PermutationsLow volume, high mix, endless combinations
Wed, 04/30/2014 - 10:09
For many years I worked for a manufacturer of pressure and temperature switches, a small company with a very big product selection. In our product catalog there were roughly three dozen distinct product families with hundreds of standard products,… The Road to LeanIs yours paved with the wrong intentions?
Mon, 04/14/2014 - 12:55
An old TV series I watched recently reminded me of an experience I’ve had many times in my work. In this I Love Lucy episode, Lucy is ordered by Ricky to create a schedule to make her “more efficient.” A schedule board, posted in their home, is a “… LinesWhat lines?
Tue, 03/25/2014 - 18:11
As any conference-goer can attest, the shortest distance between two points is not a straight line when that line is the lunch line. At lean conferences like the ones I’ve attended, it’s especially incongruous to hear stories all morning about… Talking TurkeyReflections on American slang and change agents
Mon, 03/10/2014 - 15:11
Across a large swath of the United States, the winter has been especially cold, snowy, and dreary this year. So here’s a post with a link to a cheery video at the end, just to pick my spirits up—and maybe yours, too.
The English language can be… Knowledge WorkDid Drucker’s prediction lead U.S. manufacturers down a knowledge-worker rathole?
Thu, 02/13/2014 - 12:48
An engineering manager who I worked with 25 years ago challenged me one day. “You know, Bruce, if all employees were engineers, you wouldn’t need mistake-proofing,” he said. At the time, I was too stunned by his comment to even respond. But happily… PatienceSometimes, it isn’t a virtue
Mon, 01/27/2014 - 10:36
In 1966, a freshman at a college in Maine attended a speech given by Floyd McKissick, newly appointed head of the Congress of Racial Equality, better known as CORE. In the packed auditorium there were no more than a half-dozen African-Americans… Stagnation NationCan you imagine a flowing stream through your workplace?
Thu, 01/09/2014 - 11:33
Twenty years ago, I was introduced to a graphical method for, as it was put to me, “sharing what you see” with others. It was referred to as a material and information flow diagram, or M&I for short.
Brian S., a consultant from TSSC who was… Clearing the BarManagers, when you say jump, show them how it’s done
Tue, 12/03/2013 - 08:49
When I was 50 years younger and 50 pounds lighter, I tried my hand at pole vaulting. It’s a peculiar track-and-field event that involves running at full speed with a heavy pole in hand toward a crossbar set high off the ground.
At about three… Half-Full or Half-Empty?When optimism is seen as complacency
Tue, 11/12/2013 - 16:16
I’ve always felt the need to accentuate the positive, something I think I picked up from my mother. In tense situations she would always interject, “Isn’t it a beautiful day?” This usually generated laughter and reduced tensions. Although this… Innovation CentennialAre you building employees as well as products?
Tue, 10/15/2013 - 10:34
Last week marked the 100th anniversary of the introduction of a moving assembly line at Henry Ford’s Highland assembly plant, an innovation that inaugurated mass production.
Ford was not the first to build cars in an assembly line. Ransom Olds did…
