Get Lean and Prosper
"Get Lean and Prosper" features news, commentary, case studies, and instructions on Lean manufacturing methodologies and Lean transformation.
Preventive Care = Lower Cost or Better Value?
Effective Preventive Care Crucial : NPR Lean thinkers, especially in manufacturing, know about TPM, aka Total Productive Maintenance. It becomes intuitive to a lean thinker that taking care of machines and equipment saves money in the long run. TPM leads to higher uptime and lower costs. Think of your car… if you take care of it properly, it should cost less to maintain in the long term (un ...... Read More
Comments (0)A Nearly Apocalyptic Workaround?
Inside the Apocalyptic Soviet Doomsday Machine: There was a fascinating article in a recent WIRED Magazine about Cold War nuclear response and defense systems. This one sidebar struck me as a classic workaround, if the story can be believed. When: 1960s What: Midway through the Cold War, American leaders began to worry that a rogue US officer might launch a small, unauthorized strike, prompting ma ...... Read More
Comments (0)The Purpose of Kaizen Events
I recently ran into David Meier, co-author of the outstanding books The Toyota Way Fieldbook and Toyota Talent. Look for a guest post from him here on the blog soon. He was talking about kaizen events and he made a few interesting points from his time at Toyota: 1) He was only involved in a handful of formal kaizen events in 10 years at Toyota, saying they did kaizen every day, not based on events ...... Read More
Comments (0)Toyota article from 1997 - the "Soul" of TPS that's hard to copy
How Toyota Defies Gravity In doing some research for an upcoming presentation, I found this FORTUNE article from 1997. I was looking for a reference to Toyota letting its competitors (yes, Ford, GM, and Chrysler) tour its factories. Why would they do this? Because what you can see with your eyes (tools and artifacts of Lean) is NOT the important stuff, the “secret sauce” if you will: ...... Read More
Comments (0)Quote from Seth Godin on the Scientific Method
This was in Inc. magazine, a quote from a favorite of mine, Seth Godin. The scientific method is the basis of PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act), also known as the Deming Cycle (or the Shewhart Cycle). It’s also known as PDCA (Plan-Do-Study-Act). It’s also been re-named IDEA (Investigate, Design, Experiment, Adjust) by the design group IDEO… but I digress. What do you think of the quo ...... Read More
Comments (0)Ten (Mostly) Common Misconceptions About Toyota & Lean
Ten Common Misconceptions About Toyota | Quality Digest I found this interesting column from Quality Digest, by Stewart Anderson, a guy who says he has first hand experience with Toyota people and suppliers. The website bio page requires registration to view, which is a ridiculous request of QD, I believe. So out of principle, I’m not registering just for that. There is a short “abou ...... Read More
Comments (0)"McDreamy" Fights the Blame Game on "Grey's Anatomy"
Grey’s Anatomy : I Saw What I Saw I’m not normally a Grey’s Anatomy watcher (yeah, right, some of you might say… but I’m not). My wife watches the show every week. I paid close attention to this past weekend’s Tivo showing because my MIT friend Aaron tipped me off that this episode dealt with issues of blame… I’ll try to summarize the story i ...... Read More
Comments (3)Mike Hoseus Webinar on Toyota Culture
Industry Week Webinar - To Register The other day, I watched the online archive of a webinar given by Mike Hoseus, co-author of Toyota Culture: The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way. You can use the link at the top of this post to listen the free audio archive (with registration) and even download the slides in PDF form. The message that he sent is applicable to any industry. One story that intrigu ...... Read More
Comments (0)Management Improvement Carnival #79
Again, I’m very happy to host the Carnival for John Hunter and his Curious Cat blog. My job here is to share some noteworthy and thought provoking posts from the past month. I hope you’ll discover a new blog or two (or new idea) in the process. My Carnival selections run the gamut from manufacturing to healthcare to other industries, but I hope it will help you see the common themes ...... Read More
Comments (0)Hotels Give "Lean" a Bad Name??
Housekeepers’ Giant “Hope Quilt” Puts Hotel Job Injuries in Spotlight | Labor Notes Articles like this are incredibly frustrating to see. It makes me think of a variation of the famous Bon Jovi song that would go something like “You Give Lean a Bad Name.” As Jamie pointed out in the comments, this is totally “L.A.M.E.” One problem the Lean community ...... Read More
Comments (0)Lean Methods for Aerospace and Healthcare in Ontario
Article - How Toyota builds cars Here’s an article from Canada about how Toyota (an automaker) manages to be influential to Bombardier (maker of planes) and St. Joseph’s Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario (a fixer of people). The article, I think, somewhat overplays the value of metrics. Don’t get me wrong, performance measures are important in manufacturing or healthcare — ...... Read More
Comments (0)Change from Inside or Outside of the System
Last week, I tweeted a quote that’s supposedly from Dr. W. Edwards Deming. I can only find one other online reference… does this sound like something Deming would have said? “Knowledge required to change the existing system to a better system must come from outside the existing system.” A few folks on Twitter seemed to challenge that assertion (hard to tell tone in 14 ...... Read More
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