www.kansascity.com | 09/10/2007 | To survive and thrive in these days of globalization, manufacturing companies must carve away the fat. Here’s a nice news story that describes 5S and workplace organization as more than just a neatness or cleanliness exercise.…
Flightblogger: Temporary Fasteners Causing Major Problems for 787 Program Ok, so Boeing isn’t using duct tape in their efforts to cobble together the first Dreamliner plane. But, this blog report I’ve linked to says they were using: “… over-the-counter parts…
How many trees did your iPhone bill kill? – USATODAY.com As with my petty hotel complaints, here’s another example of a company doing “too much” (the waste of overprocessing). This time it’s AT&T (I’m sorry, they like to be the…
Here’s a light hearted topic for Lean Thinkers. “Overprocessing” is one of the 8 Types of Waste that we talk about in a Lean context (it comes from Toyota and Taiichi Ohno). One way of describing overprocessing is that it…
Digital50: USAEC News and more Business News Here’s another success story from the U.S. Army’s Lean Six Sigma program, increasing production to support troops in Iraq: “When the call came in to deliver the door kits we were experiencing production…
Hospital-borne ailments face Medicare budget ax | IndyStar.com Healthcare has LONG been a piecework industry. Caregivers and facilities are paid for WHAT they do and the services they provide. Doing more work gets you paid more, much the same way…
By Dan Markovitz Last week the Wall Street Journal interviewed George David, the CEO of United Technologies. Though the conversation didn’t address his views on lean, he decries all forms of waste: You can’t walk through life with a trained…
Food Banks Go Hungry – WSJ.com ($$) This is something I blogged about in August 2005 (with a link then to Joe Ely’s blog), now the WSJ had an article yesterday. Nationwide, food banks — clearinghouses that distribute food donations…
Lean and the Environment | EPA Has anyone heard about the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency pushing Lean for environmental/conservation purposes? Interesting idea. The EPA website has a lot of basic info about Lean, their summary of Lean is: “Lean manufacturing…
Here’s a terminology question: When somebody evaluates a situation and says “such and such practice doesn’t seem very lean,” I sometimes cringe. Why? Because I don’t like Lean? No, not at all. I’d rather hear things discussed and evaluated in…
I heard a great comment on Monday from a hospital President. He said, quite passionately, I might be paraphrasing slightly: “We don’t have a shortage of nurses and other workers. What we have is a shortage of good management systems,…
Big pieces of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner arrive | Seattle Times Newspaper This is really Kevin Meyer’s issue at Evolving Excellence, but I can’t resist blogging about this myself. Boeing is often hailed as a Lean company (or at least they…
