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Is it the End of an Era or Just another Lesson?0
- In the News, Lean Basics
- June 17, 2009
With the recent bankruptcy of General Motors, Jim Womack wrote a letter on The End of an Era. Womack is considered one of the originators of Lean Thinking in the US from studying Toyota in the 1980’s. His first book the Machine that Changed the World is the first books I ever read on Lean.
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Gemba Academy – A Source of Learning 0
- Lean Resources
- June 16, 2009
The Gemba Academy provides high quality online video training for individuals and groups. They currently have the School of Lean but will add later this summer the School of Project Management and the School of Six Sigma. We learned at the Gemba, or the place the work is done, and now we want to help
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A Great Resource at Gemba Panta Rei 0
- Lean Resources
- June 14, 2009
Gemba Panta Rei is a weblog about better ways to make things better from Gemba Research. Gemba Research is a global team of professionals dedicated to teaching kaizen and Lean management practices based on the Toyota Production System. Gemba is the Japanese term for “actual place”, often used for the place where value-creating work actually
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Single Point Lessons: An Educational Tool 0
- Lean Basics
- June 10, 2009
It is often said that lean is 90% people and 10% tools. Knowledge is the factor which determines the rate of change in organizations. How do we learn and teach this knowledge within our organization? Many organizations use a “train the trainer” method where knowledge is handed down from one individual to the next. This
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What are Lean Leaders Doing in Today’s Economic Crisis?0
- In the News, Lean Management
- June 4, 2009
A recent poll by the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI) shows that companies are giving more emphasis to Lean efforts during today’s economic pressures. Lean initiatives are increasingly being recognized as helping businesses through many challenging periods sometimes referred to as “burning platforms”. Related to this there was an interesting survey done recently by Stiles Associates,
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Is Inventory Reduction an Objective or a Result?0
- Lean Management
- May 31, 2009
Inventory is one of the eight deadly sins (wastes) in Lean manufacturing. This waste is often one that hides other wastes in our businesses. I think most are familiar with the river and boulder analogy. The water level in the river is the level of inventory and the boulders in the river and the problems
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A Lean Journey