How many “If-Then” steps do your team members have to deal with in the course of their routine work? Every one of those branch points is a decision. It is a point where the team member must memorize decision criteria and the correct choice(s). Each “If-Then” in the process flow potentially doubles the number of [...]
One of the problems facing all of us – from pundits to practitioners alike – is “too much information.” We look at a complex state, like the way Toyota operates, try do describe it in great detail, break it down, build models, and say “OK, make it look like that.” So one of the most [...]
The teacher hasn’t taught. This article, titled “Why China is Not Ready for Lean Manufacturing” presents an account of trying to teach “lean manufacturing” in a Chinese factory. The experience is summed up in a couple of key paragraphs: The team arrived in Dongguan and went to work giving an overview class on Lean techniques. [...]
Fellow blogger Mark Grabon recently posted “ 10 Things I Wish Lean Practitioners Wouldn’t Say in 2010” on his leanblog.org. I like it enough that my thoughts won’t fit in an appropriate comment on his blog, so I’ll write them here. Go back and read his post first, though, or you won’t make sense of [...]
I am in the process of going through a lot of old files and filling up recycle bins. Most of this stuff was collected back in first half of the 1990′s when the world wide web was just gaining critical mass, and a half day on Alta Vista, or the brand new search engine, Google, [...]
Many pundits out there think the economy has hit bottom. If the last couple of cycles are any indication, when things start picking up again, it is going to happen fast. As people scramble to retain or gain market share they are going to want more and want it now. And, if the last couple [...]
“Sustaining the gains” is a frequent topic of discussion in the continuous improvement world. Often the discussion degenerates into a rant about “management commitment.” But in the real world, people generally don’t sabotage improvements on purpose. (Though I have seen it happen, but only once.) The mechanism is far more subtle. Before we get into [...]
John Shook’s latest column on lean.org is titled “Was NUMMI a Success?” He adds some interesting thought to the mix of the ongoing post-mortem on GM and NUMMI. John argues (successfully, I think) that Toyota’s objectives for NUMMI were to learn how to take their system outside of the safe cocoon of Toyota City in [...]
Although it caters to the I.T. community, Tech Republic sometimes publishes pieces could have that have a wider application. Here are two of them. In Five ways of thinking that can fell I.T. leaders, author Ilya Bogorad lists some limiting beliefs that can result in the I.T. folks being marginalized in the company. She says: [...]
The Lean Enterprise Institute has recently published Kaizen Express, an overview of the classic characteristics of “lean manufacturing” and, by implication, the Toyota Production System. As I set out to review the book, I found myself heading in two directions. One is the content of the book itself. Over the years, there have been a [...]