Today, because of the virus and our inability to control it millions of people are working autonomously at home. I call companies and in the past I would get someone in a few minutes, I am now left on the line up to an hour. I am now waiting to speak to someone at Verizon,… Continue reading Autonomy and the Virus
To date, Japan 963 died, USA 124,789 died. The US government is totally ineffectual. Only choice is for industry to become truly socially responsible and act in unison to put our society back together again. 181 of our top corporations made a new commitment to be more socially responsible. The virus has disrupted our society.… Continue reading The virus – June 25, 2020
You add value when you convert raw materials to finished goods. You add value from your knowledge and skill. The opposite is adding waste. Ohno wanted you to just observe and look for waste to eliminate but it is not easy to identify waste. Ohno didn’t always know where waste was hidden. He often went… Continue reading The real key is adding value
I was with Taiichi Ohno at Toyota Gosei and Mr. Iwata his assistant came over to me and said, “I am leaving Toyota Gosei and want to come to America to teach, would you help me?” I said, yes. I arranged with Jake Brake, a Danaher company, to run the first kaizen blitz in America.… Continue reading How to do Lean – the kaizen blitz
In the 1800’s, I believe that most men were highly skilled craftsmen or farmers and along comes Frederick Taylor and Henry Ford. They simplified work. Set up the assembly line, and gave people repetitive and boring work. But, Ford Motor became the most successful and one of the richest companies in the world. Almost all… Continue reading A Great Lean Waste – the under-utilization of people’s talents
Ohno once said, “At Toyota we have no warehouses.” Toyota wants Just-in-time. You deliver what is needed when it is needed in the quantity needed. Ohno once said that it is better for the entire factory to stop when there are external problems than to have any inventory – buffer stock. Yes, the virus has… Continue reading Inventory is a waste. To Taiichi Ohno inventory was the biggest waste.
“You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” – attributed to Abraham Lincoln I recommend you stop fooling them. (period) Clearly you should treat all customers with respect, with care and with love. You know… Continue reading Without happy customers, you will not be in business very long.
The virus has changed the very nature of work for many people – they are working at home. Companies realize that many of those at home will continue to do so. It saves on office space and associated costs. It reduces the number of people at work to allow others to distance themselves; making the… Continue reading Autonomy
How do you eliminate defects? 1. First visualize that you can reach zero defects. Believe in it. 2. Plan five steps to attain zero defects. 3. Never punish people for their mistakes. Let them learn from their mistakes. Encourage them, support them and praise them. Set up a mistake board where people can show their… Continue reading How to do Lean – defects
For 50 years, based on Milton Friedman’s teaching, America corporations, and many of the world’s corporations have been focusing on “profits only,” and they have neglected the customer, their employees, their suppliers, their communities and the environment. Now, 181 of the top US corporations have made a new commitment to become social responsible and to… Continue reading Why I wrote the book?
