Category Archives: Management Articles

“2007 has been a difficult year for Toyota”

Posted on November 5, 2007 by John Hunter

I find the quote “2007 has been a difficult year for Toyota” found in The Dings and Dents of Toyota a bit amusing. Toyota has had some problems as the article notes like product recalls and losing a handful of … Continue reading →

Bringing Lean Principles to Service Industries

Posted on October 27, 2007 by John Hunter

Bringing ‘Lean’ Principles to Service Industries by Julia Hanna “One of the important lessons we’ve seen on the ground is how Wipro approached the launch of this lean initiative,” Staats says. “They didn’t come out with big banners and say, … Continue reading →

Posted in India, IT, Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Software Development | Comments Off

Strategic Deployment: How To Think Like Toyota

Posted on October 24, 2007 by John Hunter

Strategic Deployment: How To Think Like Toyota: Hoshin kanri is fundamental to Toyota’s success today, says Dennis, currently an instructor at the Lean Enterprise Institute. He says Toyota’s ability to grasp the situation, identify two or three obstacles, develop meaningful … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Management Articles, Manufacturing, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Comments Off

How Curiosity Empowers Toyota

Posted on October 20, 2007 by John Hunter

How Curiosity Empowers Toyota [the broken link was removed] by Keith McFarland: As I read Magee’s book one idea kept surfacing in my mind. Throughout its history, Toyota appears to have put an emphasis on an important but oft-overlooked characteristic: … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Creativity, Management Articles, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Comments Off

Danaher Expands Lean Thinking One Acquisition at a Time

Posted on September 24, 2007 by John Hunter

Sybron Focuses on Operations Nearly 18 months into becoming part of Danaher Corp., life is different at Sybron Dental Specialties Inc. “Sybron was really a sales and marketing focused organization … and operations (were) part of supporting that,” said Don … Continue reading →

Posted in Investing, Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Manufacturing | Comments Off

New Articles on Toyota Management

Posted on July 8, 2007 by John Hunter

Harvard Business Review has a new article on Toyota that both the Elegant Solutions blog (by Matthew E. May author of Elegant Solutions: Toyota’s Formula for Mastering Innovation – via: lean blog) and Got Boondoggle, have raved about. Amazing HBR … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Manufacturing, Toyota Production System (TPS) | 2 Comments

Innovation Thinking with Christensen

Posted on June 16, 2007 by John Hunter

In my opinion Clayton Christensen offers truly insightful ideas on innovation and management. He presents the rare management advice that is not only good but also new – an incredibly rare combination. The current issue of Business Week includes an … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Innovation, Management, Management Articles | Tagged Creativity, Customer focus, customer service, Deming, Innovation | 3 Comments

Lean Progress at Label Printing Companies

Posted on June 6, 2007 by John Hunter

Continuous Improvement [the broken link was removed], an article from the Label and Narrow Web trade magazine (“for the narrow web segment of converting and printing”), is an article with some nice anecdotes of successfully applying lean thinking. “The dollar … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Quality tools | Tagged lean manufacturing, Lean thinking, Quality tools | Comments Off

Six Sigma at Cummins

Posted on May 11, 2007 by John Hunter

Six Sigma winning supply-chain converts [the broken link was removed] “More and more of our decisions are made after data is collected and analysis done. It’s less of a gut feel and more data-based.” On any given day, Cummins has … Continue reading →

Posted in Management Articles, Six sigma | Tagged Six sigma | 1 Comment

Lean is Not Mean

Posted on April 13, 2007 by John Hunter

Lean and Not Mean: Simple Management Most Effective [the broken link was removed]: The “pull” rather than “push” point of view first pioneered by the Japanese car manufacturers means that, in lean, everything is seen from the customer’s point of … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles | Tagged lean manufacturing | Comments Off