in…
Here is Episode #18 of the LeanBlog Podcast. My guest today is Eric Christiansen, the President of a translation services company, OmniLingua (more can be found here on their philosophy as a company, being a self-described “Deming Company.”) I was…
From 0 to 60 to World Domination – New York Times From yesterday’s New York Times Magazine, this is a very long, meaty article about Toyota. It’s probably worth breaking this down into multiple posts dedicated to different topics from…
Detroit Free Press Commentary Excellent commentary here from columnist Tom Walsh. He says, in part: GM and Ford butchered the lean-production system in subsequent decades and lost their zeal for rooting out waste. When Toyota and Honda and other carmakers…