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 […]
- Advanced Lean Manufacturing
- APQP
- Problem Solving
- Risk Management
- Root Cause Analysis
- Trouble Shooting
Toyota: Managing Nightmares
Lean Analytics and a little TRIZ
We are encouraged to see a significantly increasing interest in lean and agile strategy. As we have emphasized in previous posts, the culture and work environment are as critical to the success of your initiatives as are the specific techniques, methods, and / or technologies that you will choose to use. One of our favorite phrases to put our work environment into perspective […]
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 […]
The Zeigarnik Effect and Lean
Have you heard of the Zeigarnik Effect?  If you have, you’re probably among the few of us that can appreciate how the Zeigarnik effect can affect our thinking processes.  What application could this possibly have with lean?   Consider that the human brain views an unanswered question the same as an incomplete task. The brain must satisfy it’s innate desire to answer the question.  Lean is […]
Lean Resources On Demand
On Demand As people we have grown accustomed to service on demand. The internet, fast food, service stations, 24 hour convenience shopping, medical services, video on demand, and so much more are available almost instantly. Of course much of this is made possible by the latest technologies and electronic gadgets that bring the world to our finger tips at the push […]
Lean Breaking Through Paralysis
Welcome to 2010!  We wish all of our visitors the very best of success in 2010. Now that 2009 is behind is really behind us, we can start looking forward to the opportunities and challenges ahead in 2010. Page Updates: As regular users of Excel we are always looking for excellent and trustworthy resources to help us in our day to day operations. […]
- Advanced Lean Manufacturing
- Eliminate Waste
- Environment
- Execution
- Lean
- Lean Metrics
- OEE: Overall Equipment Efficiency
- Performance
- Problem Solving
- Process Control and OEE
- Standardized Work
- Training
22 Seconds to Burn – Excel VBA Teaches Lean Execution
Background: VBA for Excel has once again provided the opportunity to demonstrate some basic lean tenets. The methods used to produce the required product or solution can yield significant savings in time and ultimately money. The current practice is not necessarily the best practice in your industry. In manufacturing, trivial or minute differences in methods deployed become more apparent during mass production or as […]
Seasons Greetings
This year has been filled with many new experiences, hard times, great times, and many opportunities for learning. While some may prefer to see this year pass sooner than later, 2009 is hopefully a year that presented many new opportunities and even greater challenges. As lean practitioners, we learn to appreciate failure from a different perspective than most people would enjoy. The focus is not the […]
Communication Breakdown – The Language of Lean
Getting people engaged and “on the same page” requires everyone to understand the language used to convey the message. Even the method of disseminating information can create confusion. Oral presentations can convey a completely different message than one delivered in writing. The tone used in an oral presentation cannot be delivered in writing using the same words. Voice inflections, body language, and atmosphere […]
Lean Execution: Competing with Giants – It’s all about Speed
Sometimes you need a break from reading and learn from others who are truly walking the talk.  We trust you will find this video, “Competing with Giants – It’s all about Speed“, featuring Dominic Orr, CEO of Aruba Networks, as interesting and thought provoking as we did. This short clip will be done in less time than it takes to make popcorn. Another clip that […]