Lean Supply Chain
Supply chain management ensures that products are delivered to the end market with minimum waste. If you are implementing lean methods in your organization, lean supply chain management is the right fit for the overall success of your organization. You will be able to take up and continue your lean journey in an appropriate way…
Mike Wilson | November 23, 2012 | Lean | Lean, Lean Manufacturing
Where is the Lean Manufacturing Case Study?
On the A Lean Journey blog, Tim McMahon offered up the reins to Lean Six Sigma writer, Kathryn Thompson, about a case study in lean manufacturing and six sigma. Inappropriately titled “The Successes of Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma: A Case Study,” Thompson’s post is sparse on details and any data backing up the claim…
Mike Wilson | November 16, 2012 | Lean | Continuous Improvement, Lean, Lean Manufacturing
Lean Supplies Chain Management for Companies
Lean systems are meant for producing the best products and services with little or no wastage of various kinds of resources. Lean supply chain management purports to create a well designed supply chain management system where all the resources are effectively utilized. The people, processes, technologies and suppliers will be optimized at the beginning of…
Mike Wilson | November 13, 2012 | Lean | Continuous Improvement, Lean
Six Sigma Applied To Workplace Safety
Questions always abound over whether safety and quality production can be equated and whether they both deserve similar commitment. Since the conventionalization of the six sigma concept by Motorola in the 1980s much focus has been on creating excellence in business processes while paying minimal or no attention to other supportive elements of business. Workplace…
Mike Wilson | November 6, 2012 | Lean | Safety, Six Sigma, Workplace Safety
Lean Manufacturing Can Enforce Safety Standards
Lean manufacturing has become a very important concept in business improvement. Most large organizations have devised tools and systems to help align their businesses towards lean enterprise and reap the benefits of improved efficiency and waste reduction. Most people associate lean manufacturing with business production unaware that it is a broad concept that can also…
Mike Wilson | November 2, 2012 | Lean | Continuous Improvement, Lean Manufacturing
Soaring Yields with Six Sigma
The basics of management posit that input will more often than not equal the output. A meager input will result to insignificant yields with no prospects of progress creating a vicious cycle of low productivity. For any business manager to be able to reverse this, an intense and critical examination of all the aspects of…
Mike Wilson | October 26, 2012 | Lean | Continuous Improvement, Lean, Six Sigma
Who Is Interested in Lean Manufacturing?
Matt Wrye of Beyond Lean set up a poll to see who was interested in reading about lean. According to Wrye, the majority of folks reading about lean on his blog were in middle management: “Who is reading Beyond Lean? 1. Mid-Level Managers = 40% 2.Senior Level Managers = 20% 3. Consultants = 20%” This…
Mike Wilson | October 25, 2012 | Lean | Continuous Improvement, Lean Manufacturing
Trashing the Top 5 Myths About Lean Manufacturing
Tim McMahon at A Lean Journey, added a blog post about what he considers to be 5 misconceptions and myths about lean. He notes that they are these: 1. Lean is only about cost reduction. 2. Lean makes employees feel like robots. 3. Lean is just about applying tools. 4. Lean is something you do…
Mike Wilson | October 18, 2012 | Lean | Continuous Improvement, Lean Manufacturing
What is Lean Manufacturing? Watch this Cartoon
While scouring the web looking for relevant material to share with you about how to implement lean manufacturing in your company, I came across this quick little free cartoon that explains what is lean manufacturing. I love things that are able to boil more complex ideas down into much more digestible bites. I particularly…
Mike Wilson | October 17, 2012 | Lean | Continuous Improvement, Lean Manufacturing
Trying to Implement Lean Manufacturing? Educate Yourself First.
I find that, when it comes to manufacturing, office, or healthcare implementations, folks don’t really understand lean when they’re first shopping the concept. That’s why it’s a good idea to invest a fraction of your time and money right out of the box toward quality education and consultation to help you get the right info…
Mike Wilson | October 16, 2012 | Lean | Continuous Improvement, Lean Manufacturing
Lean Book Reviews: How to Implement Lean Manufacturing
I’m trying to keep up with my lean thinking, and with that comes lean reading. This stuff can be dry sometimes, but I always come away with some nugget of gold from each book I read on the subject. Lonnie Wilson’s book, “How to Implement Lean Manufacturing” is a great one to add to the…
Mike Wilson | October 15, 2012 | Lean | Continuous Improvement, Lean, Lean Manufacturing
Lean Manufacturing Just In Time : The Ultimate Inventory System
Lean manufacturing is a powerful type of production system that was created by Toyota after the World War II. It involves 5 tools and principles that contribute to its success such as 5’S, Kaizen, JIT or Just in Time, Value Stream Mapping and Kanban. The focus of this article is about just-in-time that works excellently…
Mike Wilson | October 12, 2012 | Lean | Continuous Improvement, Lean, Lean Manufacturing
A3 for Lean Implementation
A3 image via Reliableplant.com Today, I was looking for a decent A3 problem-solving template for an engineering friend who was planning on implementing a lean program for his company, and I came across a helpful article on ReliablePlant.com by Larry Rubrick and a cool A3 powerpoint presentation at PowerShow.com (don’t hit download, just hit play).…
Mike Wilson | October 11, 2012 | Lean | A3, Continuous Improvement, Lean, Lean Manufacturing
Henry Ford and Steve Jobs : A Comparison Between Two Titans of Industry
I was reading an article titled “Was Steve Lean?” by John Shook on A Lean Enterprise today in which he ponders whether Steve Jobs’ leadership of Apple could have been considered “Lean.” Using parallels to Henry Ford, who some say was one of the first innovators of what we now call lean thinking (which I…
Mike Wilson | October 10, 2012 | Lean | Lean Manufacturing
Lean Manufacturing Ideas : Know What Is Worth Your Time
I like Tim McMahon. I mean, we’ve never met, but his blog and writing style is loose and informative at the same time. He’s a thoughtful and hard-working guy. I’d guess. Right now, Tim has a series of posts he returns to every week called “Daily Lean Tips,” and he gives a few ideas of…
Mike Wilson | October 9, 2012 | Lean | Lean Manufacturing
