Category Archives: Lean thinking

Toyota Manufactures More Itself

Posted on October 27, 2005 by John Hunter

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. … Continue reading →

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

Go Lean to Remain Competitive

Posted on October 26, 2005 by John Hunter

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 … Continue reading →

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Why Fix the Escalator?

Posted on October 25, 2005 by John Hunter

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 … Continue reading →

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

Eliminating Complexity from Work

Posted on October 20, 2005 by John Hunter

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 … Continue reading →

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Marketing in a Lean Company

Posted on October 20, 2005 by John Hunter

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, … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

What’s Holding Back Lean?

Posted on October 20, 2005 by John Hunter

What’s Holding Back Lean? [the broken link was removed] by Lauren Gibbons Paul (via Got Boondoggle – another new Lean blog): 2. A short-sighted focus on cost reduction Responding to profit imperatives, many companies are concentrating only on reducing costs … Continue reading →

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The Best Factory in the World

Posted on October 17, 2005 by John Hunter

The Best Factory in the World (site broke link so I removed it) by Norman Bodek (from his book, Kaikaku): This is a story about a time when Bodek asked Shigeo Shingo to take him to the “very best factory … Continue reading →

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Lean Manufacturing Webinar

Posted on October 15, 2005 by John Hunter

Plant Design for Lean Manufacturing – view webinar archive [I removed the broken link] This webinar archive is a series of slides with an audio track (my guess is the slides should be flipped as you listen though this didn’t … Continue reading →

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Management Improvement in Healthcare

Posted on October 9, 2005 by John Hunter

Thinking out-of-the-box Helps Alexandra Hospital Reduce Patient Waiting Time, Singapore News, via Panta Rei. Another example of lean principles being used by government: When looking for solutions to cut patients’ waiting time, Alexandra Hospital took an out-of-the-box approach and looked … Continue reading →

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

More Lean Government

Posted on October 7, 2005 by John Hunter

Lean thinking ideas are about eliminating waste. Some who believe the government should just be smaller, talk about a lean government, but that is not the same thing as a government that applies the concepts of lean thinking. Toyota is … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Public Sector | Tagged , | 1 Comment