Hiroyuki Hirano lays out the approach to 5S in great detail and with great clarity. The book is filled with beautiful explanations like this diagram that bring scalable logic to…
Daniel J. Levitin explains organization via cognitive neuroscience principles, adding data and detail to many lean concepts along the way. Worker autonomy is called out as key to creativity. 'The…
“Indeed, the only truly serious questions are ones that even a child can formulate. . . They are the questions with no answers . . . it is questions with…
Much of lean practice centers around the elimination of waste. What precedes that is some training in the detection of waste, usually categorized under the eight lean wastes, viz., Defects, Overproduction,…
Sir Ken Robinson considers what a revolution in education might look like. His declared goal is to eliminate drop-out in schools, but the ideas may be universally applicable to all…
Ray Dalio talks about his life and the building of Bridgewater, the largest hedge fund (by assets) at $100+ billion. Many of his ideas mirror lean concepts. Here he talks…
In "Hit Refresh" Microsoft's third CEO, Indian-American Satya Nadella grapples with the notion of automation-related increases in productivity eliminating jobs. He is optimistic about the future of human work. "Finally,…
"The problem of recognition of production has seldom been approached properly . . . One error has been the orientation of indications of recognition towards results rather than towards processes…
From NASA in 1949 to offshore petroleum exploration, to civil aviation, food, to manufacturing in 1970, the FMEA has served to reduce waste in the form of defects, lost time,…
The CEO of Pal's Sudden Service, a privately-owned quick-service restaurant chain that won a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 2001, explains supplier development. 'They said a lot of the…
Lean in restaurants, from supply chain to construction to menus. "Well, it was very, very efficient. First of all, the investment cost was very low. And, you know, typical fast…
Should those continuous improvement suggestions that are not readily amenable to a business case be implemented? Will implementing them result in losses, or foster a culture that leads to profits?…
The beginning of lean for GM happened at the current Tesla plant in Fremont, CA. "The key to the Toyota production system was a principle so basic it sounds like…
This is a quick read on a system-level approach to reducing the number of errors and dealing with those that remain. ". . . if you're confronted with simple and…