Lean Archives | Page 61 of 67

Entropy, Salmon, and Swimming

By Ron Pereira - June 4th, 2008

A can of soup falls if you drop it, your car tire blows out when a nail punctures it, and eventually my barbeque grill cools down after grilling steaks, even in the hot Texas air. Why is this? Allow me to explain. While these things ar

Eight Reasons Your Lean/Six Sigma Initiative Could Fail

By Ron Pereira - June 1st, 2008

Launching a Lean or Six Sigma initiative signals a move towards operational excellence and a dedication to continuous improvement. Yet, navigating this journey successfully requires awareness of certain critical challenges that are oft

Conference Calls, Kids, and SMED

By Ron Pereira - May 30th, 2008

My wife is out of town to visit some relatives which means it’s me and my three kiddos for the weekend. Here is the sticky part. I had to arrange an important conference call today and was totally stressing out on how I was going to

Definitely Not the Pull System: Anderson Cooper 360

By Jon Miller - May 26th, 2008

Not exactly breaking news, but highly amusing: video link How many wastes can you spot in this video? What are the causes of these wastes? How would you redesign this system? Despite the “push”, is this system better or wor

What You Find on the Floor Tells You a Lot

By Jon Miller - May 15th, 2008

Look down and pay attention to what is on the floor you walk on, the next time you walk the floor. What you find on the floor tells you a lot about what kind of thinking you will find on the floor, carpeted or concrete. Most of us look

Calculating Optimal Crew Size in Mixed Model Cells

By Ron Pereira - May 13th, 2008

I have a question for you. How would you staff a cell that produces multiple products, all with varying cycle times? In this article I will offer my thoughts and am excited to hear your comments as to how you would (or do) approach it

How metrics like OEE often dictate behavior

By Ron Pereira - May 11th, 2008

A reader of the blog asked me the following question via email. By the way, if you ever have a question please feel free to drop me a line. I am a production engineer for 3 packaging lines and our overall indicator is overall equipme

Why Do Employees Underperform?

By Ron Pereira - May 9th, 2008

The best free lean magazine I know of, Industry Week, recently discussed an interesting survey done by LifeCare Inc. where they investigated why some employees underperform in their jobs. While I am from the school that says you nee

Is Toyota in Trouble?

By Ron Pereira - May 8th, 2008

When I launched Google News this morning my eyes were immediately drawn to the headline “Toyota Posts First Profit Drop in Three Years.” To summarize the article: Net income fell 28 percent to 316.8 billion yen ($3 billion) in the

Confused about Time

By Ron Pereira - May 1st, 2008

For those new to continuous improvement the concept of time can be confusing. In this article I hope to clear up some common misunderstandings. Takt Time The word takt comes to us from the German language and literally means pace or rh

Takt Time Competition at Gemba Panta Rei

By Ron Pereira - April 22nd, 2008

I recently wrote a guest blog over on Gemba Panta Rei where I set up a hypothetical takt time question. Jon Miller has been nice enough to offer up some sweet prizes for those who leave meaningful comments before May 1, 2008. So, if y

The Efficiency Conundrum

By Ron Pereira - April 15th, 2008

Ah yes, efficiency. If there was ever a word more abused I’d like to know about it. I don’t think there is. OK, maybe utilization. But efficiency is really butchered. So let’s dig into the efficiency conundrum a bit this evening

The Old Navy from Hell

By Ron Pereira - April 10th, 2008

My blogging goes in spurts. I seem to get on a “theme” and roll with that for a few posts. Well, regular readers of LSS Academy have likely sensed I have been on a “take action/5S” rant as of late. Well,

Don’t Step on the Tape!

By Ron Pereira - April 3rd, 2008

I recently worked on an amazing kaizen team. On the first day of the event, I was asked to say a few words. Since one of our main focus areas for the week was 5S, I decided to tell this group about my recent trip to Japan. Specifically

The Moving Constraint

By Ron Pereira - April 1st, 2008

Let me ask you a question. Is a moving constraint/bottleneck a good thing or bad thing? I contend it’s a good thing. No, I contend it’s a great thing. Allow me to explain. Let’s say there are three processes in your widget makin

Dealing with Doubting Thomas

By Ron Pereira - March 30th, 2008

Today, Roman Catholics around the world read about Doubting Thomas. No matter what your personal belief system is, I think there is much to learn from this story, especially for those of us attempting to drive change in our organizati

One Piece Flow Envelope Stuffing Experiment

10 Benefits of One Piece Flow

By Ron Pereira - March 27th, 2008

There are at least ten reasons one piece flow won’t work. But, I prefer to look at things positively. You know, the glass is half full. With this said, here are 10 benefits of implementing one piece flow. Benefit 1: Improves safety R

A Response to the Video Skeptics

By Ron Pereira - March 24th, 2008

It’s safe to say the kinds words, comments, and emails for my one piece flow video have far exceeded my expectations. While most of the comments and feedback have been extremely positive there have been a few skeptics in the crow

Respect for People: Japanese Style

By Ron Pereira - March 18th, 2008

During my recent travels through Japan I was paying close attention to the words and actions of the Japanese leaders we met. One of my trip goals was to gain a better understanding of how the Japanese practiced the concept of “respec

The Week in Lean Blogging: Wk. 11, 2008

By Jon Miller - March 16th, 2008

It seems like this was “back to basics week” in many ways, from my reading of various blogs. First there was Mike Wroblewski’s excellent post based on his experience from a recent kaizen event, about how a good layout

Toyota: 97% Efficient

By Ron Pereira - March 16th, 2008

Sitting on an airplane for 12 hours and dealing with a 14 hour time difference will definitely take it out of a person. But after a day of rest (if playing and chasing my 3 kids can be called rest) I am beginning to feel a little mor

JKE Update: Reflection and 122 Degree Sand!

By Ron Pereira - March 14th, 2008

The final exam for those of us on the Japanese Kaikaku Experience was like none other I have ever taken. We were buried in 122 degree Fahrenheit (50 degrees Celsius) sand and asked to recite the 10 kaizen commandments wearing nothing b

JKE Update: One Million Spark Plugs per Day

By Ron Pereira - March 13th, 2008

Today, on day 4 of my Japanese Kaikaku Experience, we visited the NGK spark plug factory where they produce approximately 1.1 million spark plugs per day. On our first day Brad, our guide, told us to focus on the good. He challenged

JKE Update: Information Overload

By Ron Pereira - March 12th, 2008

Hello from Kagoshima, Japan. Last night we stayed in a traditional Japanese style hotel. It was an experience to say the least! As cool as it was, Internet connection was not part of their offering… so I am a little behind

JKE Day 1: Harmony and Toyota

By Ron Pereira - March 10th, 2008

Awesome. That’s how day 1 of my Japanese Kaikaku experience turned out. I am not even sure where to start or what to say. My mind is so full… and I have 4 more days to go! Big Harmony After breakfast we began our day

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