Jun 29 2018

What Is Cost?

Costs are the object of heated arguments when working to improve manufacturing operations, with participants assuming that the notion of cost itself is self-evident while, in fact, they understand it differently and talk past each other. This is an attempt to bring some clarity to the subject.

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By • Management • 5 • Tags: , , , , , ,

Jun 8 2018

New Karakuri Kaizen Video From Toyota

My colleague Kevin Hop drew my attention to this video of Kazuhiko Furui showing some examples of Karakuri Kaizen at Toyota, the training of Toyota employees in coming up with new devices, and the iterations that go into making them work. It goes deeper into the topic than the videos I had posted earlier.

This is part of a series of videos called econohito, that shows actions by Toyota employees to avoid wasting power or water, and to collect electricity from solar panels. Perhaps the best way forward for sustainable development would be to shift away from cars altogether, but that’s not what this is about.

#toyota, #karakurikaizen, #econohito

By • Web scrapings • 6 • Tags: , ,

Jun 2 2018

Data Mining/Machine-Learning Tools In Manufacturing

This elaborates on the section on Analyzing The Data of the previous post. For a list of tools used for  “data mining” or “machine-learning,” I researched, for each one, who invented it, when it was invented, for what purpose, and what applications it has had in manufacturing, and summarized my findings in the table below.

I am, however, not satisfied with the level of applications I found and would like to crowdsource more. If you have made these or other tools useful in your own manufacturing environment, please share whatever information you can about your applications in the survey that follows.

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By • Data science • 1 • Tags: , , ,

May 31 2018

Stability Before Innovation | James Womack | The Lean Post

“Are we in the Lean Community lacking imagination and creativity? Indeed, do we take away the time and space for creativity and imagination from employees with our focus on standardizing work and our relentless process analysis […]? Or maybe this is backwards. Is it possible that […] a stable organization with stable processes enables successful innovation? […] Contrast Toyota’s methods with those of other companies generally believed to have brilliant, innovative ideas but no robust development, production, supplier management or even customer support processes, and which are short of funds. Not just Tesla but the whole VC-backed auto start-up industry come to mind.”

Sourced from The Lean Post

Michel Baudin‘s comments:

I don’t understand why Jim Womack restricts the discussion of stability and innovation to the car industry and the comparison with other companies to “VC-backed auto start-ups” that are short of funds. Toyota’s leaders grew the company by doing what they had to do to navigate the Japanese car industry. It is, in retrospect, a spectacularly successful model and worth studying. It is not, however, universally relevant.

Here in the heart of Silicon Valley, we view it as the worldwide hub of innovation, not the Nagoya area. Local entrepreneurs, VC-backed or not, have given us multiple generations of companies that are not exactly short of cash, like Hewlett Packard, Intel, Apple, eBay, Netflix, Google, Facebook,… Some of them are dabbling in the auto industry but most of their revenues come from elsewhere. It doesn’t make their practices and business models any less worthy of study than Toyota’s.

#innovation, #toyota, #siliconvalley

By • Blog clippings, Uncategorized • 5 • Tags: , ,

May 23 2018

Using Data Science To Improve Manufacturing

If you google “data-science + manufacturing,” what comes back is recycled hype about the factory of the future. The same vision has been painted before and hasn’t come to pass. Yet we are expected to believe that  this time it will be a “4th industrial revolution.” Whether it’s true or not, this happy talk is no help in today’s factories. “Data science” covers real advances in the art of working with data, and the more relevant question is what it can do to improve existing operations.

This is not just about reaping tangible benefits today rather than hypothetical ones in the future but also about acquiring skills needed to design new plants and production lines 5 years from now. These publications endow technology with a power to drive innovation that it doesn’t have. It is only a means for people to innovate. Their ability to do so hinges on their mastery of the technology, which is acquired by using it in continuous improvement.

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By • Data science • 7 • Tags: , , , , ,

May 22 2018

Toyota Attitude | Sam MacPherson | LinkedIn

Sam MacPherson just posted the following Toyota sign on LinkedIn:

Toyota Attitude

As usual with bilingual Toyota sign, the English is not great and the translation not perfectly accurate. With its tens of thousands of American employees, you might expect Toyota to use writers who know better than to mix nouns like “Teamwork” and a sentence like “We love Toyota” as items in the same list.

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By • Blog clippings • 2 • Tags: , ,

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