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Articles on Lean Manufacturing, Lean Six Sigma, and The Toyota Production System

The Toyota Production System, or Lean Manufacturing as it has come to be called, is the production system developed by Toyota to identify and eliminate waste. It’s pillars are Continuous Improvement and Respect for People. It’s methodology includes both a worldview and tools to make work better through the systematic elimination of waste and a thorough approach to developing people.

I’m Nobody Special, But I’m Speaking Anyway

by Pete Abilla on January 22, 2008

lecture on lean manufacturing and six sigma

Yes, my face is on the front cover of the brochure (PDF Download). But, little does the audience know that that picture (I’m the second, from the left, but better viewed in the PDF brochure) was taken while I was sitting on a fake sheep during a family trip to the animal farm at Thanksgiving [...]

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Takt Time and Dumber-by-the-Minute

by Pete Abilla on January 17, 2008

I remember a very humbling experience of thinking that I knew how to solve problems and being shown just the opposite by an hourly associate. That was during my internship while I was in graduate school; I was haughty, boasting that I came from a top university and demonstrating in my thoughts and body language [...]

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The Hidden Factory: Would the Customer Pay for That?

by Pete Abilla on January 14, 2008

The Hidden Factory is a term that refers to activities in an operation or standard operating procedure (SOP). A few examples of Hidden Factories are workarounds, rework, or any of the 7 wastes, which I will describe below. Most organizations have some form of a Hidden Factory and being able to “see” these hidden factories [...]

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Representing an Idea with Visual Identity

by Pete Abilla on January 9, 2008

My daughter recently turned 10 years old. So, because her friends have email and communicate via email, I recently helped her obtain an account. In the process, we both learned something very important about abstract ideas and the icons we use to visually represent them. My daughter attempted to create a “Contact List” of people [...]

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Everyday Poka-Yoke: Cost of Poor Quality

by Pete Abilla on December 12, 2007

There is wisdom in the definition of Six Sigma, which is 3.4 defects per one million opportunities (DPMO), allowing for a 1.5 Sigma shift. But, some companies subscribe to sloganeering such as “Zero Defects”. The “Zero Defects” sloganeering is counterproductive, unhelpful, statistically impossible, and completely cost prohibitive. Statistically, zero defects means a defect level of [...]

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Agile, Lean, and the Silver Bullet

by Pete Abilla on December 11, 2007

Today, Mary Poppendieck responds to Corey Ladas‘ question on the relationship between Agile and Lean and what to make of all the methodologies in software engineering. Corey Ladas said, November 28, 2007 @ 4:23 pm Lean would seem to allow for a broader set of ideas and practices than some Agile adherents would find acceptable. [...]

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Poppendieck: Should Lean be top-down or bottom-up?

by Pete Abilla on December 5, 2007

Last week, I invited the readers of shmula to pose questions to Mary and , the authors of Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit for Software Development Managers (Paperback), which won the Software Development Productivity Award in 2004 and, the sequel Implementing Lean Software Development: From Concept to Cash (Paperback). Several questions were submitted and, [...]

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Poppendieck on Waste & The Handoff

by Pete Abilla on December 2, 2007

Last week, I invited the readers of shmula to pose questions to Mary and Tom Poppendieck, the authors of Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit for Software Development Managers (Paperback), which won the Software Development Productivity Award in 2004 and, the sequel Implementing Lean Software Development: From Concept to Cash (Paperback). Several questions were submitted [...]

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