Tips for Lean Managers Archives | Page 17 of 22

What is a Kamishibai?

By Jon Miller - November 21st, 2006

I heard the term kamishibai (紙芝居) used in the context of the Toyota Production System for the first time in 2006. It was at an LEI seminar hosted by a former Toyota manager. At the time I thought it was a gratuitous use of a Japa

Why Six Sigma is Essential for Kaizen Success

By Jon Miller - November 18th, 2006

Genchi gembutsu means that in a Lean organization improvement must be done at the closest point to the value-adding workplace (gemba) following the scientific method based on facts. I’ve liked genchi gembutsu and management by fa

The Toyota Preparation System or the “Bank of Preparation”

By Jon Miller - November 9th, 2006

Toyota is great at doing what appear to be common sense things extraordinarily well. They take the time to do preparation, then execute quickly. There is a reference to this in Jeffrey Liker’s The Toyota Way where (I am paraphrasing)

Kaizen vs. Kaikaku

By Jon Miller - November 5th, 2006

While “kaizen” has been a familiar term in English management vocabulary for decades, “kaikaku” is more recent. Though kaizen has been widely embraced by Japanese companies for years, kaikaku was less common. Ho

Reflection (Hansei) is the Noblest Teacher

By Jon Miller - October 30th, 2006

Hansei is a Japanese word meaning “reflection” as in reflecting on ideas or experiences in order to learn from successes or failures to improve oneself in the future. It is a key step in kaizen, both personal improvement an

Don’t Talk to Us About Toyota

By Jon Miller - October 28th, 2006

“Don’t talk to us about Toyota” demanded a new customer recently. Their reasoning was that Toyota’s level was unachievable for them. This client does not build cars. But they were asking for world class benchmar

The View from the Other Side: Stop the Kaizen!

By Jon Miller - October 13th, 2006

The Job Schmob blogger gives us (kaizen people) a view from the other side in his (her?) October 2, 2006 post The Business of Change Management and Corporate Propaganda: Part 1. The Job Schmob blog person takes issue with a quote by ma

Operational Excellence Requires Kaizen and Respect for People

By Jon Miller - October 9th, 2006

Kaizen is easy. Respect for people is hard. I don’t know why. I just don’t see a lot of companies talking about and doing the latter. Talking about only, perhaps. What does respect for people really mean, anyway? At Toyota

Copy + Kaizen = Yokoten

By Jon Miller - October 5th, 2006

Here’s my understanding of one of the winning behaviors of Toyota, namely copying and improving on kaizen ideas that work. We’ll call this yokoten since it’s more precise than “copy” or “horizontal d

My Early Kaizen Days

By Jon Miller - September 27th, 2006

Thirteen years ago this month I nervously stepped into the lobby of the Sheraton at Hartford, Connecticut airport. It was the first day of my first Shingijutsu kaizen event. I did not know what to expect. I remember the first words out

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