May 20 2012
Behind The Wheel | LogisticsWeek
See on Scoop.it – lean manufacturing
A detailed account of Lean Logistics tools as used by an Indian car manufacturer.
See on logisticsweek.com
About Michel Baudin
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May 17 2012
Tesla Motors revives NUMMI plant in Fremont, CA
See on Scoop.it – lean manufacturing
An article on how Tesla is reviving the shuttered NUMMI plant in Fremont, CA, with a production line designed by Toyota Alumnus Gilbert Passin.
See on www.bloomberg.com
May 17 2012
How An Aeron Chair Gets Built Every 17 Seconds
See on Scoop.it – lean manufacturing
Cliff Kuang:
Amidst all the doom-and-gloom about the death of American manufacturing, the one, simple fact that’s usually forgotten is that we’re still the world’s No. 1 manufacturer. No joke, and not a typo: We produce one fifth of the world’s total manufacturing output.
The difference between how Americans once made stuff and how that stuff is made today is that manufacturing in the U.S. has reached a stunning level of efficiency that can be hard to really comprehend. Unless, of course, you visit a factory like the one that makes Herman Miller’s Aeron chair. We recently did, and saw a process which has yielded a 500% increase in productivity and a 1,000% increase in quality since 1998…
See on www.fastcodesign.com
May 16 2012
Two news stories highlight conflicting interpretations of Kaizen
Dateline 3/16/2012, Marion, Ill: Aisin recognized with top achiever award. This article recounts how “Aisin Manufacturing Illinois of Marion was recently recognized for their success among all Aisin operations in North America, as the top achiever in the 1-person/1-kaizen program. The 1-person/1-kaizen program is a national program that allows Aisin team members the opportunity to submit and implement ideas for improvement in the areas of safety, quality, cost, delivery or environmental.” In other words, it is an individual suggestion system.
Dateline 3/19/2012, Anoka County, MN: County taking Lean approach to government. The approach to improve the processing of paternity cases was designed by outside consultants, Innovation Process Design, LLC. Their were implemented “using the Kaizen process.” Since recommendations from outside consultants couldn’t possibly be implemented by individual employee suggestions, “Kaizen” obviously does not have the same meaning as in the Aisin story. Drilling through from the article, you reach a government website from the EPA, which defines Kaizens as “rapid improvement processes,” organized in the form of events.
That Kaizen should mean something so radically different in the Japan and the US would not be a problem if the success of the original, Japanese Kaizen were not used to promote the made-in-the-USA Kaizen events. One particularly unfortunate consequence is the quasi-total absence of Kaizen activity in the original senses in US factories that are not Japanese transplants.
May 15 2012
IndustryWeek : Thanks to Lean, Wabash National Keeps on Truckin’
See on Scoop.it – lean manufacturing
When demand dropped off a cliff — only to bounce back dramatically a year later — a lean overhaul helped the truck-trailer manufacturer diversify and create the flexibility it needed to survive.
See on www.industryweek.com
May 21 2012
The OSKKK Methodology
See on Scoop.it – lean manufacturing
The author of this PDF document, Greg Lane, “learned this simple method while working for Toyota. There is nothing profound in these simple ideas…”
OSKKK stands for the following:
See on www.jobshoplean.org
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By Michel Baudin • Blog clippings • 0 • Tags: Kaizen, Lean manufacturing, Toyota