Tag Archives: Japan

Inside Honda’s Brain

Posted on March 7, 2008 by John Hunter

Inside Honda’s brain by Alex Taylor III why is Honda playing with robots? Or, for that matter, airplanes? Honda is building a factory in North Carolina to manufacture the Hondajet, a sporty twin-engine runabout that carries six passengers. Or solar … Continue reading →

Posted in Innovation, Management, Science | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Toyota Presses On

Posted on February 24, 2008 by John Hunter

At Toyota, a Global Giant Reaches for Agility With plants in 27 countries, more new factories under construction and workers speaking languages that include Russian and Turkish, Toyota’s top executives are trying a difficult balancing act – replicating the company’s … Continue reading →

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Measuring the Health of Nations

Posted on January 8, 2008 by John Hunter

Measuring the Health of Nations: Updating an Earlier Analysis In a Commonwealth Fund-supported study comparing preventable deaths in 19 industrialized countries, researchers found that the United States placed last. While the other nations improved dramatically between the two study periods … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Health care, UK | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Workplace Management by Taiichi Ohno

Posted on August 8, 2007 by John Hunter

Workplace Management by Taiichi Ohno is an excellent management book. Taiichi Ohno is known as the father of the Toyota Production System (TPS), also called lean manufacturing. He dictated the text to the Japan Management Association (in a series of … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Systems thinking, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Deming in Japan

Posted on October 26, 2006 by John Hunter

Great article by John Dowd [the broken link was removed], How the Japanese learned to compete: This is a key lesson because with attention to quality, the company begins a journey on a “virtuous circle” of simultaneously improving quality and … Continue reading →

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Japan Kaikaku Experience

Posted on September 14, 2006 by John Hunter

Mike Wroblewski is blogging a great series of posts on his Japan Kaikaku Experience, including Toyota Motor Kyushu: An interesting point is that the assembly line had a goal of only 97% uptime. They did not want 100%. It was … Continue reading →

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

Manufacturing and the Economy

Posted on October 30, 2005 by John Hunter

In Global Market, Iowa Manufacturers Fight for Survival: The conventional wisdom has been that expanded trade would result in the United States losing low-pay, low-skilled manufacturing jobs, said David Swenson, an economic scientist at Iowa State University. But “a lot … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Economics, Management, Manufacturing, Popular, quote | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

2004 Deming Prize Awardees

Posted on October 17, 2004 by John Hunter

2004 Deming Prize announcement – JUSE (Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers) This year again provided impressive showings by India and Thailand: of the 6 awards 3 went to Indian Companies and 3 went to companies in Thailand. And this … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, India, Management | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments