lean approach

Management Approach – Beyond Management by Walking Around

4 August 2010 0 comments

Most executives pride themselves on being connected to their business, no matter how large. They perform site visits to far flung operations with lots of small talk, hand shaking, and conference room meetings. It often looks like the practices decribed in this article and this one which is better.   In my experience, these activities can [...]

Read the full article →

Lean Buzz – FOTM?

2 June 2010 0 comments

The increasing buzz around Lean makes me worry that it is headed for FOTM status (that is flavor of the month or maybe year)?  It looks eerily like the situation around Six Sigma about 5 years ago.  The increasing buzz about Lean seems to lack much understanding of how it might be used specifically in [...]

Read the full article →

Rethinking Lean Implementation in the Wake of the Toyota Mess

16 February 2010 0 comments

In the wake of the current Toyota mess, it is time to rethink Lean implementation approaches and even the common definitions of Lean.  Many in the Lean community have long held up Toyota as the ideal.  They are still a great manufacturer, but very clearly not perfect.  In fact, Toyota may have some very fundamental [...]

Read the full article →