Nov 3 2015

Cars Per Employee And Productivity At Volkswagen Versus Toyota

Seen this morning in a Lean consultant’s blog:

“Two decades later, VW has topped Toyota as the world’s number one automaker, but Toyota generally is considered to be […] far more productive. In 2015, VW employs 600,000 people to produce 10 million cars while Toyota employs 340,000 to produce just under 9 million cars…”

Is it really that simple? VW produces 10 million/600,000 = 16.67 cars/employee/year, and Toyota 9 million/340,000 = 26.47 cars/employee/year. Ergo, Toyota is 60% more productive than VW — that is, if you accept cars/employee/year as an appropriate metric of productivity.  Unfortunately, it is a bad metric that can easily be gamed by outsourcing.

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By • Metrics • 2 • Tags: , , ,

Oct 29 2015

“I’ve had results with Lean but Corporate pushes ERP. Any advice?” | LEI | Michael Ballé

Question:  “I’m the head of a business unit and have had visible results with lean. Yet, my corporate colleagues refuse to acknowledge this and want to force their ERP and purchasing practices on my division. This is very frustrating – any advice?”

Answer: “I certainly understand (and share) your frustration and, unfortunately, I don’t really have useful advice[…] No easy answers”

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.lean.org

Michel Baudin‘s comments:

Ballé then follows up the non-advice with a 1,079-word essay where, among other developments, he equates the use of ERP with colonialism, leading to the conclusion that there are no easy answers.

Let us assume that the question is from a real manager in a real situation, in a position to make choices with real consequences for his or her career as well as for the company. It deserves an answer.

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By • Blog clippings • 1 • Tags: , , ,

Oct 28 2015

Akio Toyoda’s aggressive reboot | Automotive News

Akio Toyoda is rolling out an aggressive overhaul of Toyota Motor Corp. that aims to improve everything from manufacturing and product planning to design and human resources.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.autonews.com

See on Scoop.it – lean manufacturing

By • Press clippings • 1 • Tags: , ,

Oct 27 2015

Standardization Doesn’t Stamp Out Creativity | The Deming Institute Blog | John Hunter

“[…] One of the things I find annoying, in this way, is that reducing variation and using standardization is said to mean everyone has to be the same and creativity is stamped out. This is not what Dr. Deming said at all. And the claim makes no sense when you look at how much emphasis he put on joy in work and the importance of using everyone’s creativity. Yet I hear it over and over, decade after decade.”

Sourced through Scoop.it from: blog.deming.org

Michel Baudin‘s comments:

Yes, the metric system did not stifle anybody’s creativity. By making commerce, engineering, and science easier, it actually helped creative people innovate, invent, and discover.

But when Deming says “Standardization does not mean that we all wear the same color and weave of cloth, eat standard sandwiches, or live in standard rooms with standard furnishings,” he seems to exclude the possibility that standardization could be abused.

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Oct 26 2015

Unilever’s new program for WCM | business-improvement.eu | Jan van Ede

“Unilever changed their approach in 2012. Within Fiat they discovered a balanced WCM-program, developed by professor emeritus Hajime Yamashima. He integrated Lean and Six Sigma from the start in the TPM management pillars. The result: more focus, better opportunities for cross-departmental improvement, and more attention to the role of the people.”

Sourced through Scoop.it from: business-improvement.eu

Michel Baudin‘s comments:

In the late 1980s, as part of Kei Abe’s MTJ team, I went to Unilever facilities in the Netherlands, Italy, the UK, and the US to help them implement what had yet to be called “Lean.” Unilever was impressive as an organization in that, in markets including detergents, processed foods, mass-market toiletries and prestige cosmetics, they were afraid of nobody, anywhere.

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By • Press clippings • 0 • Tags: , , , ,

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