Lean Archives | Page 60 of 68

Don’t Touch the Fish. Because…

By Jon Miller - February 6th, 2009

The last time I was in Japan, I was amused by a sound byte on the radio news. The Tsukiji fish market decided to close their doors to visitors because, “No matter how many times we tell them, they don’t listen.” In th

The Best Investment Advice

By Ron Pereira - January 26th, 2009

Note: This is the 400th article here on LSS Academy! I’ll take some time to reflect on this in the near future. But for now, I have a far more important topic to discuss. Read on. Times are tough. Real tough. You may have recently lo

5 Ways Google Can Avoid Eliminating 100 Jobs

By Jon Miller - January 15th, 2009

Is eliminating 100 badly needed jobs in Detroit in the midst of an economic recession evil?. Or is it just business? It depends whether your company name starts in go and ends in ogle. If Google’s motto was “don’t be

5 Tips for Video Taping Others

By Ron Pereira - January 14th, 2009

I’ve recently been involved with a SMED (single minute exchange of dies) kaizen event. The event itself was extremely effective and tons of fun… and while I could share the specifics of the event with you I won’t. Instead, I want

Conveyance is the Shadow of Information

By Jon Miller - January 14th, 2009

Shigeo Shingo, the granddaddy of lean thinking industrial engineers once wrote, “Time is the shadow of motion” and a lot of other things that sound more cryptic than they should thanks to the wonders of inadequate translati

SNED – Single Night Exchange of Domiciles?

By Jon Miller - January 11th, 2009

Normally SMED in lean talk stands for single minute exchange of dies. Shigeo Shingo, industrial engineering consultant to Toyota wrote a book about this methodology and it has made possible small lot production and the reduction of los

Hospital Improves Patient Flow: 90% Seen in Under 60 Minutes

By Jon Miller - January 6th, 2009

There is a small hospital in Hiroshima, Japan which has been practicing the Toyota Production System for a few years. The Ideshita Clinic neurology and internal medicine hospital that was established in 1992 and has 170 employees. They

Virtual Factory Tours on YouTube

By Jon Miller - January 4th, 2009

Keep your chin up, global manufacturing! Even though new factory orders dipped recently to record lows, there is plenty of reason to be positive. We are near the bottom. There may be another 6 months of tough times but it will be a slo

Let’s Do Kaizen, Not Kaizan

By Jon Miller - December 23rd, 2008

It doesn’t really matter how you pronounce the Japanese word for continuous improvement through total involvement and a focus on the elimination of waste, variability and overburden. The word is kaizen, but you can call it kaizan

Answers to Lean Thinking Crossword Puzzle #1

By Jon Miller - December 20th, 2008

Spoiler alert! The answers to Lean Thinking Crossword Puzzle #1 are below. Here are the questions. Seven down is a bit of a pun, with the American spelling of cheque. Across 1. A pillar creates this between man and machine 2. Absolutel

Lean Thinking Crossword Puzzle #1

By Jon Miller - December 19th, 2008

Here is a quiz we used as a review of lean knowledge for the team on the Gemba tour at the end of the week. Some of these are easy and others are tricky. If you figure it out go ahead and put the answers in the comments section. To

Seek and Destroy (Muda)

By Ron Pereira - December 18th, 2008

(electric guitar plays) Alright! Scanning the scene in the city tonight We’re looking for you to start up a fight There’s an evil feeling in our brains But it’s nothing new you know it drives us insane. Back in the Da

Field Report from Gemba Tour #62, Part 4

By Jon Miller - December 18th, 2008

Today was day-long visit to a company who is 13 years on their lean journey. The many valuable points of learning were a mixed bag of lean principles, practical advice and seeing systems in action. We saw many world class examples of l

Field Report from Gemba Tour #62, Part 3

By Jon Miller - December 17th, 2008

Today was the Toyota plant tour day of our Japan Kaikaku Experience #62. I noticed a lot more things made of Creform, both inside and outside of the factory. Outside there was a bizarre blue trellis for vines to grow on, a conspicuous

Field Report from Gemba Tour #62, Part 2

By Jon Miller - December 16th, 2008

I have seen the future of logistics, and it is green. Today we visited a distribution center that supplies Toyota. The lean logistics system supports multiple deliveries to the assembly plant each hour using mixed loads, milk runs, kan

Field Report from Gemba Tour #62, Part 1

By Jon Miller - December 15th, 2008

The last few weeks haven’t been very productive ones for writing blog articles due to travel between the US, UK and Japan. However the interaction with clients and changes in scenery have been good stimuli for future article idea

Bathroom Lean

By Ron Pereira - December 9th, 2008

Here’s a fun question for all you male lean thinkers – in order to streamline the morning bathroom practice of showering, shaving, and brushing your teeth – what is the “leanest” way to go about it. Do eac

If Blame Helped Solve Problems…

By Jon Miller - December 5th, 2008

…the interview with Newt Gingrich on Fox News would be a brilliant way to get the Detroit automotive companies out of the trouble they are in. Here is Newt Gingrich taking the bait and laying the blame, making a troubling and com

$34,000,000,000

By Jon Miller - December 2nd, 2008

Sigh. Chrysler wants $7 billion. They asked Congress for this taxpayer money in a 14-page document. I bet they could do it for $500 million if they only took the time to give the PDCA wheel a few turns and put their proposal on a singl

PDCA is About Not Telling Lies

By Jon Miller - December 1st, 2008

This circle doesn’t lie. In fact one could say that used properly, it is a truth-generator. In a section discussing problem solving, experimentation and PDCA, the book Extreme Toyota by Emi Osono, Norihiko Shimizu and Hirotaka Ta

With Competitors Like These, Who Needs a Winning Business Strategy?

By Jon Miller - November 27th, 2008

Larry, Curly and Moe go to Washington image credit: Wall Street Journal As we are grateful this Thanksgiving holiday for all hard diligent public servants, executives and working men and working women who do their best to keep our econ

It’s a Lousy Time to Implement Lean

By Jon Miller - November 25th, 2008

Author, teacher and our friend Bob Emiliani from the Center for Lean Business Management pointed pointed out an inaccuracy in my post from Sunday on how the Big 3 automotive companies should follow Toyota’s path through bankruptc

The Big 3 Must Follow in Toyota’s Footsteps to Survive

By Jon Miller - November 23rd, 2008

The Big 3 automotive companies must follow in Toyota’s footsteps to survive. There are three things that need to happen for General Motors, the Ford Motor Company and Chrysler to avoid becoming case studies in how not to run glob

Helping our Friend from Down Under: Part Two

By Ron Pereira - November 21st, 2008

If you had one story to “sell” lean or six sigma to over 1,000 employees what would you say? Well, that’s precisely the situation our friend Gail is facing Down Under. To get the full history of Gail’s story please check out pa

Helping our Friend from Down Under: Part One

By Ron Pereira - November 18th, 2008

Here’s how cool blogging is. A week or so ago I got an email from Petri, a lean practitioner in Finland. His question was so good it inspired this post which stirred up some excellent discussion. Last night we received another commen

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