I’ve recently had an email exchange with a retiree who is volunteering in a non-profit hospice care facility. I’m sharing this thoughts with his permission. It sounds like there’s often nothing for the volunteers to do and the leaders aren’t…
Mark’s note: You may recognize the author of this guest post, Andrew Castle, as a previous contributor and frequent commenter on my blog. I was offered a press pass to a lean event in the UK, an invite I was…
TL;DR: Decades of outsourcing and dismissing manufacturing as “old economy” thinking have hollowed out cities like Detroit and weakened the broader U.S. economy. Manufacturing still matters — not as nostalgia or protectionism, but as a foundation for sustainable growth. Lean…
Airbus Aims to Pull Back Without Stalling – WSJ.com: This recent article about Airbus talks about facing a challenge of declining airplane orders. Airbus said Friday that it booked orders for just 16 planes in March, compared with 54 orders…
Curious at Amazon, but Not Idle – Bits Blog – NYTimes.com This piece about Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos made me think about visiting the “Gemba” (the Japanese term that means “the actual place” — the place where work is done).…
Eliminating He Said, She Said « Sharing thoughts, ideas and suggestions on hardwiring success I really like Quint Studer’s books, not just for healthcare, but as general leadership books (you can find his books on Amazon) In his most recent…
Dell Is Considering Selling Its Factories – Yahoo! News Dell Plans to Sell Factories In Effort to Cut Costs – WSJ.com As a former Dell employee (1999-2000), I was surprised and maybe a bit angry when they announced, earlier this…
Dell to close Austin plant, cutting more than 800 jobs | Statesman Business Blog I’m angry. I try not to blog when I’m angry, so I’ll try to watch my words carefully. Probably won’t succeed. This recent news hits home…
I know many of you won’t have access to this article from the latest Industrial Engineer magazine (from the Institute of Industrial Engineers) but I had to comment on it anyway. The piece, by Richard Shonberger, has the headline “Faltering…
Sharp takes a gamble on new TV plant in Mexico – USATODAY.com Good article in the USA Today today. Sorry for the redundant redundancy there. I’m reminded of an earlier post about Olevia building some TV’s in the US. I’m…
Can Michael Dell Refocus His Namesake? – New York Times The Toyota Way philosophy preaches a focus on the long term business objectives or as stated in the book (and summarized on wikipedia): “Base your management decisions on a long-term…
Part Shortages Mean Even Longer Delays First, as a refresher course, here’s my take on why Dell is not a Toyota Production System company. The article I linked to above blames “Lean” for part shortages in the laptop industry, this…
