In the News
April 26, 2011
Nexteer Automotive adopts figure skating technology to streamline work
The Saginaw News (MI) references the Lean Enterprise Institute's story about how local manufacturer Nexteer Automotive is using motion analysis technology developed for sports as part of its lean transformation. Read the LEI story Lean Leap by Auto Supplier Gets Boost from Leaping Figure Skaters in the Knowledge Center.
Read moreMarch 24, 2011
The Downside of Just-in-Time Inventory
Near the end of this article, James Womack, founder of the Lean Enterprise Institute in Cambridge, MA, notes that companies won't abandon just-in-time production because the cost savings are too great.
Read moreMarch 22, 2011
Toyota to Halt Japan Car Assembly Until March 26 After Quake
John Shook, CEO of the Lean Enterprise Institute and a former Toyota manager, talks to Bloomberg News about possible disruptions to Toyota's supply chain in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami.
Read moreMarch 1, 2011
Ford focuses on flexibility at its factories
LEI Senior Advisor Jim Womack is quoted by USA Today on flexibility in auto production.
Read moreFebruary 28, 2011
Operations: Why lean programs fail
Business Excellence features an article written by Mike Rother, co author of the LEI workbooks Learning to See and Creating Continuous Flow, and Jeff Liker, author of The Toyota Way, about the difficulty in sustaining lean efforts.
Read moreSeptember 16, 2010
Don’t ‘waste’ the value-stream mapping process by ignoring the customer.
LEI CEO John Shook explains to IndustryWeek the origins of value-stream mapping and how companies miss its full benefits by not giving full attention to the flow of information as well as material. Shook is co-author of Learning to See, an LEI workbook that introduced value-stream mapping in 1999. The book has been translated into 14 languages. The story includes results from value-stream mapping projects at laboratory equipment manufacturer Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.
Read moreSeptember 1, 2010
John Shook To Take Over LEI Helm
John Shook, named to succeed James Womack as CEO of the nonprofit Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI), said his frist step will be to talk to the Lean Community about its needs.
Read moreAugust 15, 2010
Manufacturers take ‘lean’ outlook
LEI author and faculty member Robert Martichenko talks to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about how U.S. companies are pursuing lean transformations more aggressively during the recession. Martichenko is co-author of the lean logistics workbook Building a Lean Fulfillment Stream. He also teaches a workshop on the same subject.
Read moreJuly 19, 2010
Lean Problem Solving and A3 Expert Interviewed on Business901
"If you develop the [problem-solving] thought process of your workforce then you're tapping into a potential that many companies ignore," said Tracey Richardson, a faculty member at the Lean Enterprise Institute and a former Toyota manager. Tracey made her remarks during a recent Business 901 podcast series on lean implementation issues.
"The responsibility for developing people's problem-solving thought processes is yours as a manager or executive," she said. Tracey, who teaches a Lean Problem Solving workshop, offered several practical tips that you can use to develop people as problem-solvers.
Hear them at:
http://business901.com/blog1/problem-solving-really-the-core-of-lean-implementation/
July 11, 2010
Factory Efficiency Comes to the Hospital
A front page article on lean healthcare in the Sunday New York Times business section quoted LEI Senior Fellow Mark Graban on the challenges of culture change. The main focus of the article was Seattle Children's Hospital, a member of the Healthcare Value Leaders Network. Three other network members were cited.
Read moreMarch 29, 2010
NUMMI: This American Life
LEI Founder and Chairman Jim Womack and Senior Advisor John Shook are among the key experts interviewed for this one-hour look at the success of the Toyota-GM joint venture and what prevented GM from quickly deploying lessons that may have prevented bankruptcy. ("This American Life" on National Public Radio, March 27, 2010) Note: A transcript of a shorter version of the story that aired on NPR's "All Things Considered" is available: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125229157
Read moreMarch 26, 2010
The End Of The Line For GM-Toyota Joint Venture
LEI Founder and Chairman Jim Womack and Senior Advisor John Shook are among the key experts interviewed for this look at the success of the Toyota-GM joint venture and what prevented GM from quickly deploying lessons that may have prevented bankruptcy. ("All Things Considered," March 26, 2010.)
Read moreFebruary 8, 2010
Womack Says Toyota Needs to Engage Public Over Recall
Commenting on Toyota's recall crisis, Jim Womack, founder and chairman of the Lean Enterprise Institute, tells Bloomberg TV that the carmaker needs to "walk the talk" about how it runs the business and do a better job of engaging with the public
Read moreJanuary 25, 2010
Rapid Growth Has Its Perils, Toyota Learns
Toyota's rapid growth from 2002 to 2010 garnered it 15% of the global auto industry, surpassing General Motors as the world’s largest carmaker, but growth may have cost the automaker its reputation for quality as it extended to Europe the recall of vehicles with faulty accelerators. “There was always a question about how fast they could go,” James P. Womack, an author and expert on Toyota’s manufacturing methods, said of the automaker’s growth. “I’m sure they regret that they stomped on the gas so hard.” (The New York Times)
Read moreAugust 9, 2009
200,000 Preventable Deaths: It’s Time for Fundamental Change
The news reports that an estimated 200,000 people will die from preventable medical mistakes this year is a sad and telling statement on the abundant waste and the thousands of errors in the current health care system, according to one leading healthcare executive.
Read more