What really is lean procurement? From some of the descriptions of lean procurement that I’ve seen, it seems to have morphed into something that is either myopically focused and/or totally unrecognizable as lean to me. Let’s start with myopically focused. Yes, it is a good thing to do more with less, i.e., run procurement with fewer people. [...]
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Several years ago I penned a rant for Spend Matters about tool heads. What are tool heads? I define them as those people who focus on the tools of continuous improvement such as lean tools and Six Sigma tools rather than on the big picture of what the organization is trying to accomplish and [...] One of the guiding principles in continuous improvement methodologies such as lean enterprise and total quality management is employee involvement: those who do the work know it best and will be able to make improvements. In other words, management is not close enough to the work to understand them enought to improve work processes. Employee involvement in [...] As part of the public flogging of Toyota for its massive quality problems and recalls, some are calling lean and the Toyota Production System into question. A recent WSJ article, How Lean Manufacturing Can Backfire, describes how Toyota’s use of common parts wreaks havoc during a recall. Part simplification is considered a lean practice. [...] Yesterday Toyota announced that it is recalling 110,000 Tundra trucks built in 2000-2003 due to rust on the frames that is causing the spare tire to break off. Toyota is blaming a supplier, Dana Corporation, manufacturer of the cross member that holds the tire to the bottom of the truck, for the problem, and Dana [...] Several weeks ago I had the opportunity to tour Fidelity Investment’s Cincinnati operations as one of the lean tours at the AME Lean Conference. If you’re a Fidelity customer, you may have noticed that most of your mailings including statements, checks, prospectuses, etc. come from Cincinnati and also that much of your paperwork to Fidelity goes to that center. [...] I recently gave a workshop on supplier evaluation in a lean environment as part of the AME Lean Conference. Because the attendees of my workshop already had a working knowledge of lean principles and practices, they were quite different from many audiences I have presented to and interacted with on the subject of supplier evaluation [...] Attending the annual AME Lean Conference was energizing and inspiring. The conference delegates are a different crowd. They are practitioners of the lean enterprise. This is apparent if you spend any time with these folks. You know you’re at a lean conference when delegates: Complain that the buffet layout is not lean and discuss ways to [...] I am in Covington, Kentucky attending the AME International Lean Conference, Journey to Greatness. Attendance is excellent despite the economy and its adverse impact on other conferences this year. This may be due to various lean journeys presented by practitioners and couldn’t be more relevant in a down economy. AME (Association for Manufacturing Excellence) [...] I was reading an article in the recent issue of AME Target, “Looking Forward,” excerpted from Doc Hall’s new book, Compression, due out this month from Productivity Press. The article is very thought-provoking as it looks at the future of manufacturing. One idea really struck me and is something I’ve always wondered about in the back of [...] |
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