This has nothing to do with lean production except at the touch point of the customer experience. Mrs. LeanThinker was looking for a replacement for her well-worn 5 quart stock pot. We were in Macy’s home department browsing. She found one she really liked, a Circulon Symmetry model, full retail $140, sale priced at $69.95. [...]
Many organizations have a centralized production planning function that would undergo a radical change in a transition to pull. I know many of you have experienced this type of organization, some have transitioned it. We have a fledgling exchange on the topic started in the discussion forum. I would like to invite more participation there [...]
What would you say if someone came to you with a proposed work plan for the day that looked something like this: Work on task A for two hours. Then stop and set it aside (incomplete). Pick up task B. Work on that for three hours. Then stop and set it aside (incomplete). Pick up [...]
Airlines have procedures to board from rear to front. They do this, they say, because it allows faster boarding. This makes intuitive sense, though I have never personally tested it. The alternative is the “all rows, all seats” call with everyone boarding in random order. With that understanding, why do airline gate agents consistently call [...]
This has nothing to do with lean thinking. I am just using my public forum here to make people aware of an issue that needs more attention. According to this story: http://www.wimp.com/copymachines/ photocopiers maintain a copy of every copy, every fax, every scan, every image on a hard drive. The images are not encrypted – [...]
What do your team members do when they complete their work cycle? – Stop and wait until the takt time expires and the next takt cycle begins? Are you sure? How do they know when the next takt cycle begins? How do they know if they have completed their work cycle early? How early is [...]
The Lean Enterprise Institute is offering 10% discounts in their book store, and is asking bloggers to pass that along. I am happy to do so. To use it, people just go to the Lean Enterprise Institute’s online Store at http://www.lean.org/Bookstore/ and enter THANKYOU09 in the discount code field at checkout. The offer is [...]
Sometimes some really interesting looking search terms bring people here. Today is was “kanban horror stories.” Do you have any to share? What went wrong? What did you do about it? What did you learn in the process?
To my friends in China – Happy New Year for the Year of the Ox.
In a few weeks, the best athletes in the world will assemble in Beijing for the 2008 Summer Olympics. Just being there means these individuals are performing at a level that the rest of us can only watch and appreciate. Each of these world-class top performers has a coach. Ironically, their coaches are not capable [...]