Dell Falls Short

Good post by Mark Graban: Once Again, Dell is Not TPS:

Their factories are great examples of flow, raw material comes in one side, finished product comes out the other, with minimal WIP in between.But, lean isn’t just about reducing waste. The Toyota Production System is also about “respect for people,” meaning your employees, suppliers, and customers. Dell definitely scores higher on “reducing waste” than they do on “respecting people.”

Good points.

So here you have Wall Street telling Dell that it’s bad business (in the short term) to provide good customer service. That explains a lot right there.

True, but don’t give management a free pass just because they cave in to short term thinking. Management should know better and has a responsibility to do better. It is predictable that if management fails to setup an effective management system that they will fall victim to short term thinking. Still that doesn’t mean they are not responsible for making decisions. They are the managers of the company not some analyst on Wall Street.

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