December 2007 | Page 2 of 2

Reader Question: Project Handoffs

By Ron Pereira - December 12th, 2007

A reader of the blog recently sent me the following question. Ron, I have a question. Here at my “office” we’ve been doing LSS for about two years now. After a successful Green/Black belt project completion we “

Are Suggestion “Boxes” the Best Way to Go?

By Ron Pereira - December 11th, 2007

A recent post by my friend Jon Miller got me thinking about suggestion boxes. For those unaware many companies ask their employees to submit improvement ideas into a box. Management then looks at the ideas and in some cases acts on the

Be Like Tony – Smile More!

By Ron Pereira - December 10th, 2007

OK, I admit it. I have jumped on the Dallas Cowboy’s bandwagon. For those who don’t follow American football the Dallas Cowboys are having their best season ever. They have won 12 games and only lost 1. Their one loss was to a team

Toyota’s Suggestion System: 56 Years and Still Going Strong

By Jon Miller - December 9th, 2007

In 1951 Toyota launched its Creative Idea Suggestion System. It was largely a copy of suggestion systems that were in place in U.S. companies at the time, namely the Ford Motor Company. Toyota made some notable innovations to it over t

Lean Journey Advice from an Optimistic Hungarian Scientist

By Jon Miller - December 5th, 2007

I spent last week in Hungary on consulting assignment. Several times I heard from the locals, “We Hungarians are a pessimistic people” but they are making slow but steady progress with Lean nonetheless. I was also introduce

Continuous Improvement Begins with You!

By Ron Pereira - December 5th, 2007

One of the things that drives me batty is how hard some people make continuous improvement. Some think you have to go to 2 or 4 weeks of training to make something better. Some think if you don’t have a green or black belt you are no

No Standards No Kaizen

By Ron Pereira - December 3rd, 2007

I don’t know the exact quote and I am 38,000 feet in the air (I am flying home from London) so I can’t look it up… but Taiichi Ohno once said something like, “Without standards there can be no kaizen.” What does this mean? We

Direct Instruction, Standardized Work and Kaizen

By Jon Miller - December 2nd, 2007

I learned about something called Direct Instruction in chapter seven of Super Crunchers by Ian Ayres. This book is a light and entertaining read on statistics and evidence-based decisions in marketing, education, healthcare and governm

Month: December 2007