There has been an uptick in chatter about “lean certifications” in various forums lately. For anyone considering getting some kind of certification, I’d like to pose some things to think about, especially before you pay a lot of money to someone to “certify you.”
There is no standard definition of what “lean” is. Anyone claiming to [...]
On the backside of this site, I get information about things like the search terms that brought people here. One caught my eye today.. “lean refutation.”
Since this site comes up as the 121st item in the Google search, I think I am safe to conclude that the person intended “lean manufacturing” to be the topic. [...]
Get to the root cause by “Asking Why?” five times.
We have all heard it, read it. Our sensei’s have pounded it into us. It is a cliché, obviously, since getting to the root cause of a problem is (most of the time) a touch more complicated than just repeatedly asking “Why?”
Isn’t it?
Maybe not. Maybe [...]
How can some companies not only survive, but thrive when operating in “high cost labor” areas, while others are struggling even as they are busy chasing the lowest possible costs?
I would like to suggest that one key difference is the attitude toward people. On the one hand is the “people as cost” model. This model [...]
I have been in, or encountered, a number of organizations which had (or were working on) ISO-900x quality registrations. While I am fully aware of the intent of the ISO requirements, in the cases I have seen, the effect seems to fall well short of the goal.
On the surface, the types of processes mandated by [...]
“Stop the line if there is a problem” is a common mantra of lean manufacturing. But it is harder than first imagined to actually implement.
The management mindset that “production must continue, no matter what” is usually the first obstacle. But even when that is overcome, I have seen two independent cases where peer social pressure [...]
And how will you know you have accomplished it?
This article on
Tech Republic is about defense against a hacker strategy called “Social Engineering” wherein the hacker uses a ruse to gain someone’s trust. The goal (for the hacker) is to leverage human nature and get information or access.
So what does this have to do [...]