May 14 2013
Improvement at Chrysler supplier Dakkota | Automotive News
See on Scoop.it – lean manufacturing
Dakkota Systems’ instrument panel factory is joined at the hip to Chrysler’s Windsor minivan assembly plant.
See on www.autonews.com
Kaizen
Apr 26 2013
Improving operations: How far can you go with common sense?
In the Lean Six Sigma discussion group on LinkedIn, Brian P. Sheets argues that ” the alphabet soup of acronyms describing the multitude of process improvement & management methodologies that have come and gone over the last 50 years […] is just plain, old, common sense.” The list he targets in this statement is Six Sigma, TQM, BPR, BPM, TOC, MBO, Kaizen, and Gemba Kaizen, and overlap the one I discussed earlier in this blog. To support his argument, he invokes not only the great work done in US manufacturing during World War II without these acronyms, but goes back all the way to Egypt’s pyramids.
I see things differently. The old days were not so great and we have learned a few new tricks in the 68 years since the end of World War II, as a result of which we are not only able to make better products, but we also use fewer people to make them, at a higher quality. There definitely is something to some of the ideas that have been packaged under various brands in that time, and it is definitely more than common sense.
What is common sense anyway? The common sense approach to a problem is the solution that would be chosen by an intelligent person without any specialized knowledge. It is what you resort to when faced with a new situation you are unprepared for, like the businessman played by Anthony Hopkins in The Edge, who is stranded in the Alaskan wilderness by a plane crash and has to kill a grizzly.
Once you have been working on something for a few years, however, you are supposed to have acquired specialized knowledge of it, and apply solutions that are beyond common sense. And these solutions are counter-intuitive to anyone without this experience. Lean manufacturing concepts like one-piece flow or heijunka are bewildering to beginners, because they have nothing to go by beyond their common sense.
“Common sense,” Descartes said, “is the most fairly distributed thing in the world, for each one thinks he is so well-endowed with it that even those who are hardest to satisfy in all other matters are not in the habit of desiring more of it than they already have.” After that, he proceeds to explain a method “to seek truth in science” and presents three applications of this method, the best known being analytic geometry. All of this is far beyond common sense.
For all these reasons, I am not too fond of invoking common sense in support of any new concept. What you really need is a rationale, and experimental proof through a small scale implementation.
Mar 14 2013
To consultants on point Kaizen: forget about it | Bodo Wiegand’s Watch
See on Scoop.it – lean manufacturing
“Sometimes, I can’t believe it – within the past 2 weeks, I was at 2 plants in Switzerland and Germany, that have both tried to introduce Lean for a year and a half, using Point Kaizens in the whole company, and failed mercilessly…”
Michel Baudin‘s insight:
This is Bodo Wiegand’s monthly newsletter. It is in German. In the past, I have provided complete translations of some of his letters and may do so again if there is popular demand.
In the meantime, if you cannot read German, you can use Google translate to get the gist of what he is saying.
See on wiegandswarte.de
Mar 12 2013
A "Kaizen" Improvement at a Wine Bar – Is it "Lazy" or Smart? | Mark Graban
See on Scoop.it – lean manufacturing
“Progress isn’t made by early risers. It’s made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.” – Robert Heinlein, American science fiction writer (July 7, 1907
With “kaizen,” the Japanese word meaning “change for the better” (and an improvement methodology), it often seems like a fine line between “lazy” and “efficient.”
The word “lazy,” has negative connotations, while “efficient” is positive. But one of the primary directions in the kaizen approach is to make improvements that make your own work easier.
In healthcare, making ones work easier might translate into rearranging supplies to reduce the amount of walking required. This frees up more time for patient care, which leads to better quality outcomes and shorter hospital stays – meaning a cost savings. So is “laziness” really that bad if applied in a good way?…
See on www.linkedin.com
May 17 2013
Lean Assembly, Lean Logistics, and Euclides Coimbra’s Changes
My fellow consultant and author Euclides Coimbra has only written two reviews on Amazon, both on July 3, 2006, giving five stars to my books Lean Assembly and Lean Logistics, and commenting as follows:
A few months later, I went to work for him, and grew to appreciate his consulting talents. We parted later on good terms and I considered him a friend.
I just received a copy of his 2013 book, Kaizen in Logistics & Supply Chains, and found much overlap in subject matter with the two books of mine that he previously considered a “wonderful contribution” and a “must have.” I assume he changed his mind because they are not in the bibliography, and I couldn’t find my name anywhere in his book.
Share this:
Like this:
By Michel Baudin • Book reviews • 1 • Tags: Euclides Coimbra, Kaizen, Lean assembly, Lean Logistics, Logistics, Supply chain