Jan 15 2014
2013 IW Best Plants Winners: Peak Performers | Operations content from IndustryWeek
See on Scoop.it – lean manufacturing
Michel Baudin‘s comments:
It’s an annual ritual, like the Academy Awards.
See on www.industryweek.com
Press clippings
Dec 23 2013
Pinnacle Misses the Mark with Lean Manufacturing | Gunther W. Anderson | Iowa Labor News
See on Scoop.it – lean manufacturing
“…There is a difference between lean manufacturing and just plain cutting corners. Pinnacle is attempting to achieve a similar end result (increased profits and productivity) without investing the time, effort, and resources necessary to achieve those results through true lean manufacturing practices, and they are doing so at the expense of their workforce…”
Michel Baudin‘s comments:
This union member’s criticism of his company’s implementation of Lean is remarkable for being so constructive. He does not dismiss Lean Manufacturing as just another ploy by management to squeeze more out the workers.
Instead, he blames his company’s management for being Lean in name only. He quotes Mike Thelen and David Meier on what Lean is supposed to be, and contrasts it with what the company actually does.
Not having heard management’s side of the story, I have no idea of the extent to which his points are valid. The tone of the article, however, shows the author as a thinking man who wants to improve the way he works, exactly the kind of people you want around when genuinely implementing Lean.
See on iowalabornews.com
Dec 12 2013
If You’re Going to Change Your Culture, Do It Quickly | HBR Blog Network | Brad Power
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“The conventional wisdom is that it takes years to change a culture, defined as the assumed beliefs and norms that govern ‘the way we do things around here.’ And few organizations explicitly use culture as a way to drive business performance, or even believe it could make sense to do so.The logic usually works the other way — make specific changes in processes, and then hope that, gradually, the culture will change.
Yet some leading organizations are turning this conventional wisdom on its head. Consider Trane, the $8 billion subsidiary of Ingersoll Rand that provides heating, ventilating, air conditioning and building management systems. By focusing first on changing their culture, Trane has been driving results — and quickly.”
Michel Baudin‘s insight:
The article is supposed to be about any business organization, but the example presented is only about sales offices.
What do sales offices do? They communicate and negotiate with prospects to turn them into customers. They nurture relationships; attitude and teamwork are key to success at it. In sales, working on the “targeted behaviors of associates” is working on the process.
Manufacturing is a different. It is about production, not persuasion, and I don’t know of any successful change in manufacturing that would have been driven at the cultural level. When attempted, it quickly degenerates into the kind of exhortation and sloganeering that Deming denounced so vehemently.
I don’t know any manufacturing people who would be swayed by it. Instead, they need tangible, physical changes to the way work is being done, implemented with their input and diligently. Only the experience of improvement will change their perception of the work and the organization. Talk therapy won’t.
See on blogs.hbr.org
Nov 30 2013
How to Promote Disengagement | Lonnie Wilson | Industry Week
See on Scoop.it – lean manufacturing
“…workers come to work motivated and ready to be engaged. They just need to:
- know what to do
- how to do it
- be supplied with the resources to do it.
Then you will get their engagement…”
Michel Baudin‘s insight:
The cure Lonnie recommends in Hoshin Planning, and in particular the catchball process to bounce around ideas and strategies vertically and horizontally in the organization before committing to implement them.
Lonnie give several references on Hoshin Planning or Hoshin Kanri, but does not include my favorite, Pascal Dennis’s “Getting the Right Things Done” (http://bit.ly/XejqkK).
See on www.industryweek.com
Nov 22 2013
Manufacturing in America Infographic | U.S. Census Bureau
See on Scoop.it – lean manufacturing
Michel Baudin‘s insight:
These are the official numbers about the place of Manufacturing in the economy, in terms of employment, geographical distribution, materials consumption, energy consumption, capital investment, value of shipments, and contribution to exports.
In the US, we are lucky to have government agencies that compile unbiased economic statistics, and make much of the raw data available on line.
If you want to know the valued added per employee of an industry, or its ratio of indirect to direct employees, you can get the numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Economic Census.
As one would expect, the value added per employee is higher in semiconductors than in aluminum foundries. But the industry on the West Coast that, in aggregate, produces the most value added is computer assembly, and that, I didn’t expect.
See on www.census.gov
Jan 26 2014
880 Saskatchewan health care leaders study Lean at Virginia Mason | The StarPhoenix
See on Scoop.it – lean manufacturing
“Close to 900 health workers will make the pilgrimage to Seattle in search of factory efficiency for hospitals. Take a look inside at the origins of the world’s biggest health quality experiment. […] With Virginia Mason as their model, the treks are part of a sweeping overhaul of how the provincial health system is managed. […]More than a decade into a journey that’s never really finished, Virginia Mason now makes it its business to teach health care leaders from all over the world about the Virginia Mason Production System.”
This Canadian newspaper article is the most detailed account I have seen of the “Virginia Mason Production System.” Virginia Mason Medical Center is a Seattle hospital that has been converting to Lean since 2001and now has a business unit teaching others what it has done.
100 years ago, industrial engineer Frank Gilbreth developed the operating room procedures that are standard today, so it’s not the first time hospitals learn from manufacturing.
What this article gives is examples of the changes that were made at Virginia Mason, in particular the application of 3P (“Production Preparation Process”), involving patients in the design of new care units, and simulating with full scale mockups.
Other specifics include building design features to support maintenance and upgrades without disrupting care, the use of the two-bin system to manage medication supplies, and visual management.
And the article also touts the results that Virginia Mason achieved through this effort, in terms of both improved care and economic performance.
The StartPhoenix is a Saskatchewan newspaper, and the article also tells readers about the cost to taxpayers of the effort to emulate Virginia Mason in the entire health system of the province.
Most striking is the $39M contract over four years given to the Seattle consulting firm that helped Virginia Mason. As this translates to tens of people working full time on the project, it looks more like engineering than consulting.
See on www.thestarphoenix.com
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By Michel Baudin • Press clippings • 0 • Tags: Lean, Lean Health Care, Virginia Mason