The wanderings of a lean hitchhiker
The reason Andy Carlino and I named our book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Lean: Lessons from the Road is that we felt that not only was a company to go on a lean journey that never ends, but also the…
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Eric Christiansen on Being CEO of a Deming Company – LeanBlog Podcast #18
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…
Thanks for Taking the Survey!
Thanks again for trying our “5 Whys” Survey. I hope you’ll come back to the Lean Blog and our community here. If you left your email address, you will be entered in the drawing for the prizes listed below. You’ll…
Review – The Toyota Way Fieldbook
The Lean Library Here is a long overdue review of the book, The Toyota Way Fieldbook. I wrote the review following the format of The Lean Library and have also gotten the review published over there. The Fieldbook is an…
Deepening our Understanding of Lean Manufacturing and Respect for Humanity with Norman Bodek
Here is the second LeanBlog Podcast, featuring author and consultant Norman Bodek, President of PCS Press. The first one can be found here and you can visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or…
Norm Bodek on the Power of Kaizen: Unlocking Employee Creativity and Continuous Improvement – LeanBlog Podcast #1
In the first-ever Lean Blog Podcast, Mark Graban talks with Norm Bodek about quick and easy Kaizen and how it differs from large, event-based improvement efforts. Bodek explains how simple, employee-led improvements–supported by trust, experimentation, and respect for people–can make…
Is Shigeo Shingo Overrated in the History of TPS and Lean?
Unless you subscribe to Superfactory, you probably haven’t noticed a nearly raging debate on the true contributions to “lean” and the Toyota Production System by one Dr. Shigeo Shingo. Here’s a little of the storyline. It basically comes down to…
Lean Quotes: A Curated Collection of Quotes on Lean Thinking, Kaizen, and Leadership
A popular search term for people coming to the blog is “lean manufacturing quotes.” I’m not real big on using quotes and don’t have a ready collection handy, but I thought I would reach out to you, the blog readers.…
The Waste of Overproduction
by Jamie Flinchbaugh Any growth story is eventually met wth an industry wide waste of overproduction, or glut of capacity. When this happens, plants have to shutter, jobs are lost and there is tremendous upheavel and angst in dealing with…
Heroes, Fire Fighters, Toyota
San Antonio: a blueprint to lure Toyota – Triad – MSNBC.com: An article about how San Antonio and Texas lured the soon-to-open Toyota plant, with 20 years of relationship building. “‘Toyota spends a lot more time developing people,’ Hall said.…
Weak Link: Management’s Relationship with People
Inspired by an article in Workforce Performance Solutions Journal Oct 2005 and personal experience. Waves of downsizing, employer demands, job disenchantment and technologies that keep employees plugged into their jobs both day and night have taken their toll. If recent…
Does Toyota Follow Deming’s 14 Points?
When I worked at the GM Powertrain Livonia Engine Plant in the mid-1990s, the hallway display cases held posters celebrating something called “The Livonia Philosophy.” It read, in part, like this: “through trust, communication, and respect for the individual, we…
