Let me give a big ole’ Texas-sized hat tip to Bob Emiliani for sending me the sad article with the headline  “General Motors Lays Off Workers at NY Plant.” This is in addition to General Motors Co. (GM) suspending its Shreveport, Louisiana, assembly plant last week due to a choke in supplier parts coming from Japan.

The media will let GM off the hook because the parts shortages are the result of the tragic Japan earthquake. But the media also loves to pile blame on just-in-time (JIT) supply chain practices (or more broadly, criticize lean methodology).

Ironically, GM appears to be following the JIT practices often associated with lean without also following what Toyota calls the “respect for people” principle. A truly lean-thinking company like Toyota would not lay off those workers. GM did. GM chose to.

So let’s beat up on JIT for awhile

Here are the facts of the GM story.

 …