As I’m traveling back from Sweden today, I think I’ll be catching up on the web reaction to Toyota’s major quality problems and recalls. I am not a Toyota insider and I don’t claim to know what happened or what…
Saturday’s Wall Street Journal had an article (“11 Minutes of Action“) with analysis that said something my wife noticed a long time ago – there’s a lot of standing around during an NFL football game (or any football game, for…
I don’t mean to kick Fritz Henderson while he’s down, after he resigned as CEO of Government Motors this week. He resigned on Tuesday and I didn’t even learn about it until Thursday, as I was under a proverbial rock,…
Some days, it seems the WSJ is a treasure trove of tangentially Lean-related articles. Similar to “blog carnivals,” this is sort of a WSJ carnival for 11 Some of the themes include real “value” versus the perception of it, leadership…
To Outfox the Chicken Tax, Ford Strips Its Own Vans – WSJ.com If people and organizations are good at anything, it’s gaming a system or finding workarounds. From a recent WSJ article comes a tale of how Ford works around…
From Lehman’s Wreckage, New Lives – WSJ.com: Disgraced Lehman CEO Dick Fuld says in this WSJ piece: “‘I spent too much time out of the office with clients and trusted other people to manage the risk,’ he told employees of…
This is an old story, from May, that I’ve meant to write about for a while. Peter Orszag, the Director of the Office of Management Budget wrote a piece in the WSJ about healthcare. He wrote: The good news is…
Yesterday’s WSJ front page headline caught my eye, as a frequent Starbucks customer and obvious Lean zealot: Latest Starbucks Buzzword: ‘Lean’ Japanese Techniques The headline is full bodied and complex brew that gives us a lot to chew on before…
Companies Strive Harder to Please Customers – WSJ.com Lean is a customer-focused business and organizational strategy. Many companies, unfortunately, use a downturn as an excuse to cut costs, a move that often hurts quality or customer service. Traditional companies might…
Toyota Posts Big Loss, Signals More to Come – WSJ.com I saw this article on Saturday and it reminded me to go ahead and blog about a few other articles I’ve seen about Japanese CEOs lately. The big news about…
Clarity Is Missing Link in Supply Chain – WSJ.com Ah, here we go, it’s time for the annual Just-In-Time-bashing article from the Wall Street Journal. Some past “the WSJ doesn’t get it” posts include: This WSJ Article (as do Many…
Health-Care Providers Pledge to Try to Curb Costs – WSJ.com Industry reps offer $2 trillion in health savings You’ve likely seen headlines today about a meeting at the White House (ah, more meetings!) where the health care industry has agreed…
