Lean Archives | Page 65 of 67

Could Work Kill You?

By Ron Pereira - May 8th, 2007

I am a frequent flier and thus read lots of airplane magazines. One of the better mags of the sky is American Way from American Airlines. The May issue is about all things Asia. There are several good articles but the one that really c

Outsourcing versus Offshoring

By Ron Pereira - May 6th, 2007

It seems like every time I turn around there is a new survey. One says Lean rocks, one says almost everyone that tries Lean fails, and one says Dilbert ruined Six Sigma. OK, this last one is stretching it a bit. Maybe. Well just today

Standards, Abnormality and the Ideal

By Jon Miller - May 3rd, 2007

The topic of warusa kagen led to some interesting further thought. The following statements are all true: 1. When work is performed in the absence of a standard, this is an abnormality 2. When standards exist but are not being followed

Wanna Be Lean? Buy Some Carousels.

By Ron Pereira - May 3rd, 2007

I recently came across an article that irritated me. The gist of its message is that once all the “easy stuff” with Lean is taken care of… you know like respecting people, improving quality, and pulling material through t

Repent, I mean Hansei!

By Ron Pereira - May 2nd, 2007

I never seem to stop learning from my friend Jon Miller. I wanted to write a post about hansei and thus decided to dig around to see what other bloggers had to say on the topic. I typed hansei into Google and mid way through the firs

Bad Management

By Ron Pereira - April 27th, 2007

After submitting my post last night I wondered if my overly optimistic attitude was unrealistic. Only one person has commented on the post and this person seemed to think I was off my rocker a bit. I also got to thinking of the recent

Complainers Wear Me Out

By Ron Pereira - April 26th, 2007

One of my biggest pet peeves is when people constantly complain about how management or some authoritative body (i.e. government official, church leader, etc.) is doing them wrong. These people, you likely know a few, usually complain

Lean Landscaping

By Ron Pereira - April 23rd, 2007

Some people say mixing Lean and Six Sigma with your home life is wrong. I couldn’t disagree more. I mean come on… are we supposed to just stop trying to make things better after leaving the plant? That makes no sense to me a

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

By Ron Pereira - April 22nd, 2007

My wife and I have been blessed with 3 kid’s ages 4, 2, and 8 months. One of things we have always done is read to them – a lot. We read to them before bed and many times before naps. Today, before naps my 4 year old asked me

TOC Bottleneck versus Lean Pacemaker – Part 2

By Ron Pereira - April 19th, 2007

Last night we discussed the main tenets of TOC. Tonight we will introduce the Lean Pacemaker showing how it may not always be the constraint in our system. This, my friends, is where the TOC and Lean proponents often “bow up̶

TOC Bottleneck versus Lean Pacemaker – Part 1

By Ron Pereira - April 18th, 2007

Tonight I am starting a 2 part series contrasting the Theory of Constraints with Lean Manufacturing. Specifically, I want to discuss the differences between a TOC “bottleneck” and a Lean Manufacturing “pacemaker.” I have seen T

Playing Fast – American Football and Lean

By Ron Pereira - April 11th, 2007

I am a big, OK fanatical, Ohio State University football (American football) fan. I grew up in Ohio and as my Mom says, “You can take the boy out of Ohio, but you can’t take Ohio out of the boy.” I grew up watching Ohio State pla

Jidoka – The Forgotten Pillar

By Ron Pereira - April 9th, 2007

In the Toyota Production System house there are two pillars. The one pillar most of the books are written about is JIT. You know all the fun stuff about one piece flow and pull. But there is an entire other pillar that, in my opinion

The Airline Companies Amaze Me

By Ron Pereira - April 8th, 2007

In Lean and Six Sigma we speak about the importance of understanding value from the perspective of the customer. If you miss this all the Kanban and Control Charts in the world won’t help you. Most of the airline companies in

Un-Lean Lean Companies

By Ron Pereira - April 6th, 2007

I recently purchased some Value Stream Mapping software and got a kick out the experience. Here I was buying software to help me battle waste and inefficiency, right? Well I go to this company’s website and click “buy now” next t

Superfactory Training

By Ron Pereira - April 5th, 2007

I recently came across a news article about our friends over at the Superfactory. It seems they have recently launched some elearning and the prices are very affordable compared to some elearning I have seen from others. Upon further e

Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED)

By Ron Pereira - April 4th, 2007

One of the core principles to making a Lean system work is Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED). You may also hear it referred to as “Quick Changeover” especially in western companies. Common Misconceptions Contrary to what some t

The Hardest of the 5S’s

By Ron Pereira - March 27th, 2007

I recently heard the best explanation of which of the 5 S’s is the toughest to master. Many say how hard sorting all the rubbish is… others say that sustain is without a doubt the hardest.Both of these common responses are

The Cat is Back!

By Ron Pereira - March 25th, 2007

The Cat is back! My blogging pal KT Cat, over at The Scratching Post, has thrown out another hot sports opinion related to his (or her) negative experience with Lean Six Sigma. I must admit I like to read this feline’s stuff a

North American Manufacturing

By Ron Pereira - March 21st, 2007

I recently read an interesting article related to manufacturing in North America. Here are some interesting quotes for those wanting the abbreviated version: “But CMP, which opened its first U.S. manufacturing operation just north of

Introducing SPACER

By Ron Pereira - March 18th, 2007

Tonight I want to introduce one of the best tools available to ensure you have a good meeting or training class. The technique I am referring to is called SPACER. It stands for: Safety Purpose Agenda Conduct Expectations Roles It sound

The Mysterious Process Cycle Efficiency

By Ron Pereira - March 15th, 2007

A key metric used by Lean practitioners is Process Cycle Efficiency (PCE). You may also hear it called Value Added Ratio. When used in conjunction with a Value Stream Map, PCE is calculated as follows: Value Add Time / Production Lead

Confused about Waste

By Ron Pereira - March 13th, 2007

A while back I wrote about how I felt waiting was the worst of the 7 wastes. OK, so being trapped on an airplane may have influenced that post a bit but I bring it up since I outlined the 7 (or 8 depending on whose book you read) deadl

TPS and Family Time

By Ron Pereira - March 11th, 2007

For some reason a book I had never read, and should have read many years ago, is the masterpiece The Toyota Way by Jeffrey Liker. Well the drought is over as I am presently devouring the book. It is a good book so far (I’m in chapter

Get on your Knees

By Ron Pereira - March 9th, 2007

I just read Mike Wrobleski’s recent post on leadership. It was good but actually sparked another thought in my mind related to a previous post he made some time ago after he went to the, oh I pray I get to go one day, Japan Kaikaku E

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