It is fall, and with fall comes the annual spate of postings on various discussion boards by advanced degree students working on papers and dissertations about “lean.” In these postings, most of them are using some kind of survey instrument, and many of them are multiple choice. The latest one I have asks questions around [...]
Jim left a great post on The Whiteboard way too long ago. His problems seem to sum up to these statements: Every valve is hand made one by one in batches through several processes. …about a 10% turnover rate…Consequently we are always training new people…the supervisor needs to make sure the worker understands the job [...]
As I mentioned a long time ago, Art Smalley’s web site, http://artoflean.com, is an excellent resource for learning. His thinking is cutting edge – he has kept up in the field. I am mentioning it here because he has a couple of really good resources available. Learning From Toyota is a presentation that challenges some [...]
Jim Collins book “ Good to Great” has been a best selling business book for several years. But I am not so sure everyone knows about Jim Collins web site. It as on-line mini-lectures, and much more material that reinforces the concepts outlined in the book. As for how the concepts in the book relate [...]
Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die In Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath have addressed head-on one of the biggest problems with implementing change in people’s thinking and behavior — crafting the concept in a way that makes it compelling.. “sticky” in their words. The book is an extension of the concept described [...]
Today I came across an article called Lean Dilemma:Choose System Principles or Management Accounting Controls, Not Both by H. Thomas Johnson. It is, or it should be a thought-provoking read, especially for a CEO or other senior manager. The author also wrote “Profit Beyond Measure” which I have not read, but based on this article, [...]
Art Smalley has a fantastic web site called Art of Lean. I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for “where to begin.” Pay special attention to the e-learning piece on “Basic Stability.” This is where the money is, folks. Most of the waste (probably almost all of the waste) in your operation today [...]
(Links updated Feb 24, 2010) Robert Johnston, now at the University of Melbourne holding the John Skarkey Chair of Information Systems and Organisation at the UCD School of Business in Ireland, did his PhD work at Monash University in Australia. His dissertation, “ The Problem With Planning” presents a thought provoking thesis. – Early robotics [...]
The Essence of Just-In-Time This is a working paper by Steven Spear of Harvard Business School. Spear’s PhD work was summarized in a landmark and well-circulated Harvard Business Review article titled “Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System.” I will leave it to the reader’s Google savvy to turn up the DNA article for [...]
TOYOTA: Company > Vision/Phillosophy Where better to learn about the Toyota Production System than Toyota? Their web site has always been a good source of basic learning. And like all things TPS, it is improved on a regular basis.