Lean Office Archives | Page 24 of 28

Credit Suisse Does Gemba Research

By Jon Miller - June 25th, 2006

An article in this month’s Fast Company magazine asks Talk to Our Customers? Are You Crazy? The approach Credit Suisse is taking to understand the problems with their products and processes is basically research by going to the g

How Toyota Uses Information Technology (IT) for Kaizen

By Jon Miller - June 21st, 2006

There is a staggering amount of good material being printed these days in the Japanese press about kaizen, the Toyota Production System and issues of manufacturing and business competitiveness. I just wish I had more time to read the m

Trying Out Herman Miller’s New Cubicle: Not for the Lean Office

By Jon Miller - June 20th, 2006

Herman Miller is credited for introducing the original cubicle. Instead of recognizing poor design and listening to the voice of customer, they have designed a better cube or according to designer Douglas Ball “an environment tha

Doing More with Less in the Lean Office

By Jon Miller - June 19th, 2006

“An increasing number of local companies are shrinking their employees’ work spaces” begins an article in the Puget Sound Business Journal titled Offices Getting Smaller. Well known firms in our neighborhood including

Sell Complacency, Buy Kaizen

By Jon Miller - June 13th, 2006

On June 12, 2006 Minyanville News & Views commentary money manager Ryan Krueger gave the advice “sell complacency, buy kaizen”. He sees the U.S. as complacent, giving evidence for the eroding dominance as the number on

Lean Thinking & Google’s 9 Notions of Innovation

By Jon Miller - June 12th, 2006

I’ve written from time to time about the relationship between kaizen, Lean process and innovation in this blog. Innovation is the hot thing at the moment as the United States struggles to cope with what appears to be the increasing i

The Lean Office & The Typewriter of the Future

By Jon Miller - May 24th, 2006

I took typing classes before it was called “keyboarding”. The first manual typewriter I used was a fascinating and alien collection of metal eyes and teeth, a beautiful piece of industrial design like this one. The march of progres

Hoshin Kanri Lesson: No Plan Goes According to Plan

By Jon Miller - May 19th, 2006

Having completed the second day of the Hoshin Kanri (Policy Management) session with LEI, I can say that I learned that no plan goes according to plan. Our instructor Pascal Dennis used this phrase several times over two days to drive

Lean Broadcasting? NHK Calls Toyota for Help with Kaizen

By Jon Miller - April 19th, 2006

Another embattled Japanese state-owned enterprise asked Toyota executives for help with kaizen yesterday. NHK (the national broadcasting corporation) has requested that Toyota send an official to join the board of directors of NHK. Toy

Lean Food Service: Cut Overproduction, Feed the Hungry

By Jon Miller - April 13th, 2006

One of the informal definitions of Lean manufacturing is “doing more with less”. A Puget Sound Business Journal article titled Throw Out Less Food and Help the Less Fortunate made a lot of sense to me. It maps out some prac

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