Tag Archives: lean manufacturing

Engage in Improving the Management System

Posted on April 14, 2011 by John Hunter

To actually improve management you need to engage in continual improvement of your management systems. This requires doing the hard work of challenging complacency. The job of those improving the practice of management is not to make everyone happy and just ignore that the words about improvement are not actually carrying through to changes in behavior. Do Executives “Get It?” So many times executives spout the importance of new initiatives like wellness programs, safety programs, or improvement projects like Lean, … Continue reading →

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

Respect for People Doesn’t Mean Avoiding Any Hint of Criticism

Posted on January 14, 2011 by John Hunter

As I said in a post a few years ago on respect for people and Taiichi Ohno‘s sometimes very aggressive style: The difference between respect and disrespect is not avoiding avoiding criticism. In fact often if you respect someone you can be much more direct and critical than you can with someone you treat as though they don’t have the ability to listen to hard truths and improve. I think we often have so little respect for people we just … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Popular, Psychology, quote, Respect, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Annual Management Blog Review: Software, Manufacturing and Leadership

Posted on January 9, 2011 by John Hunter

In my contribution to the 3rd annual management blog roundup I will take a look at 3 blogs: Dennis Stevens, How to implement “Lean Thinking” in a Business and the Three Star Leadership Blog. This year 14 management bloggers contributed to highlight over 40 blogs, be sure to check out all the posts. Dennis Stevens writes a blog of the same name focused on agile software development principles with a strong focus on Dr. Deming’s ideas and lean thinking. What’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Lean thinking, Management, Quality tools, Software Development, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

3rd Annual Management Blog Review Part 1

Posted on January 2, 2011 by John Hunter

This year the management blog review has 14 management bloggers taking a look at close to 50 management blogs. Here are links to the blog roundups published so far: Jamie Flinchbaugh started things off with posts on: Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog, Lean Reflections, A Lean Journey and Beyond Lean. Jamie did a very nice job of including photos of some of the bloggers and seemed to start a nice trend for some of the other review posts. Dan Markovitz … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Building Adoption of Management Improvement Ideas in Your Organization

Posted on December 8, 2010 by John Hunter

Continuation of How to Get a New Management Strategy, Tool or Concept Adopted Target something that actually provides a good story. It often helps if there have been failures in attempts to solve a problem in the past. That makes the new success more impressive. Something that is relate-able to the audience you are trying to win over is also useful. Even if senior management cares about an issue, if the solution is so technical they are completely baffled, they … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Popular, Quality tools, Systems thinking, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

Management Improvement Carnival #117

Posted on December 1, 2010 by John Hunter

Bryan Lund is hosting the Management Improvement Carnival #117 on the Training Within Industry blog, highlights include: Mark Hamel at Gembatales warns us against the danger of serving two masters…I love the caricatures that he develops for the reader – spot on! A great take on muda, muri and mura by David Kasprzak at My Flexible Pencil. The way David applies the 3Ms to cultural behaviors is clever and thought provoking. Although seemingly “intangible” at first, the cultural wastes that … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Lean thinking, Management | Tagged ,

Lean Daily

Posted on August 25, 2010 by John Hunter

Lean Daily consolidates the latest posts from seven excellent lean blogs in one convenient, free, iPhone app. Learn more about it, see a simulator demo, and download it directly from iTunes. Mark Graban, Lean Blog, took the lead and a number of us combined efforts to provide this as a free service to our loyal readers: Ron Pereria (Lean Six Sigma Academy) Jon Miller (Gemba Panta Rei) Kevin Meyer (Evolving Excellence) Matt May (In Pursuit of Elegance) Jamie Flinchbaugh (Lean … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking | Tagged ,

The Toyota Way – Two Pillars

Posted on April 15, 2010 by John Hunter

Toyota is receiving plenty of criticism now, much of it for good reason. There is also a large amount of psychology involved. From what I have seen, the insurance companies still see better claims history (fewer and lower cost claims) against Toyota than other manufacturers. And there is another strain that seems to enjoy criticizing what has been praised. Toyota does need to improve. But that is improvement of the existing management system, not a need to radically change the … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Manufacturing, Popular, Process improvement, quote, Respect, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 18 Comments

Toyota Stops Lines – Lots of Lines

Posted on January 26, 2010 by John Hunter

The practice of stopping (either the machine automatically detecting a problem and stopping or a person stopping) the line when a problem is detected is part of Jidoka. Jidoka is also highlighting and making problems visible. Jidoka and Just in Time are the two pillars of the Toyota Production System. Today Toyota practiced Jidoka on a large scale: Toyota Halts Sales of Eight Models After Recall [the broken link was removed] Toyota Motor, still struggling to resolve a problem with … Continue reading →

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

2009 Annual Management Blog Review Part 3 of 3

Posted on January 17, 2010 by John Hunter

The 2009 annual management improvement blog carnival continues with more bloggers posting highlights from some of their favorite management blogs. Also see 2009 Annual Management Blog Review Part 1 and part 2. Mark Graban’s review took a Boston theme covering Chasing the Rabbit, Running a Hospital, Gemba Coach and John Shook’s Management Column. Highlights include: Medical Intensive Care Units go Lean: Result = Happiness What’s health care reform missing? Quality! How Do I Convince People to Practice Lean? A Trip … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival | Tagged , , ,

Lean Manufacturing Simulation (webcast)

Posted on January 6, 2010 by John Hunter

This webcast, from the MIT Open Courseware initiative, shows a simulation (with legos). And in doing so explores the advantages of lean manufacturing methods. Related: Red Bead Experiment Webcast – one-piece flow – Applied Quality Engineering Education – The Lean MBA

Posted in Education, Lean thinking, webcast | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

2009 Annual Management Blog Review Part 2

Posted on January 4, 2010 by John Hunter

The 2009 annual management improvement blog carnival continues with more bloggers posting highlights from some of their favorite management blogs (see 2009 Annual Management Blog Review Part 1). Kevin Meyer looked back through the posts from TimeBack Management, Lean Six Sigma Academy, Curious Cat Management Improvement, A Lean Journey, and Stats Made Easy and found some gems, including 7 Practical Ways to Respect People by Ron Pereira Sustainability: Ten Factors for Making Culture Change Stick by Tim McMahon Experiments for … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged , ,

Management Blog Posts From March 2006

Posted on November 27, 2009 by John Hunter

Photo of sunset in Mount Rainier National Park by John Hunter Cease Mass Inspection for Quality – “Deming point 3 is ‘Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality.’ Eliminate the need for inspection on a mass basis by building quality into the product in the first place.” Lean Management – most organizations will not seriously consider changing the current management thought process without drastic threat (bankruptcy) or numerous successful improvements that give credibility to the new management ideas… Using Design … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Deming | Tagged , ,

Lean Inventories Do Not Excuse Failing to Deliver

Posted on November 20, 2009 by John Hunter

Low inventory levels do not mean failing to have products available for customers. Now, if you manufacturing in huge batches and can’t respond to customer feedback then it might mean failure to predict customer demand does mean failure to deliver. But lean thinking has shown how to avoid this problem. People need to adopt lean manufacturing practices and gain the benefits of low inventory levels without the costs of failing to deliver what customers want. Sorry Santa, We’re Out of … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Lean thinking, Management, Manufacturing, Process improvement, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Management Webcast: Introduction to Lean Manufacturing

Posted on November 9, 2009 by John Hunter

Webcast introduction to lean manufacturing by Ron Pereira. This is a great 9 minute introduction to the topic, for those not familiar with lean thinking. It sets the context for lean thinking and provides some history on how lean manufacturing has developed. Get videos on learning about lean from the Gemba Academy. Related: Oranges, Pebbles, and Sand [the broken link has been removed] – Dr. Russell Ackoff Webcast on Systems Thinking – An Introduction to Deming’s Management Ideas by Peter … Continue reading →

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

Don’t Hide Problems in Computers

Posted on August 11, 2009 by John Hunter

Making things visible is a key to effective management. And data in computers can be easy to ignore. Don’t forget to make data visible. Paul Levy, CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston recently hosted Hideshi Yokoi, president of the Toyota Production System Support Center and wrote this blog post: Together, we visited gemba and observed several hospital processes in action, looking for ways to reduce waste and reorganize work. It was fascinating to have such experts here … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, IT, Lean thinking, Management, Quality tools, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments