Endless Meetings Speed Up the Pace of Change on the Gemba
May 1, 2008
An article in the May 1, 2008 issue of Nikkei Business titled Endless Meetings Speed Up the Pace of Change on the Gemba (ダラダラ会議が現場のスピードアップを生む) interviewed the chairman and profiled a Japanese company called Ulvac... Read more...
Lean Strategies for Workforce Development in Manufacturing
April 28, 2008
Last week I attended a meeting of of CAMPS, the Center for Advanced Manufacturing in the Puget Sound. Like many consortia around the U.S. and in other countries, a group of manufacturers, local government, academia and service providers (such as Gemba... Read more...
Boeing Volunteers Helping Non-profits with Lean
April 24, 2008
An article in the April 18-12, 2008 issue of the Puget Sound Business Journal caught our eye. Titled Penguins will benefit from jet maker's efficiency lessons it describes the efforts of Boeing employees as lean trainers who have helped Seattle's Woodland... Read more...
You Can’t Steal What is Shared Freely
April 22, 2008
Whoever got people started using the phrase "steal shamelessly" in regards to lean ideas and practices should be ashamed. I am quietly offended when people say this to me because it shows a certain lack of respect for the act of teaching. I am sure that... Read more...
Built in Quality Means Having Your Cake But Not Eating It
April 20, 2008
There was an interesting bit of news from the BBC about a Honda factory in Swindon, England. Apparently the management there have placed restrictions on the sorts of cakes, fruit and chocolates the workers can eat in their break rooms. There is a tone... Read more...
Guest Post: Takt Time Competition
April 17, 2008
By: Ron Pereira, LSS Academy Jon has blogged about takt time many times before. Most recently he offered a free Excel based takt time calculator. The tricky part about calculating takt time is normally associated with what to use for the daily demand... Read more...
Henry Ford Learned from Sears & Roebuck?
April 16, 2008
I am reading a fascinating book called The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge. It traces the origin and development of the joint-stock company through the modern corporation and its impact on the... Read more...
A Lean Enterprise Transformation is Like a Marathon
April 14, 2008
A lean enterprise transformation is like a marathon. Success depends on daily conditioning. It's unlike a marathon in that it's not a race with a goal at the end of 26 miles. Perhaps it's more accurate to say being a lean organization is like being a... Read more...
How Many Times Do You Pull the Andon Cord Each Day?
April 9, 2008
A reader commented recently on the article about the ten reasons one piece flow will not work saying "The answer to one and two is "watch production stop!?" If this is your plan to make/save money and work as a team, I want no part of it." This is a... Read more...
Another Way of Learning to See
April 8, 2008
What do you do when you just can't take people to the gemba as part of your lean training? For example if you are conducting training in a hotel, a university class room or a faraway executive suite, how do you build direct observation into the training?... Read more...
