Lean Archives | Page 68 of 68

Japanese Words

By Ron Pereira - February 20th, 2007

Over the years I have heard American and European employees from many companies grumble when hearing Japanese words. This is most apparent during Lean training. Personally, I feel it is extremely important to use the Japanese names for

My “Sensei” Wife

By Ron Pereira - February 20th, 2007

My wife is the best. As I have to travel some for my work she takes care of the house, kids, dogs, and pretty much anything else you can imagine without me around to yell at… I mean without me to help, of course.Well, in an attempt t

Two Bin Kanban

By Ron Pereira - February 15th, 2007

A two bin kanban is one of the most popular kanban systems due to its simplicity. The basic idea is an operator will get the material they need from one of the bins while the other bin is being refilled. When things are working properl

Why Some Lean Six Sigma Programs Fail – Part 2

By Ron Pereira - February 12th, 2007

In part 1 of “Why Lean Sigma Programs Fail” I discussed “activity centered programs.” Now I will introduce the alternative to ACP’s – results driven programs. Very simply stated RDP’s, as I will call them, aim for measura

Why Some Lean Six Sigma Programs Fail – Part 1

By Ron Pereira - February 11th, 2007

If you have not read the Harvard Business Review on Change I highly recommend it. It is a series of case studies focused on change management. One of the case studies is called, “Successful Change Programs Begin with Results” by Ro

Waiting

By Ron Pereira - February 10th, 2007

If you pick up any book about Lean or attend a Lean training course you will likely hear how overproduction is the mother of all wastes. OK, in the truest sense it probably is… especially for those that manufacture any type of produc

Lean Lexicon

By Ron Pereira - February 8th, 2007

I was fortunate enough to receive training from Gemba Research which was excellent and I highly recommend them, as I have stated before. But I would be doing the nice people over at Lean Enterprise Institute an injustice if I didn’t

Stop the Finger Pointing!

By Ron Pereira - February 7th, 2007

I despise, from the deepest pit of my being, the blame game that occurs within so many companies that manufacture products – any product. This problem is sadly amplified in western companies. It typically goes something like this, �

Standard Work

By Ron Pereira - February 6th, 2007

Since the mission of this blog is to offer ideas for how to align the strengths of both Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma I wanted discuss a topic I firmly believe all continuous improvement practitioners should practice. This topic is

Electronic Kanban

By Ron Pereira - February 3rd, 2007

Here is a question for all the Lean gurus out there. Is “Electronic Kanban” an oxymoron? I have my own opinion but would like to hear yours.

The Toyota Way

By Ron Pereira - January 27th, 2007

The Toyota Way

The Forgotten M’s

By Ron Pereira - January 26th, 2007

Those familiar with lean manufacturing have likely heard the word muda many times. Muda is the Japanese word for waste and is the enemy of us all whether we know it or not. Strangely enough muda is not the only enemy of a lean system.

Cupholders

By Ron Pereira - January 22nd, 2007

In my recent Lean Lunch blog I referenced the Kano Model. I received some questions on what this model was all about so thought I would shed some light on it this evening. By the way, if there is a topic you would like me to discuss pl

Motorola misses Badly

By Ron Pereira - January 20th, 2007

I just read an article stating that Motorola, the #2 maker of cell phones in the world, is preparing to cut 3,500 jobs. Motorola reported a 48% drop in fourth-quarter profit as margins in its handset business collapsed. Folks, 48% is a

Lean Lunch

By Ron Pereira - January 19th, 2007

This is a picture of the taco salad I had for lunch today. OK, so “lean” in the truest sense may be a bit of an oxymoron since there was probably enough calories in this meal to last me a few days but I digress. Anyhow, I am always

Six Sigma and JIT

By Ron Pereira - January 18th, 2007

I recently saw a question posted on the iSixSigma forum that went something like this, “How can Six Sigma enhance the just in time process?” I thought this was a great question and will offer my two cents on the topic this evening.

Process Mapping – Lean or Six Sigma Tool?

By Ron Pereira - January 16th, 2007

If someone walked up to your this morning at the coffee machine and asked you, “Is process mapping a Lean or Six Sigma tool?” what would you say? This may seem like a trivial question but I dare say it is not. Poka-Yoke is a Six S

Creating Synergy with Lean and Six Sigma

By Ron Pereira - January 15th, 2007

From Wikipedia: Synergy or synergism (from the Greek synergos, συνεργός meaning working together, circa 1660) refers to the phenomenon in which two or more discrete influences or agents acting together create an effect greater

Lean or Six Sigma?

By Ron Pereira - January 14th, 2007

This is my first official blog. I have long been impressed with the blogs of people like Jon Miller from Gemba Research and have finally decided to throw my hat into the blog ring. I thought I would focus my first blog on the topic of

When Times Are Tough, Do You Make Better Decisions?

By Jon Miller - January 8th, 2007

I heard this in a meeting today “When times are tough you make better decisions.” I wonder if this is true. They say that necessity is the mother of invention and this means something similar. A common Toyota saying is 「�

Believing You Can Get Lean Makes You Leaner

By Jon Miller - November 16th, 2006

If Lean for Toyota is “kaizen and respect for people” we need to spend some time understanding what makes people work as well as what makes kaizen work. To that end, there are some very interesting findings at the Psycholog

The Lean Ranger in: The Workshop of the World, Part II

By Jon Miller - June 15th, 2006

After a short layover at Gemba’s Shanghai office, Yang Kai and I are off to Guangzhou. Since it’s a domestic flight, the Security level is a little lower, but there are still lots of uniforms standing around. I spot an ATM in the a

Lean Manufacturing Mantras

By Jon Miller - June 6th, 2006

One of my favorite Lean manufacturing moments was when a group of highly intelligent and committed Lean leaders from an American industrial giant that we took to Japan realized that the excellent company we were visiting had no idea wh

This Blog Has Been Kaizened to Accept Your Comments!

By Jon Miller - December 12th, 2005

We have upgraded our blogging platform! You are now invited to join the discussion about kaizen, Lean manufacturing and continuous improvement on our blog. You can post your comments in the field directly below each article. We look fo

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