Ford spends roughly $100,000 a year on each of its first-line production supervisors. The title on the job posting is “Process Coach” – language borrowed directly from Lean thinking. The role description talks about Sounds great, right? Online job board…
In 2007, I wrote about a BBC article that included a number I’ve never quite been able to shake. Workers at Toyota’s Georgetown, Kentucky plant were pulling the andon cord – the mechanism that lets any worker stop the line…
I recently had my car serviced and left the dealership satisfied with the work and the interaction with the service advisor. But what followed next–well, that’s where the drama began. And I wish they hadn’t dragged me into it. Part…
Thanks, as always, to Ryan McCormack for this. He always shares so much good reading, listening, and viewing here! Subscribe to get these directly from Ryan via email. News, articles, books, podcasts, and videos about how to make the workplace…
Gerald Harris spent 25 years leading lean transformations in automotive manufacturing before shifting into healthcare consulting, and his origin story starts with a Toyota supplier in crisis that went from shipping 250 door sets per shift to 2,400. In this…
Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this… there’s always so much good reading, listening, and viewing shared here by him! Insights about improvement, innovation, and leadership… Operational Excellence, Improvement, and Innovation It’s What You Do With It How important…
Lee Iacocca, the former CEO of Chrysler, passed away on July 2. Ross Perot, founder and former CEO of EDS, also passed away a week later. In reading about him recently, I learned Perot didn’t like to be called “H.…
Joining me today for Episode #330 of the podcast is Christoph Roser, a professor of production management at the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences in Germany. He has decades of experience with Lean manufacturing including time with Toyota in Japan,…
A few of you sent me this article... and you were correct to think I would be interested: "Inside Alabama's Auto Jobs Boom: Cheap Wages, Little Training, Crushed Limbs." What are the parallels and lessons for hospitals?
My guest for Episode #272 is Steve Thompson, Director of Patient Driven Supply Network initiatives for Cardinal Health, a global, integrated healthcare services and products company. He is also a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, dating back to his time spent…
Chapter 8 is written by Bob Rush, who currently works as a Lean Manufacturing Group Leader at Tesla Motors. Tesla, of course, is in the building that was the former NUMMI factory...
The world (especially the world wide web) is full of surveys. Tell us how we’re doing! Your satisfaction is important to us! We see this so often, it’s easy to become numb to it in our Yelp-ified world. It’s definitely…
