Lean in Washington? It’s an idea whose time has come!
Before I start, I want to relay that this is a rough thought, a preliminary idea. I will more than likely revisit this subject after I receive some e-mails and opinions. So, I will strive to make this a quick blog, just enough to get your mind brewing a little. I was in a conversation with my lean sensei about a week ago. We were talking about an extraordinary
More Articles
Workplace lessons learned from a baseball game
As some of you know, I spend a fair amount of time working in California. It happens I was there last week and thought I would share a story from that trip. It happens that one of my friends was part of a group taking some engineering interns out for a last hurrah at an Oakland Athletics baseball game
Reduce or eliminate waste through training
Following along with my blog “Reliability is a green initiative”, I would like to talk about waste reduction by training. Waste is seen in many different forms in manufacturing, and many of these wastes can be reduced or eliminated through training. Training is one of the first costs to be
Money from honey: Africa lean project generates results
I recently wrote about my trip in August to Zambia in Africa. I was visiting with my friends John and Kendra who have been working in Zambia for the past 10 years and in Congo the previous 25 years. Their work is centered on setting up indigenous economic development to give Zambians a sustainable livelihood
Bringing the message of lean to Africa
I just returned from a trip to the country of Zambia in Africa. I was there visiting and helping some close family friends that are missionaries. John and Kendra are not typical missionaries. While they do have a very nice training center which is used for a Christian pastor school, family activities
Has there ever been a better time for Lean Six Sigma?
General Motors just stopped the Toyota NUMMI joint venture after 25 years. From all that I have heard, it was a very good experience and that GM learned a lot more from the JV than Toyota did. But, Toyota got additional capacity in the United States to (guess what?) … grow! Now is the time for
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
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
