Category Archives: Lean thinking

Lean Thinking and Management

Posted on March 20, 2006 by John Hunter

Several interesting posts have been inspired by the Kaizen Priorities post on Got Boondoggle. While it has been mentioned debating these ideas may not be valuable, I believe it can be valuable to explore the reasons behind the different views. Bill Waddel’s post, Lean Manufacturing [the broken link was removed], points to the importance of cycle time reduction (versus the priorities mentioned in the original post). I think that point is valuable. He also talks about the reasons for Six … Continue reading →

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

Cells and High Volumes

Posted on March 20, 2006 by John Hunter

Cells and High Volumes: Forget What You Think You Know [the broken link was removed] by Gary S. Vasilash: True cellular manufacturing depends on the cooperation and orchestration of all employees. The reason for this is simple: The objective to get rid of waste means that all of the people involved in the process must work in a synchronized manner. One-piece flow doesn’t allow for build-ups of inventory between processes, so people must do each step in the required manner … Continue reading →

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

Kaizen Priorities

Posted on March 16, 2006 by John Hunter

Kaizen Priorities by Mike Wroblewski: Priority 1: Kaizen your bottleneck station first – If you don’t know what is your bottleneck station, find it. There are many ways to find your bottleneck: all the inventory is piled in front of it, people downstream are waiting on it, it has the most overtime, it’s a top maintenance priority, etc. Another excellent post from Got Boondoggle.

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Getting Lean Right

Posted on March 13, 2006 by John Hunter

Getting Lean “Right”: 10 Factors to Understand Before Embarking on Your Lean Transformation by Jamie Flinchbaugh: So how is it that such a low percentage of companies that know about lean can turn it into a success? It’s not because they haven’t heard about continuous flow, or they don’t know how to do the 5S’s, or they’ve never seen a kaizen workshop. It is because the leadership, cultural, organizational and implementation challenges are bigger than most people anticipate.

Posted in Lean thinking, Management Articles, Quality tools

Boondoggle Rules

Posted on March 12, 2006 by John Hunter

Easy Lean from Got Boondoggle: The lean journey is a long, continuous process of learning, experimentation and improvement. … Most of you are smart enough not to buy into this branding of lean. However, there are some short-sighted executives that might fall for this slick shortcut to “Easy Lean.” That would be a shame. For those with limited lean enlightenment, I will provide a few short rules to get past the branding of “Easy Lean.” Lean is not easy There … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Quality tools

Lean Management Idea for Health Care

Posted on March 9, 2006 by John Hunter

The Health Factory by Stpehen Spear [the broken link was removed, I wish people would publish useful thoughts on more reliably designed web sites that care about information for the long term], New York Times opinion piece: Today, going to an American hospital seems about as safe as parachuting off a bridge. An estimated 98,000 Americans die each year as a result of medical error, and a nearly equal number succumb to infections they acquire in hospitals. Those rates are … Continue reading →

Posted in Health care, Lean thinking

NUMMI Plant Model

Posted on March 8, 2006 by John Hunter

NUMMI plant a model for ailing car industry (site broke the link so I removed it) by Tim Simmers: The historic NUMMI joint venture – the first of its kind on U.S. soil between a Japanese and an American carmaker – is something of an industry gem. Its secret to success, besides the common sense of building small cars and trucks that are in demand, has been its good labor relations and adoption of Toyota’s “lean manufacturing” techniques. Referred to … Continue reading →

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Cease Mass Inspection for Quality

Posted on March 4, 2006 by John Hunter

Comment in response to, Re-Discovering W. Edwards Deming, a partial quote from that post: Not all of the Deming approach is part of core TPS thinking. In particular, Deming advocated a statistical sampling approach to quality inspection, while Toyota focuses on 100% inspection or eliminating the need for inspection through via the concepts of Poka Yoke and Jidoka. As much as I admire Deming and his philosophy, I agree with the Toyota innovation that it is better to prevent defects … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

The Skinny on Lean

Posted on March 2, 2006 by John Hunter

The Skinny on Lean [the broken link was removed] by Peter Bradley The pursuit of perfection and obsessive attention to detail that characterize Toyota’s lean model are reflected in Menlo Worldwide’s 278,000-square-foot Brownstown facility, known as the Great Lakes Lean Logistics Center (GLLLC). Look around, and you’ll notice process maps on the wall of a room off the main warehouse. You’ll see taped outlines on the floor and walls to indicate the precise location of every cart, every tool, every … Continue reading →

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Not Lean Retailing

Posted on March 1, 2006 by John Hunter

Renovating Home Depot [the broken link was removed], Business Week It is always dangerous to make too much of a magazine article, but Home Depot seems to be moving away from lean thinking in the following examples, to me anyway. The Home Depot founders: allowed store managers immense autonomy. “Whether it was an aisle, department, or store, you were truly in charge of it,” says former store operations manager… These days every major decision and goal at Home Depot flows … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Lean thinking, Management | Tagged , ,

Executives Participating in Kaizen Events

Posted on March 1, 2006 by John Hunter

The Masco Mapmakers [the broken link was removed] by Bill Waddell Guys from Brasscraft or Morgantown Plastics might go to a Delta faucet plant for the event – and note that these are executives, not factory level folks – that spend the week working on the kaizens. Of course, the Grand Kaizens are not the only ones. Individual plants hold their own kaizens by the hundreds. The primary purpose of the Grand Kaizen is to spread the lean message throughout … Continue reading →

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

Made in the USA

Posted on February 28, 2006 by John Hunter

Is ‘Made in U.S.A.’ back in vogue? [the broken link was removed] As the need for speed in fashion retailing becomes ever more crucial to merchants, industry observers say “Made in U.S.A” is once again looking more attractive to some U.S. retailers versus importing from China. … The company used to import 70 percent of its merchandise from China and elsewhere and manufactured a smaller 30 percent of it in the U.S. Today it manufactures 60 percent locally and imports … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Manufacturing, Systems thinking | Tagged | 2 Comments

Lean Manufacturing Success

Posted on February 27, 2006 by John Hunter

K&S makes first shipment to China [the broken link was removed] by Buzz Ball The award was given for K&S Wire’s continuous improvement in manufacturing excellence and its implementation of “lean” enterprise principles into its everyday operations. It is because of these principles that Schwartz was able to make the announcement about the shipment to China. “We took the order to construct 111,000 wire frames that will hold flip-flops,” said Schwartz. “Because of our ‘lean’ principles, our price was better … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Lean thinking, Management, Manufacturing | Tagged

Lean Retailing

Posted on February 26, 2006 by John Hunter

Teaching the Big Box New Tricks [the broken link was removed, *sigh* yet another website fails basic long term thinking related to usability, while saying they are aiming to help others adopt better management practices.] Tesco in Britain has been a pioneer in lean provision for more than a decade. In the mid-1990s, as he looked at the opportunities for retailers provided by the emergence of lean logistics, Graham Booth, Tesco’s supply-chain director (now retired) had a very simple insight: … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Process improvement | 1 Comment

La-Z-Boy Lean

Posted on February 25, 2006 by John Hunter

La-Z-Boy changing production lines to compete with China [the broken link was removed]: But in an attempt to better compete with the overseas market, the Neosho plant, along with six others in its division, is transitioning to the Lean Cellular Manufacturing method. In the new concept, the chair or sofa is manufactured by a team within a cell, thus eliminating separate departments. No jobs will be lost in the transition from batch-and-queue to lean cellular. “Basically, we will have teams … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Lean thinking, Management, Manufacturing | Tagged

2006 Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing

Posted on February 23, 2006 by John Hunter

2006 Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing [the broken link was removed, I am continually amazed by organizations that do things like delete press releases, sigh, and a new waste created by poorly managing web resources] American manufacturing continues to experience turbulent times in maintaining and growing manufacturing jobs. The only business approach that has demonstrated superior achievement is Lean Enterprise Management (the Toyota Production System), the foundation of the Shingo Prize. All 14 companies to be recognized in 2006 … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Manufacturing | Tagged , | 2 Comments