Curious at Amazon, but Not Idle – Bits Blog – NYTimes.com This piece about Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos made me think about visiting the “Gemba” (the Japanese term that means “the actual place” — the place where work is done).…
Taking the Wheel as Toyota Skids – NYTimes.com Toyota’s Cost Cutting Plan to Include Buyouts for Factory Workers Toyota famously has avoided layoffs of permanent employees since 1950 and they’ve also taken extraordinary measures to avoid them in recent downtimes.…
By Adam Zak, Adam Zak Executive Search: As a LeanThinker I am most unabashedly a free market advocate. Free trade, absolutely. Love those imported fresh Mexican tomatoes in my sandwich on a freezing January day. Open skies, no question. I…
Ga. peanut plant has history of problems – Food safety – nbc.com NY Times article There was a lot of focus in the news yesterday about this peanut contamination being an “FDA problem”, with President Obama pointing at a lack…
Baylor Rewards Freshmen Who Retake SAT – NYTimes.com Baylor Newspaper Article Show me a ranking system and I’ll show you a way to “game the system” to manipulate the apparent results. You see this with sales quotas, annual bonus plans,…
Op-Ed Contributor – G.M.’s Secret Success – NYTimes.com I agree with the basic premise of this piece that not all is rotten in GM. For example, I rather like some of their recent products — design and execution (Chevy Malibu/Saturn…
Article – NYTimes.com Marketwatch.com article Breaking news (but not entirely unexpected if you’ve been following the news in the last week): Toyota Motor, the Japanese auto giant, announced Monday that it expected the first loss in 70 years in its…
Bush Gives Emergency Loans to Automakers – NYTimes.com Detroit News Article I don’t understand this at all. What is the operational definition of “viable”? What will/can change in three months? I’m honestly asking those of you who have been following…
In Age of Impatience, Cutting PC Start Time – NYTimes.com Honestly — how many of us just sat and stared at our PC when it booted up this morning? According to the NY Times, many of us do. It is…
FT.com / Home UK / UK – Oil price forces P&G to rethink its distribution OK, I’m catching up on an old post since I saw a very similar story in the NY Times yesterday. First the FT story: There’s…
by Dan Markovitz The New York subway system has invested nearly $1 billion investment since the early 1990s — and $25 million per year in maintenance cost — in equipping stations with elevators and escalators. The results have been less-than…
One of the most fascinating trends out of there is the spread of Toyota folks into other old-line automakers or parts suppliers — Gary Convis, Jim Press, and Jim Farley, to name three. What impact can they have outside of…
