Posts tagged as:

lean manufacturing

Same Process, Different Context

by Pete Abilla March 26, 2010

The other day, I spent some time with a group within fulfillment and distribution.  In speaking with a few of the members of that group, I realized that our process is roughly the same process for admitting patients in an emergency room.  Then, it dawned on me. Same Process, Different Context.  And, Context is Everything. [...]

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Cost Savings for a Fortune 500 Company

by Pete Abilla February 4, 2010

Cummins Inc.1 reported their Q4 2009 earnings call today. In that call, they reported a cost savings of over $500MM due to their emphasis on Lean Thinking and Six Sigma. In the words of Tim Solso, Chairman and CEO of Cummins Inc: We also continue to make heavy use of Six Sigma to drive quality [...]

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Freedom within Framework

by Pete Abilla January 29, 2010

A fence keeps us safe from harm – often, from harming ourselves and from harming others.  In deployments of Lean Thinking at organizations, the principle of Freedom within Framework describes our approach well. Disambiguating the Fence A fence can be understood a few different ways: A Silo: A fence marks “mine” from “yours”.  This is [...]

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In Their Natural Environment

by Pete Abilla January 28, 2010

I scheduled a meeting this week and a room for our meeting.  During the course of our conversation, we began to discuss process and other items related to the their work.  Gratefully, I had enough awareness to stop the conversation and we, as a team, walked out to the Gemba and continued our discussion there. [...]

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Lean Thinking and the Amazon Kindle

by Pete Abilla December 11, 2009

I receive emails from recruiters – frequently.  So, as a favor to them, I am posting a job for your interest: the hiring company is Amazon.com. Below is one job description and contact information, but if you go to the Amazon.com website, there are over 50 open positions looking for people with experience in Lean [...]

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Shining Metal Pointing Direction

by Pete Abilla November 19, 2009
This entry is part 6 of 12 in the series Turnaround, Transformation, and Change Management

Hoshin Kanri is a management tool used at Toyota to align business strategy and mobilize the entire organization toward the business strategy. Hoshin Kanri means “Shining Metal, Pointing Direction” or “Directional Needle”.  In other words, Hoshin Kanri is a North Star or a Compass. An important element in Hoshin Kanri is the alignment of outcomes [...]

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Why Transformation Efforts Fail

by Pete Abilla September 28, 2009
This entry is part 3 of 12 in the series Turnaround, Transformation, and Change Management

Transformation or Change efforts sometimes fail.  In fact, the numbers are staggering – most of them fail.  While the root cause is wide and varied, there are general themes or characteristics that are important to keep in mind in your own transformation efforts.  Think of these as symptoms also — that a failure is around [...]

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Respect for People, Underutilized People, and Waste

by Pete Abilla September 24, 2009

The two pillars in Lean Thinking are Continuous Improvement and Respect for People.  What is not well understood is that most of what we know as The Toyota Production System comes from these two pillars.  The Lean sub-culture tends to over-emphasize the “tools” of Kaizen, but miss the point altogether, since the tools stem or [...]

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Poka-Yoke Pharmaceuticals

by Pete Abilla August 17, 2009

King Pharmaceutical (NYSE: KG) recently had a drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).  Their drug, Embeda, has an interesting property: If you take the medication as prescribed, it works fine; if you abuse the medication, it ceases to work.  This is Poka-Yoke (ポカヨケ) for Pharmaceutical drugs. Poka-Yoke (ポカヨケ), translated, means mistake-proof, or [...]

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