Listen My guest for episode #209 is George Friesen, Business Practice Leader for Lean Transformations in the Workforce Solutions Group at St. Louis Community College. In this episode, we talk about his early experiences at the GM/Toyota NUMMI plant, why candor and trust…
tl;dr: Lean is not just about speed or efficiency. Lean, properly understood, improves flow and quality at the same time–along with safety, cost, and morale. The idea that Lean “makes bad stuff faster” is a persistent Lean Six Sigma myth…
The Philadelphia Eagles are playing in an NFL playoff matchup tonight against the New Orleans Saints. I’d admired Eagles head coach Chip Kelly and his somewhat unlikely rise through the coaching ranks. He’s well known from his successful stint at…
I was able to tour the NUMMI factory in 2005, which I really enjoyed (see my series of blog posts here). NUMMI was, of course, a joint venture between Toyota and GM (as John Shook talked about recently at the…
After posting some raw notes yesterday on John Shook’s talk, I wrote a piece for the LEI’s “Lean Post” site that appears today. In the article, I took a stab at summarizing some key Lean Startup concepts for those who…
After their recent recorded conversation, it was great to see John Shook, CEO of LEI, and Eric Ries, Author of The Lean Startup together on stage at Day 2 of The Lean Startup Conference in SF. Some in the software-dominated…
The Thanksgiving weekend was a great opportunity to catch up on some reading and viewing that had accumulated in my browser and inbox. One thing I really enjoyed was a conversation (in advance of next week’s Lean Startup conference) between…
Eiji Toyoda, a key figure in the growth and expansion of Toyota and the Toyota Production System practices has passed away this week, just past his 100th birthday. His death has received fairly prominent coverage in the business press, including:…
This article appeared back in March… March of 2013… as in this year: “Windsor Chrysler workers reduce waste to be world class.” I mean, good for them, but they are just now getting to this (even if the effort started…
Recently, I stumbled across something that’s been out for about a year, a lost video of Steve Jobs being interviewed in 1995. See this CBS News story about the video or you can rent the video via (what else) Apple…
I’ve always been intrigued by entrepreneur (and billionaire) Elon Musk. He founded PayPal (which I have used for over ten years), founded SpaceX (which I would love to use, but can’t afford), and is the CEO of Tesla (not really…
TL;DR: Many “Lean Six Sigma” programs misrepresent Lean as a set of tools layered onto Six Sigma. Lean is not a toolbox–it’s a management system and culture rooted in flow, quality, and respect for people. When Lean is reduced to…
