Monthly Archives: July 2006

Lean Efforts at a University

Posted on July 31, 2006 by John Hunter

Bringing Lean To the Office [the broken link was removed] A team of college students used lean to streamline processes in their university’s admissions office. The students were able to reduce a process took two to three weeks to about one day. More lean thinking articles.

Posted in Lean thinking, Management Articles

Curious Cat Articles

Posted on July 29, 2006 by John Hunter

We have added several articles to Curious Cat Articles. Recent articles added include several by Katie Gatto: Antibiotic Resistance and You, Cost of Health Care, To go or not to go, when is a virtual internship right for you? and 30 Year Old Intern. Other articles include: Manage what you can’t measure by John Hunter and Invest in New Management Methods by William G. Hunter.

Posted in curiouscat.com, Management

La-Z-Boy Lean

Posted on July 28, 2006 by John Hunter

Richard K. — More about the Dayton plant Nice example of the process of transitioning to lean manufacturing. Two years ago La-Z-Boy embarked on its lean journey, moving from batch and queue to cellular manufacturing. The Dayton (TN) plant is about 25% of the way. … Then we want to do everything we can to sustain the progress. That’s why we’re training the supervisors with the simulation. The TPM (total productive maintenance) teach is another way to sustain. It gives … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Manufacturing

What Is Muda?

Posted on July 27, 2006 by John Hunter

What Is Muda? [the broken link was removed] by Norman Bodek Excellent article on lean thinking, management improvement and eliminating waste. Setup time and machine downtime are wastes and should be eliminated. I remember visiting a washing machine plant in Japan operated by Panasonic, where there was no separate maintenance department. The company taught operators in the plant to fix their own machines. And since Shingo’s great breakthroughs on setup reduction, changeovers are often done in seconds, not in hours. … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Investing Update

Posted on July 27, 2006 by John Hunter

The recent performance of some of the long term stock picks has not been good. Several continue to have pretty good results so far, including: Google, Toyota, Templeton Emerging Market Fund, Petro China. Several have had sharp declines recently including: Dell, Intel, Yahoo and Amazon. Is it time to sell any of these stocks? I don’t think so. I am a bit less confident about Dell and Intel than I was a year ago but I still think holding the … Continue reading →

Posted in Investing

Lean Thinking in Printing

Posted on July 26, 2006 by John Hunter

How Going Lean Made Kell Better [the broken link was removed] by Kevin Cooper Lean is a total enterprise strategy. Lean thinking is not constrained to only manufacturing but a business strategy that involves the entire company. Many lean tools are implemented on a small scale to get momentum rolling, but your thinking about change should embrace the entire business model. Well put. Over the past few months, I’ve attended industry conferences in Scottsdale, Orlando, Richmond and Chicago. Of note, … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles | Tagged

Another Quota Failure Example

Posted on July 24, 2006 by John Hunter

Innocent People Placed On ‘Watch List’ To Meet Quota You could be on a secret government database or watch list for simply taking a picture on an airplane. Some federal air marshals say they’re reporting your actions to meet a quota, even though some top officials deny it. The air marshals, whose identities are being concealed, told 7NEWS that they’re required to submit at least one report a month. If they don’t, there’s no raise, no bonus, no awards and … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

VA Medical Care

Posted on July 23, 2006 by John Hunter

The Best Medical Care In The U.S. [the broken link was removed] studies show that 3% to 8% of the nation’s prescriptions are filled erroneously, the VA’s prescription accuracy rate is greater than 99.997%, a level most hospitals only dream about. This data certainly should make most hospitals interested in learning what is going on. And for the past six years the VA has outranked private-sector hospitals on patient satisfaction in an annual consumer survey conducted by the National Quality … Continue reading →

Posted in Health care, Management, Public Sector | Tagged ,

Univ Michigan Hospital Adopts Toyota Methods

Posted on July 22, 2006 by John Hunter

U-M hospital takes page from Toyota [the broken link was removed] by Sharon Terlep. This continues the trend (trend rather than fad because I like that it is happening :-)) of hospitals adopting lean management methods. In health care, the one-at-a-time approach could mean taking a patient’s call, pulling the patient’s records, scheduling a visit and performing the exam that day, rather than creating a backlog of appointments or letting people crowd a waiting room. That way, if something goes … Continue reading →

Posted in Health care, Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Motivation

Posted on July 21, 2006 by John Hunter

From the Deming Electronic Network: Incentives [the broken link was removed]: I don’t think motivation deserves to be discarded to the archives of “Arbitrary Goals.” I have to pose this, though: was Deming explicit on best ways to handle motivation? To me the problem is in the belief of needing to motivate workers (that is theory x thinking). I think it is much more accurate to say managers need to focus on eliminating de-motivation. See page 125 of New Economics … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Army Lean Six Sigma

Posted on July 21, 2006 by John Hunter

Lean Six Sigma eases fiscal constraint challenges [the broken link was removed] by Beth Reece, Army News Service: During fiscal 2005, the Army Material Command saw $110 million in savings and cost avoidance by implementing Lean Six Sigma practices. By removing waste and better controlling output, for example, Letterkenny Army Depot, Pa., reduced costs by $11.9 million in Patriot air defense missile system recapitalization. And Pine Bluff Arsenal, Ark., reduced repair cycle time by 90 percent and increased its production … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management Articles, Public Sector, Six sigma | Tagged , , ,

Lean Master Class with Jeffrey Liker (London)

Posted on July 20, 2006 by John Hunter

I have very few details on this opportunity. All I know is what this Deming Electronic Network message [the broken link was removed] says. 24-hour Lean Master Class with Jeffrey Liker [the broken link was removed] Start: October 10, 2006 5 PM End: October 11, 2006 5 PM London, United Kingdom Rubicon Associates and The Deming Forum are delighted to present a Master Class with Jeffrey Liker. Prof. Liker is a world expert on the culture and methods behind the … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking

Lean Management Case Study

Posted on July 20, 2006 by John Hunter

Learning the Rules…Playing to Win [the broken link was removed] (pdf) Lean concepts are taught through discussion and hands-on discovery, not lectures.” A popular part of the experience involves various simulation exercises including the beer game, which teaches that poorly organized systems will defeat the best of people, and the airplane simulation exercise, where student groups work together to build model airplanes. On the first try at this simulation, typically one airplane is completed in the allotted time. At the … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Process improvement, Quality tools, Systems thinking | Tagged | 1 Comment

Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Kentucky

Posted on July 19, 2006 by John Hunter

Photos from my visit to the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Kentucky. The design of the spaces (living and working) and tools was beautiful and, in fact, very much reminiscent of lean thinking ideas like 5s. On this trip, I also visited the Abbey of Gethsemani (where Thomas Merton was a monk) and Louisville.

Posted in curiouscat.com, Travel photos | Tagged , | 1 Comment

The Birth of the Kaizen Blitz

Posted on July 19, 2006 by John Hunter

The Birth of the Kaizen Blitz [the broken link was removed] What happens when productivity improves to the point where fewer people are needed? Bodek says a layoff is a mistake. He says that Toyota, rather than eliminating the poorest performers, takes the best performers from a cell and gives them something more creative to do. It’s the human side of lean that provides the payoff.

Posted in Management Articles, Quality tools | Tagged

Lean Podcast – Bodek

Posted on July 18, 2006 by John Hunter

The lean blog has created their first podcast (they plan to make this a monthly feature) focused on Kaizen. I recommend it and look forward to more. They take after the good interviews they have posted in the past, including: Interview with Lean Guru Norman Bodek and Q&A with Jim Womack. I also liked that Norman Bodek talked about the way Kaizen can help employees enjoy work (“joy in work”). Work is not likely to be all fun all the … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Respect, webcast | 1 Comment