Category Archives: Management Articles

Lean Manufacturing Success

Posted on April 4, 2006 by John Hunter

Oshkosh Truck Driven to Succeed [the broken link was removed] by Arlen Boardman: Wuest said this reduced the order-to-delivery time from 12 to 16 weeks to seven days. It made better use of manufacturing space and reduced inventory-holding costs. He said it does many more things, like create an orderly work area, so tools are where they’re supposed to be, and parts are made when needed, one at a time. “The goal is to turn an order into cash as … Continue reading →

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

Indian Deming Prize Winner Expanding

Posted on March 27, 2006 by John Hunter

Lucas TVS on Global and Local Expansion Mode A delegation of top officials from leading Japanese industries — mostly comprising Toyota group and its suppliers — had also visited the Lucas TVS’ Chennai plant. The delegation is part of the central Japan Quality Control Association, an organisation promoting quality control in cooperation of the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE). The purpose of the visit was to introduce the delegation to the best practices amongst the member companies and … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, India, Management Articles, Manufacturing

Fear Remains a Toyota Motivator

Posted on March 23, 2006 by John Hunter

First, don’t let the title fool you, this is not an indication Toyota is going against Deming’s obligation of management to “Drive out fear and build trust so that everyone can work effectively”. Deming was talking about driving out the fear management creates for employees intentionally (forced ranking…) and un-intentionally (creating a climate where people are more fearful of pointing out problems than just ignoring them…). See: Deming and Toyota. This article is talking about Toyota’s never ending quest to … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Psychology, Toyota Production System (TPS) | 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

Customer Focus

Posted on March 15, 2006 by John Hunter

Winning With Service [the broken link was removed] by John Teresko: “From our viewpoint, machines are increasingly more difficult to differentiate for most applications,” admits Harry C. Moser, president, Agie Charmilles Corp., Lincolnshire, Ill. “There are many good competitors, and while we think our products are the best, for a lot of applications it is getting increasingly hard to prove, and therefore we have chosen to [also] differentiate via service. Service can be a great differentiator, if you can do … Continue reading →

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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

The Power of Purpose

Posted on March 3, 2006 by John Hunter

The Power of Purpose by Rebecca A. Morgan: Constancy of purpose means that quality decisions are not situational. End of month quality is the same as beginning of month. It means that the long term benefit of the organization is not sacrificed to hit quarterly targets. It means having your eye on the competition, whether it is in your industry or coming from elsewhere, with plans to stay ahead. Constancy of purpose doesn’t require the threat of a customer leaving … Continue reading →

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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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Theory in Practice

Posted on February 28, 2006 by John Hunter

Theory Meets Reality In The Heartland [the broken link was removed] by Bill Waddell: An old boss of mine was fond of saying, “There are few things in life more tragic than to see your beautiful theories murdered by a gang of brutal facts,” usually when I approached him with a hare brained idea about turning one of our manufacturing systems inside out. Those who only think about theories don’t accomplish much. And those that don’t have theories don’t either. … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management Articles | 2 Comments

Manufacturing’s Influential Thinkers

Posted on February 26, 2006 by John Hunter

Manufacturing’s Influential Thinkers and Doers [the broken link was removed] by John S. McClenahen This article includes many of those I feel have contributed to the improvement of management over the last 35 years including: W. Edwards Deming, Taiichi Ohno, Shigeo Shingo, Gary Hamel and Eliyahu M. Goldratt. However, “the best manufacturing thinkers of the last several decades” are Taiichi Ohno and Shigeo Shingo, contends Mercer’s Slywotzky. Ohno was a Toyota Motor Co. vice president and Shingo a consultant. In … Continue reading →

Posted in Management Articles, Manufacturing, Toyota Production System (TPS)

Deming’s 14 Obligations of Management

Posted on February 25, 2006 by John Hunter

Deming and his 14 Points [the broken link was removed] with comments from the Random Thoughts from a CTO blog. Curious Cat’s Deming on Management Deming’s 14 Points on the Curious Cat site 2 minute webcast of Deming (and Robert Reich) on constancy of purpose [the broken link was removed] Constancy of Purpose definition

Posted in Deming, IT, Management, Management Articles | Tagged

Quality Customer Focus

Posted on February 21, 2006 by John Hunter

Delivering Two Kinds of Quality [the broken link was removed] by Keith McFarland, Business Week: What do the Japanese take for granted when it comes to quality? They take for granted that things should work as they are supposed to, and they even see an elegance to things working properly — whether it’s cars, subway schedules, traditional flower arranging, or the famous tea ceremony. Japanese manufacturers were so obsessed with taken-for-granted quality that they created a constant stream of innovations … Continue reading →

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Six Sigma and the Mobile Workforce

Posted on February 20, 2006 by John Hunter

Six Sigma and the Mobile Workforce [the broken link was removed] by Lynda Finn and Sue Reynard: This type of data collection also helps process owners or managers spot systemic problems that appear across processes. For example, a process owner reviewing all field agent reports may detect problems appearing in more than one location. Now, a fix made in one location can be incorporated into MTA based systems so all agents will benefit immediately. This type of systemic leveraging of … Continue reading →

Posted in Management Articles, Six sigma | Tagged

The Art of Work

Posted on February 20, 2006 by John Hunter

The Art of Work [the broken link was removed] by Ann Marsh: These companies are now using Csikszentmihalyi’s ideas to learn how they can get the best out of their workers or create more compelling connections with their customers. Without flow, there’s no creativity, says Csikszentmihalyi, and in today’s innovation-centric world, creativity is a requirement, not a frill. Excellent books by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, 1991. People enter a flow state when they … Continue reading →

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Funding Invention Vs. Managing Innovation

Posted on February 19, 2006 by John Hunter

Funding Invention Vs. Managing Innovation [the broken link was removed] by John Hagel and John Seely Brown But if we shift our attention from invention to innovation, we begin to see a much broader horizon. Innovation — the ability to create and capture economic value from invention — is what really drives both the economic prosperity of nations and the shareholder value of corporations. Innovation isn’t just confined to commercialization of new products. It can also build upon creative new … Continue reading →

Posted in Innovation, Management Articles | Tagged

Performance Appraisal Problems

Posted on February 15, 2006 by John Hunter

The Struggle To Measure Performance [the broken link was removed], Business Week: One company that recently decided to dump forced rankings altogether is Chemtura (CEM), a $3 billion specialty chemicals company formed by the July merger of Crompton in Middlebury, Conn., and Great Lakes Chemical in Indianapolis. “The system forced me to turn people who were excellent performers into people who were getting mediocre ratings,” says Eric Wisnefsky, Chemtura’s vice-president for corporate finance. “That demotivates them, and they’d follow up … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Management Articles, Performance Appraisal, Psychology | Tagged , , | 3 Comments