Category Archives: Lean thinking

Messiness is Good?

Posted on January 2, 2007 by John Hunter

Time to get organized? Not so fast [the broken link was removed], interview of David Freedman on Marketplace. Marketplace is a great show on PBS that covers economics and related matters. This interview, though, fails to inspire me. RYSSDAL: Is it expensive in a corporate sense to be neat? FREEDMAN: It’s extremely expensive. I mean let’s start off with the fact that U.S. corporations spend some $45 billion a year on management consultants. They come in and they help companies … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Quality tools | Tagged , ,

Management Improvement Carnival #2

Posted on January 1, 2007 by John Hunter

Please let me know what you think of these carnival posts. Lean Consumption at the Post Office by Mark Edmondson – “With so much of this customer facing process broken, and the salsa dance suggestion thrown in by an earnest postal worker, my mind went tilt. Yet another example of a good employee coping as well as possible with a broken process.” Toyota Questions… Everything by Kevin Meyer – “Of course Toyota is questioning kaizen, one of the core underpinnings … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Lean thinking, Management

Workplace Management by Taiichi Ohno

Posted on December 14, 2006 by John Hunter

Workplace Management [the broken link was removed] by Taiichi Ohno, translated by Jon Miller. This classic work by the founding father of the Toyota Production System returns to print in a new translation. Ohno delivers timeless lessons on how to effectively manage the gemba – actual place or work. He relates stories from across his nearly 40 years of struggle to establish the Toyota Production System as both a mindset and supporting behaviors of constant improvement. In the book’s 37 … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Lean thinking, Management | Tagged , , , ,

Management Improvement Carnival #1

Posted on December 7, 2006 by John Hunter

There have been a number of great post recently about management improvement: Amazon’s Long Public Haul by Kevin Meyer – “Amazon has now been around a while and has a loyal following. Their culture is apparently deep, at least for the most part. But that does not guarantee long-term success.” Jeff Bezos Risky Bet Isn’t New by Peter Abilla – “Guess what everybody — Bezos’ Risky Bet isn’t new. Amazon has been doing that for years, but they’re just now … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Customer focus, Innovation, Lean thinking, Management | 5 Comments

Womack on Lean in China

Posted on December 5, 2006 by John Hunter

From the Lean blog another valuable podcast: Lean in China with Jim Womack. He is not impressed with the state of lean in China yet. Lean Enterprise China [the broken link was removed] has been established to aid the adoption of the best management practices in China. Read articles by Jim Womack Related: China’s Lean Journey – Manufacturing Jobs Data: USA and China – Toyota in China: Full Speed Ahead – Global Manufacturing Data by Country

Posted in China, Economics, Lean thinking, webcast | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Toyota Production System for Sales…

Posted on December 4, 2006 by John Hunter

Corporate profile: the Toyota Production System [the broken link was removed] by Sarah Perrin: Within Toyota itself, non-production personnel support the TPS approach. “We very much value the Toyota way,” says David Betteley, managing director of Toyota Financial Services (UK) and vice president operations for Europe and Africa. “The key values of the Toyota way are teamwork, respect, challenge, kaizen and genchi genbutsu. “You produce a new product and it can be replicated by a competitor almost immediately, so you … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management Articles, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Applying Lean Tools to University Courses

Posted on November 25, 2006 by John Hunter

Take a look at an interesting series of posts on Applying Lean Tools to University Courses by Luke Van Dongen: We have discovered that creating a common experience in the classroom is absolutely essential. To accomplish this we implemented a modified production simulation exercise and in doing so, bring the opportunity to Go & See to the students. These types of simulations are quite common and are usually done with building blocks or paper airplanes. We chose paper airplanes and … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Lean thinking, Management | Tagged | 3 Comments

From Lean Tools to Lean Management

Posted on November 22, 2006 by John Hunter

From lean tools to lean management (link broken by site so I removed it) by Jim Womack: Only management by science through constant experimentation to answer questions can produce sustainable improvements in value streams. (Toyota’s A3 is a wonderful management tool for putting science to work and I’ll have more to say about it in the next few months.) Please understand: Lean tools are great. We all need to master and deploy them, and our efforts of the last 15 … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Quality tools, Systems thinking

More Lean Podcasts

Posted on November 22, 2006 by John Hunter

New from the Lean Blog: Jamie Flinchbaugh on Educating Leadership Previously: Jim Huntzinger on Lean Accounting, Norman Bodek on Toyota’s recent quality issues and lean leadership and Jamie Flinchbaugh on Lean Leadership. As expected these are well worth listening to. Related: management webcast posts – lean thinking articles and online resources – Toyota production system posts – articles by Jamie Flinchbaugh

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, webcast

The Lean MBA

Posted on November 20, 2006 by John Hunter

Kevin Meyer recaps the ideas of Improving Management Education [the broken link was removed] by M.L. Emiliani in his post – The Lean MBA. I suggest reading his post and the original article. In the Curious Cat Science and Engineering blog, The Future is Engineering points to 2 great essays on the secret of Silicon Valley. Guy Kawasaki puts it well, though in my opinion far to kind to our current MBA system (the inordinate focus on accounting does actual … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Lean thinking, Systems thinking | Tagged , | 1 Comment

European Blackout: Human Error-Not

Posted on November 18, 2006 by John Hunter

German utility E.On says major European blackout was caused by human error [the broken link was removed] Germany utility E.On AG said Wednesday that a European-wide blackout earlier this month that left millions without power was the result of human error and not any technical glitches. The Duesseldorf-based company said the power outage, which led to blackouts in parts of Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, Portugal and Spain on Nov. 4, was not caused by a lack of proper maintenance or … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Lean thinking, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools, Respect | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

TPS and Jidoka

Posted on November 15, 2006 by John Hunter

TPS & Jidoka, interview of Tomo “Tom” Harada by Art Smalley: There are two different parts to Jidoka. The first meaning is to separate man from machine. It was normal in the original parent company for a single young woman to operate many machines since they were automated. So when Mr. Ohno came to the automotive company after WWII and saw one man operating one machine tool he thought that it was strange and inefficient. He embarked upon a path … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Manufacturing, Quality tools, Toyota Production System (TPS)

China’s Lean Journey

Posted on November 5, 2006 by John Hunter

China’s Lean Journey [the broken link was removed] by Dennis J. Stamm: The lean initiative in China is still in its infancy, and not every company in China is inclined to invest in the latest technology, but the challenge from China to our manufacturing base is not likely to get any easier to meet. Modernization and Lean manufacturing are trends that will gain momentum as China meets increasing challenges from other low cost producers. Related: China’s Manufacturing Economy – Manufacturing … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking | Tagged | 1 Comment

Terex Handlers: Lean Manufacturing

Posted on October 31, 2006 by John Hunter

Here is a short article about a company implementing lean: Terex Handlers implementing lean manufacturing [the broken link was removed]. The article doesn’t really shed any new insight but it is another good example of success (which are nice) and I like the truth behind this statement: Increased efficiency hasn’t led to layoffs at the company. In fact, the company has gone from 65 to 118 employees since 2004. Lean thinking is about eliminating waste not employees. Yes, a company … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management Articles

Lean Manufacturing Web Video

Posted on October 29, 2006 by John Hunter

Continuous Improvement Video from Genie Industries [the broken link was removed], is an interesting lean manufacturing video (via the great Panta Rei blog): The video also shows examples of their moving line, andon and pull chord, visual production status boards, point of use tools, pokayoke, lineside delivery of parts by suppliers, etc. The short video gives a nice quick overview of some lean ideas with visual examples. Recommended. Related: management webcast posts – lean thinking – more on pokayoke and … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Quality tools, webcast

Management Consulting – Web Site Evidence

Posted on October 18, 2006 by John Hunter

In, How Wipro Adapted the Toyota Production System to IT Work [the broken link was removed], Jon Miller highlights several keys to adopting lean thinking: involve everyone, learn and then do, and learn together. In Wipro’s case they should also take advantage of what is available on lean IT thinking such as: Lean Software Development. As I have mentioned before a look at Wipro’s web site does not provide me much confidence in their commitment. Read their overview of IT … Continue reading →

Posted in IT, Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles | Tagged , , ,