TPS Benchmarking Archives | Page 5 of 6

The Takt Time for Your Question is 42 Seconds

By Jon Miller - March 5th, 2006

An interesting blurb in The Detroit News today titled For Toyota Briefing, Timing’s Everything gives an example how at Toyota “… the renowned Toyota Production System is not limited to making production leaner and mor

Why GM and Ford Can’t Embrace the Toyota Way

By Jon Miller - February 16th, 2006

Who says they can’t? Dr. James Womack that’s who, in his Wall Street Journal article this week, titled Why Toyota Won. I enjoyed the article. The kaizen mindset I’ve been trained in forced me to think, “Very goo

Experience Kaikaku, Day 5: What I Learned about Kaizen

By Jon Miller - February 10th, 2006

The reason we call this trip the Japan Kaikaku Experience is because this learning experience takes place in Japan and because a “kaikaku” or “transformation” happens in people’s heads by the end of the we

Experience Kaikaku, Day 4: The KTC Way

By Jon Miller - February 9th, 2006

One of the highlights of this Japan Kaikaku Experience trip was the visit to KTC. This company has more than 40 years of history making strong, high quality hand tools. They supply tire wrenches for new Toyota cars and they also make t

Experience Kaikaku, Day 3: The Thinking Behind TPS

By Jon Miller - February 8th, 2006

Toyota posted a 34% rise in third-quarter net profit, clearing $3.34 billion in the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2005. This hit the news just about as we were finishing our tours of Toyota Kamigo and Tsutsumi plants. It’s easy to copy what

Experience Kaikaku, Day 2: Fun with Pipes & Joints

By Jon Miller - February 7th, 2006

In the Japan Kaikaku Experience, we emphasize practical fun! We delve into the types of pipes and joints used in construction. As an example, we showcase a parts-picking station with sensors, demonstrating pokayoke (mistake-proofing) i

Experience Kaikaku, Day 1: The Airport

By Jon Miller - February 5th, 2006

This week I will be blogging from Japan. Internet access providing, I hope to be sharing bits of wisdom we gain each day with you on what is now our 17th Japan Kaikaku Experience trip. So far I have mostly spent time between the airpor

Reflecting on Toyota’s 2,411,117 Recalls in 2005

By Jon Miller - January 20th, 2006

That’s quite a big number. It’s actually more vehicles than Toyota sold in the U.S. in 2005. It’s more than double the number for 2004. It’s not as many as some other car companies, but far from zero defects. A

Respect for People? Labor Unrest at Toyota Kirloskar

By Jon Miller - January 11th, 2006

There has been labor unrest at the Toyota Kirloskar joint venture in Bidadi, India over the last week. Indian business news has covered these events, but there has been very little mention of it in American or Japanese news. On January

American Workers Embrace Kaizen Culture at NUMMI

By Jon Miller - January 10th, 2006

There is an excellent article from September 2005 in the Manufacturing Engineering magazine about the GM-Toyota 50/50 joint venture NUMMI. In this excerpt form the article one of the team members who later became a team leader talks ab

Happy New Year, and Genchi Gembutsu

By Jon Miller - January 3rd, 2006

I don’t mean to be lazy about crafting a New Year’s message, but once again the good people at Toyota have made my job easy. This is the first New Year for Mr. Watanabe as Toyota’s new President. In a memo titled New

How to Kaizen Boxing Day

By Jon Miller - December 26th, 2005

One of the greatest evils that kaizen and Lean manufacturing attempts to eliminate is overproduction, one of the 7 wastes. Overproduction hides true capacity, exacerbates quality problems, builds inventory, and generally amplifies the

Are they Nuts? Lean Team Shouts “Do It First and Think Later”

By Jon Miller - December 23rd, 2005

Edson Oda Senior Operations Consultant It was funny to see some puzzled faces and hear some comments and jokes from those who had seen the NEC Lean manufacturing slogan or heard the Lean team shout loudly ‘Faço, Faço, Faço Já

Faça Primeiro e Pense Depois: What I Learned from Japan in Brazil

By Jon Miller - December 20th, 2005

On the Evolving Excellence blog today Bill Waddell admits he doesn’t speak Japanese, warns against drowning your Lean efforts with Japanese lessons, and takes on the Japanese for not being curious enough to visit and learn from his w

Heads Firmly in Sand, Motor City Chairmen Speak Out

By Jon Miller - December 13th, 2005

General Motors Chairman Rick Wagoner asks why U.S. automobile manufacturers are doing so poorly when foreign ones are doing so well in the December 6, 2005 Wall Street Journal editorial A Portrait of My Industry. “Despite public

Triangulating the Problem of American Manufacturing, Part 2

By Jon Miller - November 24th, 2005

Why do organizations fail to invest sufficiently in their people? The term Human Capital was introduced over 40 year ago by University of Chicago Professor Gary Becker. Human capital are the assets a person owns in for form of job skil

Triangulating the Problem of American Manufacturing, Part 1

By Jon Miller - November 23rd, 2005

Triangulation is a process by which you figure out where you are by checking three points or positions. Triangulation can be used to study a phenomenon by comparing three (or more) types of points of view or data sources. Three things

Eric’s Japan Lean Benchmarking Trip, 3

By Jon Miller - November 16th, 2005

This is the third and final installation of Eric’s report from his Lean manufacturing benchmarking trip to Japan in October. “Omron Taiyo manufactures electronic parts and employs the handicapped. Omron Taiyo produces vario

Eric’s Japan Lean Benchmarking Trip, 2

By Jon Miller - November 8th, 2005

The impressions of what he saw are still strong in Eric’s mind several weeks after returning from his Lean manufacturing benchmarking trip to Japan: “The visit to Toyota was everything I expected, which was amazing. We firs

Eric’s Lean Benchmarking Trip to Japan, Part 1

By Jon Miller - October 31st, 2005

Last week Eric Sander joined a group of clients on our Lean manufacturing benchmarking trip. It was Eric’s first trip to Japan. Eric survived a week of fish and rice. When he got back to the United States, he had a nice plate of

Toyota Loves France!

By Jon Miller - October 27th, 2005

Or so the full page ad taken out by the French government in the Otober 31, 2005 issue of BusinessWeek would have you believe. The ad takes no chances that the reader might not get the point, using the tag line “The New France. W

Toyota is No Friend of the Earth, Say Greens

By Jon Miller - October 26th, 2005

Last week I praised Toyota’s environmental efforts but a new and sharply critical ad campaign is making me reconsider. Even as Toyota continues its advertising campaign to promote its Hybrid Synergy Drive technology with the R

Tune into NUMMI Tour Tales

By Jon Miller - October 25th, 2005

Today Mark Graban posted his first trip report from his visit to NUMMI, the GM / Toyota joint venture in California. I won’t give away the details, but it’s a good reminder to “abandon fixed ideas” and do what&#

Tough Love for Delphi Leadership

By Jon Miller - October 19th, 2005

Dr. James Womack is not the only one saddened to see a corporation like Delphi who championed Lean so well struggle so mightily. I read Dr. Womack’s article on the LEI site about Delphi, hoping for a lesson learned. I was disappo

Virtual JKE – Final Entry

By Jon Miller - September 29th, 2005

Kent Bradley VP, North America “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” — Confucius “Sometimes you don’t know what you’ve seen ’til you get back home.” –Luke Frida

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