Lean Archives | Page 153 of 157

TOC Bottleneck versus Lean Pacemaker – Part 1

By Ron - April 18th, 2007

Tonight I am starting a 2 part series contrasting the Theory of Constraints with Lean Manufacturing. Specifically, I want to discuss the differences between a TOC “bottleneck” and a Lean Manufacturing “pacemaker.” I have seen T

Playing Fast – American Football and Lean

By Ron - April 11th, 2007

I am a big, OK fanatical, Ohio State University football (American football) fan. I grew up in Ohio and as my Mom says, “You can take the boy out of Ohio, but you can’t take Ohio out of the boy.” I grew up watching Ohio State pla

Jidoka – The Forgotten Pillar

By Ron - April 9th, 2007

In the Toyota Production System house there are two pillars. The one pillar most of the books are written about is JIT. You know all the fun stuff about one piece flow and pull. But there is an entire other pillar that, in my opinion

The Airline Companies Amaze Me

By Ron - April 8th, 2007

In Lean and Six Sigma we speak about the importance of understanding value from the perspective of the customer. If you miss this all the Kanban and Control Charts in the world won’t help you. Most of the airline companies in

Un-Lean Lean Companies

By Ron - April 6th, 2007

I recently purchased some Value Stream Mapping software and got a kick out the experience. Here I was buying software to help me battle waste and inefficiency, right? Well I go to this company’s website and click “buy now” next t

Superfactory Training

By Ron - April 5th, 2007

I recently came across a news article about our friends over at the Superfactory. It seems they have recently launched some elearning and the prices are very affordable compared to some elearning I have seen from others. Upon further e

Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED)

By Ron - April 4th, 2007

One of the core principles to making a Lean system work is Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED). You may also hear it referred to as “Quick Changeover” especially in western companies. Common Misconceptions Contrary to what some t

The Hardest of the 5S’s

By Ron - March 27th, 2007

I recently heard the best explanation of which of the 5 S’s is the toughest to master. Many say how hard sorting all the rubbish is… others say that sustain is without a doubt the hardest.Both of these common responses are

The Cat is Back!

By Ron - March 25th, 2007

The Cat is back! My blogging pal KT Cat, over at The Scratching Post, has thrown out another hot sports opinion related to his (or her) negative experience with Lean Six Sigma. I must admit I like to read this feline’s stuff a

North American Manufacturing

By Ron - March 21st, 2007

I recently read an interesting article related to manufacturing in North America. Here are some interesting quotes for those wanting the abbreviated version: “But CMP, which opened its first U.S. manufacturing operation just north of

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