Tag Manufacturing

Manufacturing Leadership, Lean Systems, and Continuous Improvement

Manufacturing is where many Lean ideas were first developed—but lasting results never come from tools alone. This archive explores manufacturing through the lens of leadership, safety, culture, and systems thinking, drawing lessons from real plants, executives, and frontline experiences that still matter today.

From Toyota and NUMMI to modern aerospace, appliance, and industrial operations, these posts show how manufacturing excellence depends on respect for people, learning from problems, and designing systems that make the right work easier.

Lean Factory Design Part 3

I’ve been posting a few comments on factory design (Part 1 and Part 2). Here a final, but important, comment on what people do wrong as they design a new factory, or re-layout an existing one. 5. The Design Process…

Lean Factory Design Part 2

I’ve been posting a few comments on factory design. See Part 1 here. Here are a few more comments on what people do wrong as they design a new factory, or re-layout an existing one. 3. Secondary Flows We place…

Lean Factory Design Part 1

I did some of my long-ago masters thesis work on factory design (you can read a rather dated article on the topic here). I’ve had the opportunity to design factory layouts ranging from a $1B investment down to a company…

NUMMI opens new training facility at plant

Milpitas Post – Local I saw the plant on Friday, it was pretty cool. Some excerpts from my visit notes are below, I should be posting the whole thing soon: Before entering the Gemba, you walk past a “Simulated Work…

Touring NUMMI on Friday

I’m getting a chance to tour the NUMMI plant in Fremont CA, the joint venture between Toyota and General Motors. I’m very excited about it and will post some thoughts over the weekend. Anybody already been there and have perspectives…

Move pays off for aircraft parts manufacturer

Star-Telegram.com : Another lean case study, this time from a small company in Texas: “Employees manufacturing the same products are clustered together in work groups, with their supplies close at hand. Moving one work group of four people saved an…

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