Section » Lean Manufacturing
Bring plant-floor zombies back to life; let them use their brains!
This blog will be somewhat short. I apologize, but I wanted to get a thought in this month. I hope that the content, as basic as it may be, sparks your interest enough to conduct some research on the subject. I hope that it eventually motivates organizational leaders to push for employee empowerment, succession planning and employee involvement. I have
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If at first you succeed … try, try again
Training Within Industry (TWI) is a micro version of “creative destruction”, a term used by some economists to describe a free-market capitalistic economy. Creative destruction means that new businesses, services or products enter and create the new markets, while destroying existing ones
Hunker down or crush your competition
With the current economic environment, there is always the tendency to hunker down and try to ride the storm out. But, is that the best strategy? Probably not. While there is most certainly a need to watch budgets closely - even very closely - and tighten up on extra activity, now is the time to take
Start the lean journey by planning the trip
When I have occasion to speak with people about lean (which is only every chance I get), I am often asked - where should we start? While this sounds like a very simple question, it actually requires a lot of thought. However, the simple answer is that you must first decide where you want to go before
Lean thinking … to go!
As I’ve gotten older, I have tried to curtail my consumption of fast food. I know that the fat content, calorie counts and general nutrition levels are not the healthiest available. I know that as we age, we should watch our cholesterol, our weight and make sure that we eat healthy. I also know
A comic and the economy: Lessons from Calvin’s Mom
There has been an e-mail going around with a copy of an old Calvin and Hobbs comic attached to it. In the comic, Calvin has a lemonade stand where he is trying to sell a glass of lemonade for $15. He justifies his price because of demand - his demand for monstrous profits as a shareholder, his demand
Now more than ever, your plant needs to implement 5S
One of the basic tenets of manufacturing is there is never a shortage of challenges. When times are good, the challenge is how to make more on-time deliveries with the least cost possible. In this current economic environment, the challenge is how to make on-time deliveries with the resources available.
Has anyone applied lean to government institutions … ever?
I recently had cause to visit a state government office to conduct some business. So, prior to my visit, I decided to do some legwork beforehand to see what I was in for, and to ensure that I was prepared for the visit. The Web site was simple enough and I had no problems discovering what I was looking
A new you … and a new view on organizational performance
As we begin a new year in our organizations, we are committing resources to answer the new challenges in order to bring success to the bottom line. One of the key challenges across many of our situations is employee well-being and health. In order to meet our challenges, we need to ensure our workforces
Are you wasting your customer’s time?
I had occasion to go to the doctor’s office recently. It was for a basic checkup, and since I am lean guy to my bones, I want to focus on the visit from my perspective - the customer. My appointment was for 10 a.m., and I arrived there promptly at about five minutes until 10. I signed the sign-in
If you want to be successful with standard work, read on
Many companies say that they use standard work, but actually, very few do - at least, in the manner which leverages lean fully at the operational level. Instead, most firms actually use some form of work standards or work instructions. Frequently, plants trying to implement standard work within their
