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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Lean lessons for the recession
Transforming a manufacturing business into a lean enterprise during boom times is a fun and exciting experience. Lean generates growth, new customers, market penetration … all good things. In today’s world, one might ask, “How do I use lean now?” The answer is much the same as in
Win with TWI or lose without it!
What does TWI (Training Within Industry) have to do with the current economic issues? Well, it can have a very positive impact for firms struggling with the current business conditions. Whether times are prosperous or not, any business can benefit from: improving output per employee, resolving people
Standard work: The basis for continuous improvement
If you were to ask an operator or even some leaders what standard work meant to them, you may get responses such as “standard operating procedures”, “work Instructions” or “check sheets”
The objective is to eliminate surprises
Surprises have their place, but they are not welcome in a manufacturing operation. “One of the goals for manufacturing in our organization has to be to eliminate surprises,” a CFO of a U.S. manufacturing company told me recently. “We don’t seem to be able to prevent ugly surprises
The U.S. should focus on lean before bailouts!
How many factories have you walked into and thought, “Wow, these guys could use some lean manufacturing processes in order to improve their services and reduce costs?” How many times have you had a supplier that produced a good product but had cost problems, quality issues or service issues? Before
