Time to stock up on Forever stamps - Yahoo! News

Sigh, first class postage has gone up from 41 cents to 42 cents. That really doesn't impact me, since I mail maybe two or three things a month (thanks to online bill pay -- something that hasn't always served me well).
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I've had the opportunity to read Bob Emiliani's two collections of essays on "Real Lean" and I'm long overdue on posting about them. I'm especially late considering since Volume Three is coming out in June. These books are particularly recommended for those who already have a basic Lean education and some experience (or struggles) with implementing Lean.

Real Lean: Understanding the Lean Management System (Volume One)...Read More

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Factories Fading, Hospitals Step In - WSJ

It's inevitable -- as manufacturing jobs decline and our population ages, more people will shift from manufacturing jobs into healthcare. (Free version of article here)

BANGOR, Maine -- In this aging manufacturing region, where old-line industries like paper factories are falling away, health care has emerged as the employer of last resort.

Between 1998 and 2007, the Bangor metropolitan area (pop. 150,000) lost about 3,700 jobs in manufacturing, but gained 3,500 jobs in health care. For many residents in Bangor, the hospital is replacing the mill as the passport to the middle class. For others, it means low

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A Crushing Issue: How to Destroy Brand-New Cars - WSJ.com While this is a story about Mazda shipping cars from Japan (a location where Toyota still makes many U.S.-bound cars, even with their North American expansion), it might give you pause if you're chasing cheap labor in China or Vietnam. ...Read More

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Video - Breaking News Videos from CNN.com

Sort of a funny video (linked above) on CNN/Headline News about presidential candidates being "clueless" about what they're seeing on the campaign trail and factory tours. The Headline News version (which I can't find online) had overlays that read:

• "Clueless on the Campaign Trail"
• "Candidates often don't know what they're looking at on business tours"
• "Candidates have some silly questions, don't seem to understand the answers"
• "Candidates do a lot of nodding when they don't understand tours"

Maybe Headline News doesn't rank high on the "respect for candidates" scale, but they're...Read More

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CURRENTS / 'Toyota way' inspires lean practices

From a Japanese newspaper, an article about the impact the Toyota Production System is having on organizations around the world.

The first example is the U.S. military, the Air Force more specifically:

Since embarking a decade ago on what it described as a "lean journey," the U.S. Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) has halved the time taken to overhaul the massive C-5 Galaxy transport aircraft from 339 days to just 171 days. More efficient repair and maintenance work also enables the AFMC--charged with keeping the U.S. Air Force equipped--to keep an additional 100 KC-135 Stratotanker refueling aircraft operational.

Jeff Liker, who has done consulting for the ...Read More

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AFP: Costs driving US manufacturing firms out of China: AmCham

"Forcing" is a strange word to use. It's really a business choice, one way or another. Chasing cheap labor... that's a choice. Chasing it to the next state or country is also a choice companies make.

"For manufacturers, the seemingly endless supply of low-cost unskilled labour may be approaching its limits," Norwell Coquillard, chairman of AmCham in Shanghai, told reporters at a briefing to launch their annual white paper.

It's a shame that so many companies prize "unskilled" labor. It reminds me of when I worked at GM and employees lamented "they said they hired me for my back and my arms, not my brains."

"...It added

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Last week, I had the honor and pleasure of meeting Norman Bodek in person for the first time. After all of our podcasts and electronic correspondence over the years, this was a real treat. I had a chance to chat 1 on 1 and to see him present to two different healthcare audiences about Lean and, in particular, Quick and Easy Kaizen (as you can read about in his book ...Read More

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Here's a variety of links and posts to check out:

Friend of the blog, Mike Thelen, has an article expanding upon the "Lean vs. LAME" construct:

"I’ve seen and heard many comments from others on web logs, forums, and news outlets (some just dabbling in the lean arena, others researching, and some simply trying to discredit lean). Some say that the attitude they’ve witnessed by technical experts is usually condescending or disrespectful. They say that humility or respect doesn’t appear to be one of the prerequisites for lean or kaizen consultants. I’ve also been informed that th...Read More

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So I was watching some of the lead in to the Papal Mass in New York's Yankee Stadium. The reporter was talking to a priest about giving the Holy Communion to about 60,000 people within a span of 15 minutes. They chatted about the logistics... talking more about the challenge more so than a precise solution.

My warped Lean mind starts thinking "takt time." Appropriate, perhaps, since "takt" is a German word and the Pope himself is German.

Takt time is calculated as (Available Time / Demand).

(15 min * 60 sec) / 60,000

That equals 0.015 seconds per Catholic.

Assuming a fast pace and it taking 3 seconds per attendee, they would require 200 priests or laypeople giving communion. We'd calculate that by dividing 3 by 0.015 = 200.

The NY Times has ...Read More

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One of the most fascinating trends out of there is the spread of Toyota folks into other old-line automakers or parts suppliers -- Gary Convis, Jim Press, and Jim Farley, to name three. What impact can they have outside of Toyota? It remains to be seen and it's a story worth following. How much impact can one man have on the culture of an entire organization, even if they're at the top?

The big news this week was the hiring of retired Toyota executive Gary Convis as CEO at Dana, a parts maker and auto supplier. Convis is one of my favorite role models and examples of Lean leadership. Even though Dana has had some success with Lean practices (including ...Read More

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Lean Learning Center: Newsletter

The latest issue (#12) of the "Lean Progress" newsletter from Jamie Flinchbaugh and the Lean Learning Center is available now.

There's always great content in the newsletter. One piece I particularly liked was called "Lean Thinking from Benjamin Franklin," written by Debra S. Levantrosser, the Executive Director of Lean and Business Improvement at Johnson & Johnson.

I always enjoy reading about "Lean history" -- the origins of Lean thinking from sources such as Henry Ford, Samuel Smiles, the ...Read More

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