Lean Manufacturing Archives | Page 40 of 54

10 Common Misconceptions About Lean Manufacturing

By Jon Miller - June 24th, 2007

1. Lean production = volume production. In Taiichi Ohno’s Workplace Management he suggested that the Toyota system was ideally suited for low volume production, and not as well suited for the higher volume production that Toyota

This Week in Kaizen (Wk #25, 2007)

By Jon Miller - June 22nd, 2007

This was a particularly interesting week in kaizen-related news, so here’s a roundup: One Thousand Kaizen Events and Counting… Ariens Company of Wisconsin celebrated their one thousandth kaizen event this week. That’s

Lean in Japan, Or Not

By Jon Miller - May 30th, 2007

The YouTube video titled Lean in Japan is a bit bizarre. It’s probably strange enough to most people as a window into modern Japan, but overlaid with Lean lingo it’s just weird. It’s not clear if this video is tongue-

Lean Manufacturing by the Numbers

By Jon Miller - May 17th, 2007

Lean manufacturing by the numbers: Zero inventory Zero defects Zero accidents 1 piece flow 1 point lesson 2 bin system 2 point control (AB control, full work control) 3D (dirty, dangerous, difficult) 3 don’ts of assembly 3 don’ts o

5S Challenge: Which S Is Most Difficult and Why?

By Jon Miller - May 12th, 2007

“Which of the 5S is most difficult?” I received this question during a class I was teaching recently. I’ve never been asked this before. People often say “self-discipline is the most difficult” or “s

Lean Sourcing: The Top Three

By Jon Miller - April 25th, 2007

We’re writing today as part of a score of bloggers on the topic of The Top Three issues in sourcing. Here’s is our Top Three: 3. Slow is the New Fast When faced with the hard way and the easy way, always take the hard way. This is

Theme Blogging Week: Lean Sourcing

By Jon Miller - April 24th, 2007

The Sourcing Innovation blog has organized a group of fellow bloggers in a series of posts on the topic of sourcing over the next week. Each of our 20 or so blogs will raise their Top Three issues in sourcing. What can a kaizen blog of

Is Zero Defects Possible?

By Jon Miller - April 1st, 2007

Sonu asked: “Is zero defects possible? If so, what are the steps. We are dealing with around 300 parameters each having minimum 25 to 30 parameters to be met. We find it difficult to maintain zero defect for all parameters. Any t

Why So Much Confusion About Kanban?

By Jon Miller - March 28th, 2007

I had a very interesting conversation today with a friend who is a manager spearheading a Lean effort at a local facotry. His latest focus is on connecting the metal forming operations with the assembly operations using kanban. He obse

Twelve Reasons to Tell Customers About Your Lean Manufacturing Efforts

By Jon Miller - March 24th, 2007

Here is a follow up to reason #3 from of the post Here are 4.5 Signs that Your Lean May be L.A.M.E. from earlier this week. I could think of 12 reasons to tell customers about your Lean manufacturing efforts. 1. Customer behavior is th

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