Tag: GM
Part 2: More from the Original 1984 NUMMI Team Member Handbook...
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)
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...
Repeating the Same #Lean Mistakes Over and Over? Why?
Recently, when I posted a bit from the old 1984 NUMMI Team Member Handbook (more still to come on that), it allowed me to connect...
What Old GM and NUMMI Documents Reveal About Lean, Kaizen, and...
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...
Steve Bera, Reflections On Working at NUMMI And Lean, Part 2
Today's episode #259 is Part 2 of a discussion I started with Steve Bera in episode #256. Steve was one of the original 16 "NUMMI...
Steve Bera on NUMMI: Leadership Lessons From Toyota and the Birth...
I'm really excited to have Steve Bera as my guest for episode #256 of the podcast. I read about him as he was featured...
GM Spent $90 Billion on Automation — Toyota’s Advantage Was Management
TL;DR: In the 1980s and '90s, GM spent roughly $90 billion trying to automate its way to competitiveness. Toyota took a different path--focusing on...
Doctors Get Upset With Being Pushed, Bad Leadership, Clumsy Incentives; Try...
A few weeks back, a number of you sent me this article from the New York Times:
"Doctors Unionize to Resist the Medical Machine"
The article...
More Notes on Dr. Deming & “If Japan Can, Why Can’t...
Hopefully you've already seen the famed 1980 NBC documentary "If Japan Can, Why Can't We?" that featured Dr. W. Edwards Deming. I posted a link to the video and some notes on Part 1 of the broadcast. Today, I'd like to blog about Part 3 of the program...
Lean Equipment and a Lean Layout Isn’t Enough For Success
Going through some old files, I found an article that I wrote back in late 2005. I wrote it for somebody within our J&J Lean Healthcare circles, trying to help draw parallels to the idea that a hospital lab couldn’t just copy a “Lean layout” without also changing the way they work. I never published it
This 1946 GM Video Promoting Time & Motion Study is Dated...
For today’s Throwback Thursday, I somehow stumbled across this video on YouTube… it’s a video from 1946 that was produced by General Motors, their industrial engineering staff, the General Motors Institute (now Kettering University), and the University of Iowa.
Throwback Thursday: “This American Life” on NUMMI Lessons, “Labor Notes” Still...
TL;DR: A re-aired episode of This American Life on NUMMI highlights enduring lessons about leadership, learning, and Lean. While critics like Labor Notes frame...
