Here’s a fascinating article: “How Toyota brought its famed manufacturing method to India.” The piece starts with a story about a classic Toyota management practice — “Genchi Genbutsu, or on-site inspection, which is at the core of the Toyota Production…
I’m on my way home from Japan as this post gets published. I will probably take the week off from blogging for the Thanksgiving holiday and I’ll reflect on the amazing trip and the learning… resuming posts about the trip…
While the hurdles to systemic Lean healthcare transformation are high (see the payment system challenges discussed in John Toussaint’s new book), I am generally optimistic that we can significantly improve healthcare. I am, however, very cynical about attempts to apply…
Here are links to some varied articles I’ve read recently that might be of interest on a number of Lean related topics: NFL Draft – Player Names on Jerseys (Lean Blitz) – Chad Walters shares how the NFL got player…
As people first learn about Lean, they often ask questions like “what tools or methods should we use first?” These tools include things like 5S or varied forms of rapid improvement events. As I have heard Jim Womack say, tools…
I met Newt Gingrich at the Ontario Hospital Association conference in late 2009, as I blogged about here: “Meeting Newt Gingrich, a Lean Champion.” Yesterday morning, I was told that Newt had given an endorsement of the use of Lean…
On Friday, there was yet another Wall Street Journal article about Lean (fixating as they always do on the “Just In Time” component). The article titled “For Lean Factories, No Buffer” yet again takes an outdated 1980s view that Lean…
TL;DR — GM vs. Toyota After the Japan Earthquake General Motors (GM) Toyota Bottom line:This wasn’t a failure of JIT or Lean. It was a leadership choice. Toyota showed that real Lean is about how you treat people when work…
Those of you who know my background know that I spent the first 10 years of my career working in various manufacturing sectors (including GM, Dell, and Honeywell). I moved into healthcare in 2005, part of the wave of people…
Here’s some weekend fun leading into the holiday season… I received a marketing email today from Starbucks that included a phrase that would jump out at any Lean thinker. Who knows how broadly the Starbucks Lean education efforts have gotten…
I’ll start the week with another post about my tour of the TMMTX (Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas) plant in San Antonio. Today, I’ll write about the visitor center – other than having Toyota vehicles on display, what does the company…
The Wall Street Journal, sadly, has a long track record of not understanding Lean, as I’ve written about many times on my blog. There’s a major flare-up at least once a year, as listed below: 2011: 2010: 2009:…
