February 2010 | Page 2 of 2

Subsidiarity: A (Medieval) Lean Principle

By Ron Pereira - February 14th, 2010

Guest Post by Mark R. Hamel of Gemba Tales OK, there probably weren’t many lean practitioners in the Middle Ages, but Thomas Aquinas, the 13th century theologian, philosopher and all around brainiac did play a significant role in dev

Kaizen Goes Kaput? Not So Fast

By Jon Miller - February 13th, 2010

In recent weeks there have been many articles purporting to put the finger on the cause for Toyota’s quality troubles. Most of them are solution-jumping and not worthy of further exposure or response. I felt compelled to address

Gemba Research Office Layout Kaizen #11

By Jon Miller - February 11th, 2010

Over the past week we have been chipping away at some office kaizen at the Gemba Research office near Seattle. The major activities so far have included a layout change, some 5S and other small improvements. In the 6 years that we have

Gemba Tales: Lean stories, lessons and reflections

By Ron Pereira - February 9th, 2010

Over the last year several new lean and six sigma related blogs have appeared. I follow most of them. Some I like more than others… which is to be expected I guess. Anyhow, one of the newer blogs that has definitely caught

How to Make Time for Kaizen

By Jon Miller - February 9th, 2010

In the early stages of exploring kaizen and other formal continuous improvement systems people always ask, “Where will we find time for kaizen in addition to all of our other work?” Ideally kaizen should be something done n

5 Ways to Achieve Drew Brees Like Flow

By Ron Pereira - February 8th, 2010

As I watched the Super Bowl last night – where, I must admit, I was cheering for the Colts – I couldn’t help but marvel at how well Drew Brees was playing. To be sure, he was in the zone from the 2nd quarter through the end of th

5 Ways To Become a More Productive, Healthy, and Happy Person

By Ron Pereira - February 2nd, 2010

No matter what you do for a living one thing is certain – personal productivity matters. A lot. My wife stays home raising our 4 kids. She does her very best to be productive. I run a company, among other things. I do my very best to

We Learn Nothing from History

By Jon Miller - February 2nd, 2010

Even as Toyota mops up the mess from their sales volume-driven expansion-related quality problems, challenger Volkswagen AG “…unveiled an ambitious plan to boost annual sales to eight million vehicles in the midterm and to

Don’t Let the Door Hit You in the Ass

By Ron Pereira - February 2nd, 2010

Man, oh man. The lean and business blogosphere feels as if it’s about to explode. Ever since everyone’s “model” of how to run a business (a.k.a. Toyota) has run into serious trouble people seem to be jumping off the TPS bandw

What Lean is Not and Never Will Be

By Jon Miller - February 1st, 2010

Industrial anthropologist, best selling author and eminence grise John Shook wrote a thoughtful column on the recent debate around what lean means and where we need to go next. He concludes that lean has always been about Toyota but no

Month: February 2010