Nov 26 2011
Via Scoop.it – lean manufacturing
This student, who is “out of time and juggling many other tasks” is asking freelancers to bid on writing an essay on ERP and Lean Manufacturing for him. He has so far seven bidders offering to do it for an average of $78.
Via www.freelancer.com
Nov 25 2011
The German Automotive Lean Production Awards 2011 were given at BMW World in Munich on 11/23, to Volkswagen in Bratislava , TRW in Koblenz, BMW in Leipzig and Landshut, Continental in Regensburg, and Behr in Mühlacker.
These awards have been given since 2005, based on studies conducted jointly by the German Automobil Produktion magazine and Agamus Consult. These studies are focused on the following questions:
Compared ot the Shingo Prize, the study questionnaire is more focused on tools and performance, and the first few questions are aimed at establishing that the candidate is in the automotive industry. The questionnaires are addressed to the managers responsible for Lean in production, logistics and development, as well as operations managers. A delegation of experts then visits the candidates selected based on the questionnaires. The involvement of one particular consulting firm in the organization of the award process would in the US be viewed as a conflict of interest. The Shingo Prize is run out of Utah State University, and uses consultants from multiple firms in its audit teams.
The process by which these awards are given otherwise raises the same questions as for the Shingo Prize: how good are they as predictors of superior long-term performance ?
Nov 25 2011
Via Scoop.it – lean manufacturing
This is first-person account by a Singaporean acadenic of a two-day course culminating in a tour of the Tahara assembly line.
Via blog.nus.edu.sg
Nov 24 2011
Via Scoop.it – lean manufacturing
James Hereford, COO of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, prefers to use the original Japanese terms when deploying Lean, arguing that it doesn’t really matter whether words are Japanese or English, and that many Lean terms have no exact translation. While it is true for Kaizen or Kanban, it is not for Gemba, which he gives as an example. Gemba just means “actual place,” nothing more. As a general term, in English, it is not very telling but, in context, it can be replaced with shop floor, lab, operating room, race track, or back office, and there are more urgent things to do to implement Lean than burdening your audience with new, unnecessary words. My main concern in the field is to communicate as effectively and as precisely as possible, and I have found it easier with words my audience already knows, used literally when possible, and metaphorically when not.
People choose words for all sorts of reasons that have nothing to do with conveying a meaning, such as the following:
Foreign words can serve all of these purposes, which I don’t pursue.
I still think foreign words are OK when:
Takt is German for musical bar or stroke, as in a four-stroke engine, and I have never seen a reasonable English equivalent to it in takt time. On the other hand, Kevin Hop and I struggled with the Japanese zentenatamadashi, which even Google knows nothing about. Literally, it means “all items sticking out their heads,” and Honda engineer Ray Sanders translated it as “Single-Piece Presentation.” We adopted it because it is accurate, descriptive, easy to remember, and no longer than the original.
Nov 23 2011
Via Scoop.it – lean manufacturing
“…Over the next two years, the center will work with The Nugget Co. to improve its wastewater treatment processes and to reduce the amount of water the manufacturer uses to produce its sheep and lambskin products…” (http://t.co/RcyYivMr) This is a novel application of Lean. I understand why overuse of water may be a problem for the company, but not what part of Lean might conceivably solve it. Assuming that water plays a part in the chemistry of leather making, the amount consumed is a matter of process engineering, and it is difficult to imagine anyone other than experienced process engineers finding how to reduce it without hurting quality. Lean projects typically improve the way an organization executes its processes, but not the processes themselves. They affect line and workstation design, operating policies, production control methods, and support activities, but usually not the phyics or chemistry of the processes.
Via story.manufacturingmirror.com
Nov 26 2011
And the Winners of the Gastev Cup for 2011 are…
This is a translation of the announcement in the Russian Business Excellence magazine. You can also watch the award ceremony on Youtube, in Russian without subtitles, from honorable mentions to the cup itself.
The Gastev Cup for business effectiveness
The overall winner and winners in individual categories of the Gastev Cup, Russia’s first competition in business effectiveness, were announced during the Moscow VI Forum on Development of Production Systems, formerly known as Lean Forum. The ceremony capped a long enough period of checking the conformity of the production systems of the candidate companies to the contest requirements. For several months the team of independent auditors visited the candidates, from St. Petersburg to Novosibirsk.
And the winners are:
Honorable mentions were also also awarded to Packer, from the October region, Saturn -Gas Turbines from Rybinsk, Spartacus from Kazan, and Elsib from Novosibirsk.
Expert opinion from Konstantin Novikov
Konstantin Novikov is general director if Stal steel works in Omsk, and member of the Council of Lean Production Professionals.
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By Michel Baudin • Press clippings • 0 • Tags: Continuous improvement, Lean manufacturing, Management