TPS Archives - Michel Baudin's Blog

Jun 17 2019

Is TPS Both a Dessert Topping and a Floor Wax?

“TPS can be applied to any setting, as long as you can define your customer and product…” – Darren Migita MD– Seattle Children’s

Quoted by Jun Nakamuro on LinkedIn from a podcast.

Michel Baudin‘s comments: To be fair, Dr. Migita is a pediatrician with 20 years of experience. His podcast is about adapting TPS to health care, not to “any setting.” It is an interview, a format that can trip up anybody.

What I find remarkable throughout is that Migita does not hide behind the word “Lean.” He explicitly refers to Toyota and Taiichi Ohno and vigorously asserts that you can borrow ideas for car making to improve patient care.

This opening sentence in Jun Nakamuro’s quote, however, makes TPS sound like Shimmer, the product once advertised on Saturday Night Live as “both a dessert topping and a floor wax.” It almost kept me from listening further.

By Michel Baudin • Blog clippings • 0 • Tags: Health care, Lean, Semiconductor Manufacturing, software development, TPS

Mar 31 2019

Industry 4.0 versus Manufacturing Improvement (Part 1)

There is a lesson that manufacturing leaders seem determined to learn the hard way: flooding factories with new technology does not improve their performance.

Roger Smith learned it at GM in the 1980s. Elon Musk, for all his other achievements, admitted by tweet to making the same mistake at Tesla last year.

To really improve manufacturing performance, you start with, as Crispin Vincenti-Brown put it, with “what happens when the guy picks up the wrench.” You work with that person to make the work easier, faster, safer, and less prone to deviations and errors. In doing this, you apply, as needed, technology you can afford that operators can work with.

This is hard work but it pays off. It is a key lesson learned from Toyota, TPS, and many companies that implemented it under the “Lean” label. But it’s an eat-your-vegetables message. The lure of a technological shortcut is irresistible.

By Michel Baudin • Information Technology • 17 • Tags: Digital Transformation, Industry 4.0, Lean, TPS

Oct 12 2018

For Lean Production to Work, a Company Needs to Be All In | Ellen Rosen | The New York Times

“For a company in Chesterfield, Mo., it involved something as seemingly simple as attaching a trash can to an employee’s chair. For one in St. Louis, it meant leaving the cover off an electronic temperature controller. For others it’s meant gathering employees from the chief executive on down for what’s known as Kaizen events — based on the Japanese word for continuing improvement. What do these seemingly unconnected efforts have in common? They are approaches to what is known as lean manufacturing — or, more recently, lean production — aimed at streamlining production processes, enhancing employee engagement and increasing profits.”

Source: The New York Times(10/11/2018)

Michel Baudin‘s comments: Thanks to Kevin Hop for drawing my attention to this article. Like him, I do read The New York Times regularly and usually appreciate the quality of its reporting. This article, however, does not measure up. It reflects the conventional wisdom on Lean manufacturing which, if anything, explains why so many implementations fail.

By Michel Baudin • Press clippings • 1 • Tags: Cellular manufacturing, industrial engineering, Lean, Manufacturing engineering, process engineering, Production Engineering, Toyota, TPS

Aug 14 2018

BOMs at Toyota | Discussion on LinkedIn

I shared the BOM rap post with the TPS Principles and Practices group on LinkedIn, in order to tap into the TPS knowledge in this group, and this is what I learned from Todd McCann, Carey Boggess, Jeff Merriss, Hein Winkelaar, and Gary D. Stewart.

My thanks to all for their valuable input on the control of BOMs within Toyota and the uses BOM data is put to. What these responses did not address, however, is the information model for the BOMs, including what items are in and how BOMs are structured at Toyota, as opposed to other companies.

By Michel Baudin • Technology • 0 • Tags: Bill of Materials, BOM, Toyota, TPS

Jul 27 2018

Lean Thinking: ingredients, incubation and diffusion | John Shook | Planet Lean

“What does it really mean to say that lean thinking is not uniquely Japanese? First, it indicates that not all Japanese companies are ‘lean.’ […] Secondly, we have successful examples of lean applications all around the world – not just in Japan […]. We know these things to be true.

To say, however, that lean is not uniquely Japanese doesn’t mean that there is nothing Japanese about it. So, let’s explore this second, little explored, idea. […] by asking more questions. One critical question we can ask ourselves is: “Could have TPS emerged anywhere other than Japan?” And finally, “What, if anything, is Japanese about lean thinking?”

My attempt to address these questions – an ever-changing effort as I reflect more and the world around us keeps evolving – has taken the shape of the graph you see below, which illustrates what I call the “Toyota double funnels”. There are three main sections to the graphic:

The left funnel represents a selection of key ingredients that, combined, have led to the creation of Toyota’s way of working.
The spiral in the middle of the graphic represents the actual genesis of the Toyota Way, TPS, TPD, TMS and lean thinking, which can be traced back to a 30-year period of incubation, between 1950 and 1980.
The right funnel represents the diffusion of this body of knowledge around the world, which started around the time of the NUMMI experiment, in 1984.

[…]I believe the spread of lean has been both a matter of diffusion and of dilution.[…] Along with the dilution, there’s been more than a little delusion, aided by consultants selling things under the name of “lean” that are far from the original intent of the thinking, system, and application.”

John Shook’s double funnel is reproduced here. Click on it to enlarge or view it on Planet Lean to click on each item and see more details.

Sourced through Planet Lean

Michel Baudin‘s comments: As usual, John Shook’s post is both grounded in deep knowledge and well written. The infographic is also clear and the popup boxes of information attached to each item on Planet Lean are a valuable enhancement. But I still don’t buy everything in it.

By Michel Baudin • Blog clippings • 2 • Tags: John Shook, Lean, Toyota, TPS

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.

By Michel Baudin • Management • 4 • Tags: ABC, Accounting, Activity-Based Costing, Cost, Game theory, Lean, TPS

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Is TPS Both a Dessert Topping and a Floor Wax?

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Industry 4.0 versus Manufacturing Improvement (Part 1)

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For Lean Production to Work, a Company Needs to Be All In | Ellen Rosen | The New York Times

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BOMs at Toyota | Discussion on LinkedIn

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Lean Thinking: ingredients, incubation and diffusion | John Shook | Planet Lean

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What Is Cost?

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Is TPS Both a Dessert Topping and a Floor Wax?

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Industry 4.0 versus Manufacturing Improvement (Part 1)

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For Lean Production to Work, a Company Needs to Be All In | Ellen Rosen | The New York Times

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BOMs at Toyota | Discussion on LinkedIn

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Lean Thinking: ingredients, incubation and diffusion | John Shook | Planet Lean

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What Is Cost?

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