Month: April 2006

14 Articles

Gemba Keiei Chapter 18: Supermarket System

By Jon Miller - April 7th, 2006

Taiichi Ohno starts out the chapter not quite having left the themes of his last two chapters behind. He describes how the jidoka idea that came from the Toyota textile business led to one operator running 20 or 30 machines. This think

employees working together

Reflections on Standard Work

By Jon Miller - April 6th, 2006

Many companies lack documented standards and procedures, including Standard Work. As a cornerstone of the Toyota Production System, Standard Work is distinct from standardization. It is represented on a Standard Work Sheet, capturing l

What is Lean Government?

By Jon Miller - April 4th, 2006

As Lean manufacturing and “Lean fill-in-the-blank” take root in mainstream business consciousness I am noticing more mention of “lean government” by politicians in sound bytes as well as press releases and articles. I’m afrai

Gemba Keiei Chapter 17: The Goal – Improve Productivity Ten-Fold

By Jon Miller - April 2nd, 2006

Taiichi Ohno recounts when he first learned in 1937 that the American worker was 9 times more productive than the Japanese worker. Taiichi Ohno heard this from a Mitsubishi Electric factory manager who had recently returned from a tour

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