Green Bay Press-Gazette – Tufco growing operations while keeping safety in focus: Another story from a small company in Wisconsin: “”It is easy to downsize. Growth is difficult,” LeCalsey said. “There are so many draw-offs of profitability in growth.” The…
JS Online: Editorial: A new way of thinking: Wisconsin is mentioned frequently here on the Lean Blog, with many small and mid-sized companies, in particular, getting great benefits from Lean (such as this case). Now, the Milwaukee newspaper is promoting…
By Dan Markovitz Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal ran an article explaining that employees are more likely to embrace changes when they’re fully informed of the rationale behind those changes. What?!?!?!? You mean that performance relates to worker involvement?!?!? Shocking!!! Foremost…
Tecumseh To Close Wisconsin Plant; 320 Employees To Lose Jobs This is a disappointing article after we normally read such good lean news from the state of Wisconsin . Lean isn’t mentioned one way or another in the case of…
Metal expands when it’s hot Here’s a story from a small company that’s grown from $3m to $10m in revenue, in part due to Lean methods, but also due to apparent notions of “respect” for employees and customers. There are…
JS Online:Going lean brings long-term payoffs Here is a column written by John Torinus, the CEO of a Wisconsin company. They are still early into their lean journey, but it sounds like they might be on the right path —…
JS Online:Toyota’s relationship with vendors is an important link in its success Here is a really nice column written by the CEO of a Harley Davidson supplier who sings the praises of Toyota’s model of supply chain cooperation. This is…
So here’s a palate cleanser after talking about GM and the failed “lean” efforts that led to a strike at Conn-Selmer (see below). Here are two positive stories that prove lean doesn’t lean to unhappy workers and strikes. One is…
Neosho Daily News For a while there, Wisconsin was the hotbed of lean articles. This week, it’s Missouri, and both articles are in a small town newspaper, the Neosho Daily News. First, it was La-Z-Boy, now it’s K&S Wire. Who…
Wisconsin State Journal: There are many good stories coming out of Wisconsin lately, many of them through the work of the local MEP office. “WMEP provided training for Henry and his employees to learn lean manufacturing techniques, understand why the…
wisbusiness Here are a few case studies of smaller firms using lean for growth. This work was done with the Wisconsin MEP program, part of the national network of state and federally funded lean consulting groups. I like how the…
