Tag: Ephlin

About the Ephlin Files at LeanBlog.org

Don Ephlin (1925–2000), UAW vice president and visionary labor leader, championed respect, trust, and shared learning long before “Lean” became a buzzword. Drawing from the Don Ephlin Papers and lessons from Japan, NUMMI, and Saturn, this collection explores how respect for people and learning from mistakes still drive lasting improvement.

Before “Just Culture,” There Was NUMMI: Learning Instead of Blaming

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TL;DR: NUMMI proved in the 1980s what healthcare is still learning today: you can't punish your way to safety. Real improvement comes from mutual...

Long-Term Thinking: What NUMMI Understood and GM Struggled to Practice

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TL;DR: GM said it believed in long-term thinking. NUMMI actually practiced it. A 1987 GM executive summary admitted that short-term financial pressure drove decisions...

Mutual Trust and Respect: What Really Made NUMMI Work

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TL;DR: NUMMI's success was not driven by Lean tools alone, but by leadership behaviors that treated people as partners in quality and improvement. When you...

What Ford and the UAW Saw in Japan in 1981 —...

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In 1981, Ford Motor Company and UAW leaders traveled to Japan to study Toyota, Nissan, and Mazda -- and they came home with very...

You Can’t Punish Your Way to Pride: Deming, Toyota, and Learning...

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Fear Drives Compliance -- Respect Builds Pride, Learning, and Improvement TL;DR: Don Ephlin once wrote, "You can't punish your way to pride." That insight still...

Inside the 1987 NUMMI Management Practices Executive Summary: Why Leadership Mattered...

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TL;DR: In 1987, GM accurately documented why NUMMI worked--and it wasn't tools, techniques, or discipline. This internal report reveals a management system built on...

What Ford and the UAW Really Learned from Japan: Listening, Respect,...

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The Real Lesson from Japan Wasn't Tools -- It Was Trust and Listening TL;DR: When a group of Ford and UAW leaders traveled to Japan...

Lessons Ford & the UAW Learned in Japan in 1981 Still...

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I continue sharing documents from the Don Ephlin library archive. What did Ford and the UAW learn when they visited Japan in 1981? Many of the things that made Japanese industry successful are the same things that make organizations successful with Lean today, including in healthcare.

Part 2: More from the Original 1984 NUMMI Team Member Handbook...

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Here's Part 2 of a post about the original NUMMI Team Member Handbook from 1984 (see Part 1 here). This, and other documents I'll be...

Highlights from the Original 1984 NUMMI Team Member Handbook (Part 1)

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I recently wrote about my exploration of the collected papers of the late Don Ephlin, a UAW senior leader and a professor of mine at...

What Old GM and NUMMI Documents Reveal About Lean, Kaizen, and...

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TL;DR: Archival GM and NUMMI documents reveal how deeply Toyota embedded kaizen, problem-solving, and respect for people into daily work--principles that contrasted sharply with...
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