TPS Benchmarking Archives | Page 6 of 6

Virtual JKE Day Five

By Jon Miller - September 28th, 2005

Kent Bradley VP, North America As someone who only recently joined the consulting world after 25 years directing manufacturing, assembly, and distribution operations, I can say with absolute conviction that I have never seen a lean ass

Virtual JKE Day Four

By Jon Miller - September 27th, 2005

Kent Bradley VP, North America It is Wednesday night in Tokyo, after another long day on the Gemba Research JKE tour. Today we visited Hokuetsu Industries, which owns about 10% of the global market for industrial air compressors and ha

Virtual JKE Day Three

By Jon Miller - September 26th, 2005

Kent Bradley VP, North America Day three on the Gemba road was long, hot, and fascinating. We were on our way to catch the bullet train for Denso before 7:00. On the way, we took the usual opportunity to go over what we would be seeing

Virtual JKE Part Two

By Jon Miller - September 20th, 2005

Kent Bradley VP, North America Day 2, the first real day of our Gemba Research Japan Kaikaku Experience tour. “Going to the gemba” is the whole point of this tour – to be the best requires going to see the best. Today

Virtual JKE

By Jon Miller - September 14th, 2005

A key aspect of our work here at Gemba is the Japan Kaikaku Experience. We take business leaders to Japan to see the world’s best practitioners of lean. This week, Kent Bradley, on his second tour of Japan, will share his experie

Strong Supervision: The Key to Long-term Kaizen

By Jon Miller - August 27th, 2005

A few weeks ago I had lunch with Tom Berghan, Lean Manager at Genie Industries. He is an avid student of the Toyota Production System and is always good for practical insights into ground-level Lean implementation. Tom observed that as

Wipro Studies TPS to Achieve Lean Transactions

By Jon Miller - August 13th, 2005

I was very excited about an article in Business Week titled “Taking a Page from Toyota’s Playbook” on how Indian info tech companies are adopting the Toyota model. As an example, Wipro visited a Toyota factory to stud

Toyota Raises Prices, but Not for That Reason

By Jon Miller - July 10th, 2005

Toyota announced 1.6% price increases in several Lexus and Scion model vehicles on Friday July 8, 2005. Some months ago when Chairman Okuda said Toyota may raise prices to help out struggling Ford and GM, I was impressed again by Toyot

95% Cost Reduction: That’s Kaikaku

By Jon Miller - June 19th, 2005

According to a June 17, 2005 article in the Financial Times, Toyota plans to cut the cost of hydrogen powered fuel cell vehicles by from $1,000,000 to $50,000 by 2015. That is a 95% cost reduction, in 10 years. The Lean manufacturing e

Balancing Market Leadership and Social Responsibility at Toyota

By Jon Miller - May 14th, 2005

It has been an interesting week for Toyota watchers. In response to Chairman Okuda’s call to Japanese automobile makers last week to raise prices to give GM some “breathing room”, Toyota’s operational executives

Toyota’s Lean Manufacturing Metrics

By Jon Miller - April 22nd, 2005

In one of our Lean Manufacturing Benchmarking Tours to Japan (Japan Kaikaku Experience) the people on the tour had a goal to come up with company-wide metrics. The same metrics would be used for different business units so that the con

Lean Manufacturing with a Temporary Workforce

By Jon Miller - April 21st, 2005

One of the companies we visited in Japan in our Japan Benchmarking Trips (Japan Kaikaku Experience) employed a large percentage of temporary labor to help make their labor costs truly variable. One of the questions asked to them from o

100% Efficiency is Not the Goal

By Jon Miller - April 20th, 2005

As we do in each of our trips to benchmark the best lean companies in Japan, on our latest trip in March we visited Toyota. One of the surprising things to come out of this visit and later on our Q&A time with them was that Toyota

Subtle Shifts in the 7 Wastes of Lean

By Jon Miller - April 15th, 2005

As followers of the Toyota Way we try to stay we try to stay true to the practices, principles, and values that come out of that great company. There is always a lot more to learn about what we call Lean (TPS). Toyota is always taking

The Trap of Managing by Computer Screens

By Jon Miller - November 18th, 2004

One of the things that I notice when I go to offices in the US is walls everywhere and a computer screen at each desk. I recently lead a group of clients to Japan to visit a Toyota group company office that had taken the principles of

The Power of Ideas from Everyone

By Jon Miller - October 24th, 2004

Too few companies on the Lean journey have effectively incorporated what is known as “teian” or suggestion schemes for employees’ creative ideas. Although kaizen breakthrough activity may seem more dramatic and appeal

The Toyota Job Description: Follow Standards & Find Better Ways

By Jon Miller - October 19th, 2004

The Toyota managers who share their insights with us on our study missions to Japan tell us there are two things that are part of every Toyota employee’s job. They are: 1) Follow the standard 2) Find a better way Kaizen: The Powe

Product Development Performance Metrics

By Jon Miller - September 9th, 2004

During our Japan Kaikaku Experience trip in August, we visited Omron, a manufacturer of sensors and factory automation products. They have made great strides in implementing TPS, resulting in a very Lean factory. As part of their Lean

Lean and Green

By Jon Miller - September 6th, 2004

One of the most enlightening moments in my personal journey was when I discovered the innovative approaches employed by top Lean companies in Japan to curb waste via efficient environmental management and energy conservation. We visite

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