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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.

Defect Chart and Display Board

by Pete Abilla on October 11, 2011

While on a hike with the kids last week, my eye caught this very nice Defect Display Board, explaining what is not appropriate to do on the hiking trail. This chart was nice because it was large, easily visible from a far distance, and is right at the entrance of the trail. In other words, [...]

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How to Check for Errors

by Pete Abilla on October 6, 2011

There are several approaches to checking for errors. In this article, I’ll discuss three common ways to check for process errors: Successive Check, Self Check, and Poka-Yoke (mistake proof). Below is a table that describes the three common strategies for checking errors and I also describe the positive and negative or each approach. Successive Checks [...]

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Taiichi Ohno: Do Not Fear Failure

by Pete Abilla on October 5, 2011

Continuing my review of Wakamatsu’s book on Taiichi Ohno, today we discuss his views on experimentation, learning from previous masters, and the difference between Ideas and Knowledge. To read my reviews of Wakamatsu’s book on Taiichi Ohno, please visit the links below. Taiichi Ohno on Standard Work Taiichi Ohno on Genchi Genbutsu Do Not Act [...]

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Taiichi Ohno on Lean Leadership

by Pete Abilla on September 28, 2011

lean leadership, toyota production system

In Yoshihito Wakamatsu’s book The Toyota Mindset, he explains Taiichi Ohno’s approach to Lean Leadership and how to deal with resistance to change. To read my reviews of Wakamatsu’s book on Taiichi Ohno, please visit the links below. Taiichi Ohno on Standard Work Taiichi Ohno on Genchi Genbutsu Do Not Act Spoiled Learn from Previous [...]

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Root Cause Failure Analysis

by Pete Abilla on September 20, 2011

nasa, root cause analysis, causal factor tree

Root Cause Failure Analysis is the term used at NASA – National Aeronautic Space Administration. Due to budget cuts, NASA was recently closed, but there are some good lessons-learned from when we did have a space program. One of those is their approach to Root Cause Analysis. Their approach is interesting, but also reveals a big weakness [...]

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Dyslexia Treatment: Poka-Yoke, Innovation, and Standard Work

by Pete Abilla on September 13, 2011

We know that when there is no standard, there is no Kaizen. We often think of this statement as referring to just processes. But, standards apply to a broad range of categories – even to the language, the means by which we communicate. More specific, the English alphabet – or the 26 letters in the [...]

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Waste of Information and Systemic Wastes

by Pete Abilla on September 6, 2011

We know that the 7 Wastes of Lean are not equal but they also build off of each other. For example, while overproduction might be present in a process, there is most likely overprocessing also as a result. This is also true for information, as the following story illustrates. In the most recent Fortune magazine, [...]

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Medical Records Storage: A Kaizen

by Pete Abilla on August 29, 2011

medical records storage cmopanies, kaizen

In early 2007, a friend I met from a conference on which he and I both spoke, shared an interesting project with me. He gave me permission to share this project, but without any names involved. At this person’s family practice, the clinical team had been dealing with unorganized medical records, leading to an unusually [...]

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