May 9 2012
It’s Time to Rethink Continuous Improvement – blogs.hbr.org (blog)
See on Scoop.it – lean manufacturing
Who else is shocked by a phrase like “Six Sigma, Kaizen, Lean, and other variations on continuous improvement…”?
Since when is Lean a variation on continuous improvement? Instead, continuous improvement is a component of Lean, which includes many features that are not continuous improvement.
Kaizen does not belong in a list in parallel with Lean. It literally means “improvement” and is used in Japan to mean continuous improvement. In other words, this entry in the list refers to the list itself.
Six Sigma is a method developed at Motorola in the US to solve process capability issues and is not continuous improvement.
Is it one more list patterned after Borges’s classification of animals?
See on blogs.hbr.org
May 13 2012
Lean and ISO-9000: Strange Bedfellows
See on Scoop.it – lean manufacturing
This article is a critical review of a book called Lean Startup that I haven’t read yet and won’t comment about. The review itself, however, contains some surprising statements, about, for example, ISO-9000 being a technique that emerged as part of Lean, or a about Lean being “a system designed to produce a million identical, high-quality Corollas, Camrys, and Siennas.”
I am used to thinking of ISO-9000 as the product of an international body that is unrelated to Lean, and whose implementation is centered on compliance with generic procedures rather than effectiveness. Not exactly the Lean approach to quality.
The reviewer also appears to be confusing Lean with the system developed by Ford for Model Ts 100 years ago. Lean actually includes approaches to production for Low-Volume/High-Mix as well as High-Volume/Low-Mix environments.
See on www.human-habits.com
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By Michel Baudin • Blog clippings 0 • Tags: Lean, Product development, Quality