Category Archives: Lean thinking

Lean and Kanban for Software Developers

Posted on November 15, 2008 by John Hunter

Lean and Kanban for Software Developers by Clinton Keith Time-boxing allows us to employ a very powerful aspect of Kanban. The cards in each column represent capacity for each stage of the value stream. As we see above, each stage … Continue reading →

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Idle Workers Busy at Toyota

Posted on October 12, 2008 by John Hunter

Idle Workers Busy at Toyota Instead of sending the workers home, as the Detroit makers often do, Toyota is keeping them at the plants, though. The employees spend their days in training sessions designed to sharpen their job skills and … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Manufacturing, Respect, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Guess What? Manufacturing in the USA is a Good Idea

Posted on September 20, 2008 by John Hunter

More people learning about manufacturing truths lean thinkers have known for a long time. Made (again) in America Thomasville Furniture and Exxel Outdoors, a maker of camping gear, have both said they now are making products in the U.S. that … Continue reading →

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Webcast on the Toyota Development Process

Posted on September 18, 2008 by John Hunter

Kenji Hiranabe talks about Toyota’s development process (webcast). Kenji shares a presentation he attended earlier this year by Nobuaki Katayama, a former Chief Engineer at Toyota, and the lessons he learned from him. Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Toyota Production System (TPS), webcast | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Future Directions for Agile Management

Posted on August 25, 2008 by John Hunter

Agile management (agile software development specifically) is something that makes a big difference in my work life. David Anderson consistently provides great ideas on agile management and he does so again in this 90 minute presentation on the future directions … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Innovation, IT, Lean thinking, Management, quote, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Lean IT Systems – Not ERP

Posted on August 19, 2008 by John Hunter

I am not sure, IT needs to get lean on manufacturing [broken link was removed], does the clearest job of explaining some things, but it does state some things well: …you can see how typical offshoring doesn’t work here, as … Continue reading →

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

Lean Management in Policing

Posted on August 18, 2008 by John Hunter

Justice served up Jacksonville–style is all lean [broken link was removed] by Joe Jancsurak: The Jacksonville Sheriff Office’s (JSO) Crime Reducing Initiatives Management and Enforcement Strategies (CRIMES) measures, tracks and analyzes crime-fighting statistics, such as the number of arrests and … Continue reading →

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

How to Develop Thinking People

Posted on August 6, 2008 by John Hunter

Toyota’s Top Engineer on How to Develop Thinking People [broken link was removed] Hayashi says, “Developing people requires physical endurance.” Frequent follow up is necessary, in person. It is not acceptable to give an assignment and follow up or scold … Continue reading →

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India Lean Management

Posted on August 4, 2008 by John Hunter

India’s Economic Times has an interview with James Womack, Now is the time for lean management, with an interesting quote: When I last visited India in 2002, I looked carefully at several operations of the TVS group in the Chennai … Continue reading →

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Not Exactly Lean Packaging

Posted on July 23, 2008 by John Hunter

HP shatters excessive packaging world record (17 boxes to protect 32 A4 sheets of paper) Stephen said: “Imagine our excitement as we opened it, hoping against hope that it might contain a copy of some c-class virtual connect firmware that … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Lean thinking, Management, Process improvement | Tagged , | 1 Comment