Lean Manufacturing Archives | Page 37 of 54

Guest Post: Takt Time Competition

By Jon Miller - April 16th, 2008

By: Ron Pereira, LSS Academy Jon has blogged about takt time many times before. Most recently he offered a free Excel based takt time calculator. The tricky part about calculating takt time is normally associated with what to use for t

A Lean Enterprise Transformation is Like a Marathon

By Jon Miller - April 13th, 2008

A lean enterprise transformation is like a marathon. Success depends on daily conditioning. It’s unlike a marathon in that it’s not a race with a goal at the end of 26 miles. Perhaps it’s more accurate to say being a

How Many Times Do You Pull the Andon Cord Each Day?

By Jon Miller - April 8th, 2008

A reader commented recently on the article about the ten reasons one piece flow will not work saying “The answer to one and two is “watch production stop!?” If this is your plan to make/save money and work as a team,

Fixed Position Stop System

By Jon Miller - March 12th, 2008

Brandon posted a question in the comment section of an article about hourly production control boards, asking: “I have an automotive assembly line and it contains six different stations. The vehicles are on a automated line that

Three Essential Supervisor Skills for Standard Work

By Jon Miller - February 27th, 2008

Standard work (called standardized work at Toyota) is hard but it’s so important. As one of the cornerstones of the lean system, the difference between having standard work and not having it is truly a step difference in an organ

Is Lean a Superstition?

By Jon Miller - February 18th, 2008

The Training Within Industry blog took up the debate on “Is lean a religion?” a few weeks ago. The article points out that when done right, lean is more of a philosophy that guides how you do thing and how you lead people.

What Can We Learn from Boeing's Lean Supply Chain Stumbles?

By Jon Miller - January 23rd, 2008

Not much more than a decade ago, Boeing went through a hiring binge to ramp up production, fell flat on deliveries and shed many jobs as a result. Gemba’s office is quite near Boeing’s Everett, Washington factory and the fu

Tap Your Breaks Early and Often to Keep Work Flowing

By Jon Miller - December 20th, 2007

Here’s another counterintuitive truth to Lean: the more often you stop, the more smoothly things will move along. The caveat is that these stops should be small stops, as early and as far away from the actual problem point as pos

Five Questions to Ask When You Hear "We're too busy for Lean"

By Jon Miller - November 26th, 2007

How many times have you heard “We’re too busy for Lean” from managers and professionals in your organization? How do you respond? How do you know whether they are in fact too busy? When it is true, what do you do to g

Jim Womack Interview in IndustryWeek – Nation Full fo Kaizen Consultants

By Jon Miller - November 21st, 2007

There is a very long and insightful interview with Jim Womack available at the IndustryWeek online magazine titled Thought Leaders — Lean On Me (Full Transcript). At over 7,000 words the discussion ranges from a history Womack an

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