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…
The ‘Toyota Way’ Is Translated for a New Generation of Foreign Managers – New York Times Here’s a very good article from the NY Times, a few days ago, that talks about Toyota’s relatively new process training worldwide managers in…
Visteon to build local plant Not sure if I understand my home state’s strategy here, as the governor says: “The company’s investment in Highland Park will bring good-paying jobs to the community and strengthen Michigan’s position as the global leader…
ARNnet – Dell hires Solectron CEO, forms operations group A frequent theme of mine is that Dell should not be lumped into the category of “Toyota Production System” companies even though many people (including some respected lean gurus) call Dell…
By Dan Markovitz Sometimes it’s hard to spot errors in an office, much less error-proof the workspace. With so many value streams running through each knowledge worker, and so much of the value being intangible and invisible, error-proofing is tricky.…
Tecumseh To Close Wisconsin Plant; 320 Employees To Lose Jobs This is a disappointing article after we normally read such good lean news from the state of Wisconsin . Lean isn’t mentioned one way or another in the case of…
A few weeks back, the British media was having a field day with reports of and complaints about what sounds like a horribly misguided “office lean” effort at a British government office. Read more about it. The picture below is…
Business Week I don’t think the Danaher story is such a secret to those of us in the Lean world, but Business Week has discovered them, from the article: Danaher Corp. (DHR ) is not nearly as big, famous, or…
Lean Blog: Lean Should be Better Supported by HR I got this email from a blog reader, name withheld: “I read your items about annual reviews and had to email. I work for a large global corporation that says it…
Fatal Dose: Ohio Girl is Killed By Medical Mistake Here is a sad story of a girl’s death due to a hospital pharmacy mistake. Pharmacies oftentimes just repackage and dispense “off the shelf” drugs (such as pills), but they often…
Business Report – Toyota’s gold standard status at top of quality pile takes a knock on 500 000 recalls: Here’s an article that examines if Toyota’s quality is slipping or not. This detail was interesting for some perspective on Toyota’s…
