Guardian Unlimited Money | Work | So this is a problem in the UK? The U.S. has enough factors deterring kids from engineering and factory careers without TV shows making factory life look “boring, dirty and smelly”. “A survey of…
Here’s an interesting editorial commenting on the position of the US in the latest Global Competitiveness Report published by the World Economic Forum that I found particularly interesting. Industry Competitiveness: Where Do We Stand? At the very outset of the…
I was looking for some annual financial numbers for Toyota, for comparison to Ford and GM (Toyota’s annual profit is more than the “Big 3” combined). More interesting was this statement in Toyota’s most recent annual report. If you want…
Newstimeslive.com A new book is out, written by an American engineer who worked for a Toyota supplier in Japan. It’s been almost 10 years since he worked there, according to this article, that’s a long wait to get a book…
News – StatesmanJournal.com From Oregon: “Neilsen Manufacturing Inc. said Monday that it will slash its work force from 175 to 50 because of competition from Southeast Asia. The 48-year-old company is a model of lean manufacturing, a group of practices…
asahi.com：Rises in efficiency reduce factory personnel – ENGLISH: From the article: “Toyota Motor Corp., one of the nation’s most profitable and efficient manufacturers, is leading the charge to cut costs. In a speech to company managers in July, President Katsuaki…
The Globe and Mail: From the article: “It’s not that Toyota hasn’t tried to help the process. Second only to its export of cars is the export of its philosophies. In the mid-1980s, former chairman Eiji Toyoda issued a company-wide…
East Valley Tribune | Daily Arizona news for Chandler, Gilbert, Tempe, Mesa, Scottsdale It’s not often we read about manufacturing work coming back from Asia to the U.S. (my now-former home of Phoenix). ON Semiconductor named a number of factors,…
If You Can Make It Here … – New York Times: Here is a surprisingly positive article on American manufacturing, including Harley. The article points out that the U.S. is still #1 in the world in manufacturing, as a percentage…
Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Business When reading this article, I kept thinking about the trend toward bigger batches with shipping – bigger mega ships that take 4-5 days to unload at port instead of 2-3…
SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Metro — San Diego: This story is from California, but I’ve also seen it in the local news. I’ve complained in the past about big companies complaining that they can’t pass along the higher cost of…
In the article “Occupational Hazards – Keep It Lean and Safe,” the author says, in part: “In the worst-case scenario, an overzealous company may implement extreme Lean Manufacturing strategies where safety is not merely overlooked, but compromised.“ I don’t this…