Surprising Statements on The History of Lean

See on Scoop.itlean manufacturing

Sometimes the internet gives you the most surprising set of statements about a topic. Here are a few from this article:

  1. “Lean training came out of an industry program known as Six Sigma.” Oh yeah?
  2. “Six Sigma refers to the levels of training […] where different color belts are awarded, similar to judo.”  So each color of belt is a sigma? And the sigmas have nothing to do with process capabilities and defects?
  3. “Kaizen […] became known in the United States after World War II, when Japanese manufacturing techniques were being closely examined following the war.”  This is the first I hear of Americans going to study advanced manufacturing in Japan in 1945. I thought we were the ones who had sent expert to teach things like TWI or SQC to Japanese manufacturers.
  4. “The Kaizen methods […] recently have been incorporated into the broader philosophy of lean manufacturing.” And I thought Kaizen had been part of Lean since day 1!

See on ezinearticles.com