GreenPrint’s green prince A core component of Lean thinking is the reduction or elimination of waste. Waste is sometimes defined as anything beyond the bare minimum that’s required to accomplish a task or goal. For a long time, I’ve noticed…
Hollywood Report – WSJ.com: I’m not a fan of “The O.C.” but this caught my eye in the WSJ today: “What went wrong at ‘The O.C.’? It’s impossible to pinpoint an exact reason, since TV series aren’t assembly-line products that…
London Hospital Gets Tips From Auto Racers, From Pit Stops To Operating Tables, Doctors Learn From Grand Prix Racing – CBS News Thanks to Bill Hanover for sending the above article. The WSJ also had an article about hospitals learning…
Tale of a Warehouse Shows How Chicago Weathers a Decline – WSJ.com The article linked to above is OK, about how Chicago is diversifying its economy away from manufacturing. What jumped out at me was this picture, though, also shown…
Deja Vu – WSJ.com “Early Industry Expert Soon Realized a Staff Had Its Own Efficiency” The WSJ has it wrong on manufacturing, once again. Not that I expect the Wall Street Journal to be a friend of the “working man,”…
Sticks and Stones May Break Bones, But Warsaw, Ind., Makes Replacements – WSJ.com This was the fourth and final part in the WSJ series “Still Made in the USA.” There isn’t as much to talk about from a lean perspective…
Few Hands, Many Hours – WSJ.com Sorry for the delay in getting to Part 3 in the WSJ series that I like to call, “Hey, We Still Build Stuff Here?” Here are links for parts one and two. Part 3…
Home of the Range – WSJ.com Part 2 of the WSJ series (Part 1 here) focuses on Viking, the high-end cooktop and grill manufacturer, based in Greenwood Mississippi. I’m glad that the WSJ is focusing on U.S. manufacturing, but the…
Still Built on the Homefront – WSJ.com ($$$) The Wall St. Journal surprised me — today is the start of a 4-part series about manufacturing, “Still Made in The U.S.A.” Today’s feature is Bobcat, which has 1300 employees in little…
As Morning Traffic Grows, Commuters Opt For Earlier Rush Hour – WSJ.com This WSJ article (free version here) talks about how commuters are, in many cases, choosing to leave for work earlier (or later) to beat traffic. The article bemoans…
The Prix Fixe Is In – WSJ.com: Interesting article about the fine dining industry in the WSJ last week. A few ideas reminded me of lean concepts — resourcefulness, making use of “scraps,” and doing so in a way that’s…
Managers Rate Themselves High, But Workers Prove Tough Critics – WSJ.com There are always stories about how something like 80% of employees think they are above average and that’s mocked. OK, it’s statistically possible that 80% are above average (it’s…