October 2005 | Page 2 of 2

Tough Love for Delphi Leadership

By Jon Miller - October 19th, 2005

Dr. James Womack is not the only one saddened to see a corporation like Delphi who championed Lean so well struggle so mightily. I read Dr. Womack’s article on the LEI site about Delphi, hoping for a lesson learned. I was disappo

Lean Applied to Food Service

By Jon Miller - October 18th, 2005

I recently had lunch at Babe’s Chicken Dinner House in Roanoke, Texas. It was a surprising place to find Lean principles at work. They have a streamlined product offering with two items on the menu, fried chicken and chicken frie

Small Companies Playing With Big Company Rules

By Jon Miller - October 17th, 2005

This is something I’ve noticed with a few of the sites I’ve been visiting lately. They are all part of a huge global, well-respected company and yet the Lean implementation is not as robust as we would like to see it. A lot

First, it’s about People. Second…

By Jon Miller - October 13th, 2005

There’s a very good article about Lean manufacturing implementation in a sewing shop titled Becoming a Lean Manufacturer on Kathleen Fasanella’s Fashion-Incubator blog. We don’t do much Lean manufacturing consulting i

Gemba Keiei Chapter 9: Reduced Inventory, Increased WIP

By Jon Miller - October 12th, 2005

“We reduced inventory” the manager of one company told Ohno, hoping for praise. This was raw material inventory so Ohno asked “Won’t the lack of raw materials cause problems for production?” “Not at

Robots, Rabbits and Kaizen

By Jon Miller - October 10th, 2005

There’s an interesting article in eWeek titled Little Things Mean a Lot. Kaizen has gone mainstream when an IT magazine uses it to make the connection between the robotic vehicle winning the DARPA Grand Challenge 2005 desert race

What I Learned from a Marxist about Lean Manufacturing

By Jon Miller - October 5th, 2005

While on a recent business trip to New York City I met with an old friend of mine who does human rights work. He told me a story of how he persuaded policy makers to take a position on issues of human rights by issuing statements that

Governor Vilsack Brings Lean Government to Iowa

By Jon Miller - October 3rd, 2005

In a TPM Cafe blog entry titled Making Government Work, Governor Tom Vilsack of Iowa talks about how he is bringing Lean government using kaizen and other tools. Just a sample from this Lean government blog entry: “We combined fo

Month: October 2005