Toyota Recall: Quality versus Quantity!

There has been much speculation about what went wrong and what is still right at Toyota.   It has even been suggested that Toyota may have become blinded by the desire to be the number 1 automaker in the world.  This suggests that quality and quantity are interelated and that one will suffer at the expense of the other.  We would argue that this is simply not true in this […]

Toyota: Managing Nightmares

The Nightmare Toyota continues to be plagued by recalls.  The current acceleration issues (either floor mats or “sticky” accelerators), braking issues on the Prius Hybrid, and now reports in the USA of steering problems with 2009 and 2010 Corollas.  While the majority of the news reports focus on the next steps to repair faulty vehicles, the real nightmare is the human tragedy that was and may still be […]

Lessons Learned from Toyota’s Stumble…e piece on Toyota recall by Steve Spear

Date: Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 12:43 AM Subject: Lessons Learned from Toyota’s Stumble…e piece on Toyota recall by Steve Spear I received an e-mail this morning from Steven J. Spear, author of “Chasing the Rabbit: How Market Leaders Outdistance the Competition” and thought I would share his commentary on the Toyota recall. Steven raises some interesting points that we […]

Using TRIZ for Problem Solving – Resources

In our first post on this topic, “Using Triz for Problem Solving – Introduction“, we provided a very basic introduction to TRIZ.  In the spirit of TRIZ, it is not our intent to rewrite or redefine the TRIZ process when excellent information is already available.  Our intent is to identify the few of the many excellent and exceptional resources that we have found. What is […]

Contingency Plans – Crisis Management in Lean Organizations

Contingency Planning For Lean Organizations – Part IV – Crisis Management In a previous post we eluded that lean organizations are likely to be more susceptible to disruptions or adverse conditions and may even have a greater impact on the business.  To some degree this may be true, however, in reality, Lean has positioned these organizations to be more agile and extremely responsive to crisis […]

Contingency Planning For Lean Organizations – H1N1 (Swine Flu) – Reference

In our first post on Contingency Planning For Lean Organizations, we made reference to the current situation regarding the H1N1 virus or Swine Flu. We also suggested that history may provide relevant information that can be used to aid in future crisis event planning. Michael A. Roberto, author of “Know What You Don’t Know” copyright 2009 by Pearson Education Inc., […]

OEE Integration – Where do We Measure OEE? – Part I

OEE Integration Part IX – Where do we measure OEE? Our recent posts have included numerous examples to calculate OEE correctly. We also discussed integration of OEE as an effective metric for managing your processes and ultimately how to analyze and use the data to improve your profitability.  We spent little time discussing where this measurement should occur.  OEE can […]

How to Reduce Costs with OEE: Cost Control

OEE can be used to improved your bottom line. We provide a little insight to getting it right.