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Author Archives: John Hunter
Toyota Manufactures More Itself
Bucking the trend, Toyota controls quality, cost by making many parts in house [the broken link was removed], AutoWeek via Lean Manufacturing Blog: On one hand, the company sees parts making as a critical piece of its overall quality-control program. Toyota argues that keeping some parts in-house actually makes it more efficient. Outsourcing parts simply to meet the changing industry norm is viewed warily by Toyota executives. “I don’t believe we can outsource our responsibility to the customer,” Seizo Okamoto
New Business Ideas Take Time
New Business Ideas Take Time [the broken link was removed] by Edward DeBono Some types of change carry more immediate benefits, such as problem-solving. The problem is disrupting a system or individuals, so solving that problem is of instant benefit. Even in cases where the benefits are not immediate, they can be predicted easily. Because of this, management thinking is too preoccupied with problem-solving. Good point. This is true for at least too reasons: short term thinking and the desire … Continue reading
Posted in Management
The Power of Teams
The Power of Teams, by Lynn Witten (broken link removed): >Train team leaders and members. It is critical to provide training and guidance to people on how to function as effective team members and leaders. In addition, problem-solving training can give teams and team leaders a structured approach to finding solutions. It can help teams overcome members’ natural defensiveness and finger-pointing. Evaluate incentive systems. Many incentive systems have been established to reward individual effort or effort from one functional area. … Continue reading
Posted in Management
Tagged teams
Lean Principles in Health Care
“Lean” principles apply to health care [the broken link was removed], by Donna Daniel: Making the shift to a lean enterprise, whether it’s in a hospital, a physician practice or a nursing home, isn’t easy. Like any culture shift, it will require commitment and time. There may be resistance, especially given the complex nature of health care. But stay the course. Lean has a successful track record in many industries so you will need to provide education, communication and reinforcement … Continue reading
Posted in Health care, Management
Tagged Health care
OpenOffice 2.0
Topic: Software – Open Source – Freeware OpenOffice 2.0, the excellent freeware office suite is now available. It is great free software that imports Microsoft formatted documents and creates the same amazingly well. Open Office runs on Apple, Linux, Microsoft and more operating systems and installs easily. One nice feature is that you can create pdf documents from any file (text, spreadsheet, presentation) with the click of one button. They also added a new database in release 2.0. I’ve used … Continue reading
Posted in Management
1 Comment
Go Lean to Remain Competitive
Go Lean to Remain Competitive [the broken link was removed]: Captains of industry should adopt Lean Production Systems, an idea {conceived} by Toyota for its car-making, to transform their plants to efficient ones, for survival in the globalisation era Sundaram Clayton Limited Brakes Division President C N Prasa. In 1998 the SCL Brakes Division won the Deming Prize and in 2002 they won the Japan Quality Medal. Sundaram-Clayton Limited [the broken link was removed], Mission: We are committed to being … Continue reading
Posted in Deming, India, Lean thinking, Management
Tagged Asia, Deming, lean manufacturing, Management, Manufacturing
Why Fix the Escalator?
Why Fix the Escalator? from the Lean manufacturing blog on a visit to the NUMMI plant: A very large permanent sign above the escalator said something like: “Sorry for inoperative escalator. It would cost $120k to repair. We feel money could be better spent on other things. Please accept our apologies.” Wow. The frugality and practicality of TPS was illustrated by that sign, our tour group thought. Rather than a knee-jerk reaction of fixing it when broken, somebody asked that … Continue reading
Lean Development
Lean Development, by Freddy Ball and Michael Ball. Great article. According to a National Center for Manufacturing Sciences report, Toyota product development projects can take half the time of US equivalents, with four times their productivity (150 product engineers utilised by Toyota per car programme versus 600 for twice as long at Chrysler). … As with implementing the Toyota production system, a more precise understanding of development practices doesn’t necessarily help to improve the efficiency of engineering projects for a … Continue reading
Posted in Management, Management Articles
Tagged Lean thinking, management
Going Beyond (or away from) Lean Thinking?
Topic: Management Improvement Continuous Improvement – Lean Alone No Longer Cutting It [the broken link was removed] by Tonya Vinas [the broken link was removed], IndustryWeek: It’s a dicey time for manufacturers that have spent the past five to 10 years on the lean journey. They and their top-level executives are finding that lean alone is not enough. Well I would agree “lean,” as it is commonly implemented, is not enough. I believe ideas from Deming that are missing from … Continue reading
Deming’s Ideas at Markey’s Audio Visual
Last week at the Deming Institute seminar: How to Create Unethical, Ineffective Organizations That Go Out of Business, Mark Miller, General Manager, Markey’s Audio Visual spoke on Markey’s experience adopting Deming’s ideas. It was a great presentation. He did a great job of explaining what it was like to work at a company focused on applying Deming’s management philosophy. I capture some of the points he talked about below. 1986 Markey’s started providing Audio Visual support to all Deming’s seminars. … Continue reading
Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Management
Tagged business, commissions, Customer focus, Deming, Management, management system, Performance Appraisal
6 Comments
Types of Pull Systems
Pull Systems Must Fit Your Production Needs [the broken link was removed]: Mixed Supermarket and Sequential Pull System The supermarket and sequential pull systems may be used together in a mixed system, also known as a C-type pull system. A mixed system may be appropriate when the 80/20 rule applies, with a small percentage of part numbers (perhaps 20%) accounting for the majority (perhaps 80%) of daily production volume. Often an analysis is performed to segment part numbers by volume … Continue reading
Posted in Management
Tagged kanban
Statistical and Scientifc Thinking Blog
Another good new blog on Statistical and Scientific Thinking [the broken link was removed] that is discusses the application of Deming’s ideas, by John Dowd. Short quotes from two posts: The predictions made on the job are usually a lot less obvious and in most cases managers may not even be aware of the fact that they are making predictions. For example, much of management time is spent reacting to events. Some problem takes place and it’s management’s job to … Continue reading
Posted in Management
Improvement at UTC
Mike Beck gave an excellent presentation at the Deming Institute conference about the United Technology Corporation management improvement system. I plan on posting more about the session. But for now, here is article that has some details on what UTC has done. The Unsung CEO [the broken link was removed], Business Week, cover story Oct, 2004: David has racked up these results despite his penchant for controversial investments that don’t directly benefit the bottom line, at least not within any … Continue reading
Posted in Deming, Management
2 Comments
2005 Deming Prize
2005 the Deming Prize Winners Announced: The Deming Application Prize (alphabetical order) Hosei Brake Industry Co., Limited(Japan) – web site Krishna Maruti Limited, Seat Division(India) Rane Engine Valves Limited(India) – web site Rane TRW Steering Systems Limited, Steering Gear Division(India) – web site Once again India has dominated the prize. From our 2004 Deming Prize post: “In recent years, Thailand and India have been the home to nearly all awardees: 6 of 7 in 2003, 2 of 2 in 2002 … Continue reading
Posted in Deming, India, Management, Manufacturing
3 Comments
Eliminating Complexity from Work
Eliminating Complexity from Work: Improving Productivity by Enhancing Quality [broken link replaced with link from the Internet Archive] by F. Timothy Fuller. National Productivity Review, Autumn, 1985. A case study of a process improvement from 1985. as much as half of the activities of about sixty people had been to set up and take down jobs, expedite, move material, count material, and do other tasks that were unnecessary in the new process. Related: productivity improvement articles and links
Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Manufacturing, Process improvement
Tagged lean manufacturing, productivity
Marketing in a Lean Company
Where Is Marketing In All of This? [the broken link was removed]: The problem with all of this is that it is based on the idea that sales and manufacturing are distinct entities, with a one way flow between them, rather than hopelessly intertwined elements of the same complicated business. … An essential element of lean manufacturing is a level loading of demand – or at least reasonably level. Toyota uses pricing to accomplish this. … It is becoming more … Continue reading
Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Systems thinking
Tagged marketing, organization as a system, sales
4 Comments