Lean leadership means achieving your goals by developing people, teaching them to create more value and learn to eliminate waste
The deep purpose of lean thinking is to benefit society by growing sustainable and profitable companies that continuously strive to satisfy their customers more completely. The trick to doing this is to focus every person in the company in figuring […]
Sadly, in many (by all means, not all) companies, the Lean Director is the worst enemy of lean – he’s just there to stifle all real kaizen and promote the yes-men who excel at pretend lean. Why is that? True […]
“A good movie is three good scenes, no bad scenes,” once quipped Howard Hawks. The Corolla’s first Chief Engineer established the doctrine of “80 points + alpha.” The idea is that, in developing a new products there are 80 points […]
Let’s face it, Europe’s time has passed and even European outshoots from America to Australia are waning. This is Asia’s century. Dr. Marcus Chao, one of my mentors who coaches me on the vast mystery that is China keeps chiding […]
These days, the rage in lean is all about “management system”, “hoshin kanri” or “standard work.” Where is kaizen gone? In the last conference I attended, three people independently quoted Taiichi Ohno reportedly saying “without standards, there can be no […]
Don’t kid yourself, your engineering strategy is your strategy. Engineering has progressively been devolved by professional managers to just another department who’s job is to realize the long list of specifications Marketing has dreamed up – as well as take […]
Andon is not for management to visualize problems, it’s for operators to help management understand quality. Yesterday, I witnessed that rare (very rare) feat: a company trying to set up an andon. Andon means that operators have a button to […]
The cornerstone idea of Lean thinking is that “to make quality products we first have to develop quality people.” But what does it mean to “develop people”? Our obsession bureaucratic conditioning tends to make us think in terms of Roles and […]
Choosing to quit smoking is one thing, deciding not to have that cigarette is another. Chasing is a lifestyle choice, an orientation that is going to make your life better. Decisions is picking one among several options at any one […]
Why does any organization seem to be caught in an endless cycle of success and failure? Why do they lose their purpose, then reinvent themselves? Yang is the clear sword, the strike, the attack energy the pinpoint focus. Yang is […]
