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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. Many companies, [...] Looks like it’s really all over for NUMMI, the Toyota/GM joint auto manufacturing venture in Fremont, CA. Last summer, I wrote a post about the strong possibility of Toyota’s closing the plant (NUMMI: Things Are Looking Gloomy). The plant was losing money. Located in a high-wage area, even potential UAW concessions didn’t seem like enough to allow the [...] Boeing recently announced that it was planning to replicate all 787 parts built in the Puget Sound area in a new facilities being built in North Charleston, South Carolina. According to a recent article in the Seattle Times, Boeing machinists are seeing this as the first step toward moving all parts out of Boeing’s Puget Sound plants. The [...] While American auto suppliers have not been directly bailed out, many have survived due to the bailout of their customers, GM and Chrysler. No so for small Italian suppliers. According to a WSJ article, the Italian auto industry has not received government bailout money. So the auto supply chain, comprised of much smaller suppliers than the American [...] I recently heard a presentation at the AME Lean Conference that was given by representatives from Hershey Foods and K-Mart (part of Sears Holdings) about customer-supplier collaboration. A K-Mart General Manager and a Hershey Foods sales executive discussed how the two companies worked together on special in-store programs that delivered very strong financial results for both [...] // I thought this video, which shows a 100-year-old manufacturing building in Lawrence, Massachusetts being demolished, was pretty cool. In its heyday, Lawrence was an important textile manufacturing center due to its location near water to power the mills and proximity to Boston. However, it suffered a major decline when that industry all but disappeared from [...] 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 improve the flow 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) puts on [...] 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 my mind. [...] |
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