GBMP

Can't See

My friend and mentor, Gifford Brown, told me a remarkable story some time back about a visit to his plant in 1987 by Shigeo Shingo in which Shingo,..
This entry was posted in old lean dude, lean manufacturing, Toast Kaizen, internal customer, kaizen, Shingo Conference, bruce hamilton, toyota production system, shigeo shingo, set-up reduction, quick changeover on February 13 , 2014.

Knowledge Work

An engineering manager whom I worked with twenty-five years ago challenged me one day, “You know, Bruce, if all employees were engineers, you..
This entry was posted in old lean dude, lean manufacturing, continuous improvement, GBMP, production, knowledge work, kaizen, ideas, lean accounting, engineer, MIT, off shoring, peter drucker on February 03 , 2014.

Nice Round Numbers

I was working recently with a company that is targeting inventory reduction as a top priority. I stressed that reducing the causes of inventory is a..
This entry was posted in old lean dude, TPS, six sigma, lean accounting. continuous improvement, purchasing, bruce hamilton, safety stock, inventory, eoq on January 24 , 2014.

Patience

In 1966, a freshman at a college in Maine attended a speech given by Floyd McKissick, newly appointed head of the Congress of Racial Equality, better..
This entry was posted in lean, old lean dude, TPS, continuous improvement, Toast Kaizen, Martin Luther King, employees, managers, bruce hamilton, patience, toyota production system, acceptance, change, Lean Culture on January 16 , 2014.

Stagnation Nation

Twenty years ago, I was introduced to a graphical method for, as it was put to me, “sharing what you see” with others. It was referred to as a..
This entry was posted in old lean dude, VSM, material and information flow, process flow, M&I, TSSC, bruce hamilton, materials, Learning to See, inventory, stagnation, value stream mapping on January 07 , 2014.

One by One

Preface: A Christmas present from a lean-thinking friend, Brian Dandrea at Mass Mutual Insurance, is the inspiration for this week’s post. Those of..
This entry was posted in old lean dude, Toast Kaizen, work in process, Management Kaizen, kaizen, bruce hamilton, lean leadership, 1x1 processing, lean manager on December 19 , 2013.

It’s a Small World After All

[Many thanks to Gerry Cronin and Julieanne Brandolini for passing along the following story about sharing between industry and healthcare. Gerry..
This entry was posted in old lean dude, GBMP, mass general hospital, MGH CCM, benchmarking, northeast lean conference, problem solving, pokayoke, 5S, lean in healthcare, mistake proofing on December 09 , 2013.

Clearing the Bar

When I was fifty years younger and fifty pounds lighter I tried my hand at pole vaulting, a peculiar track and field event that involves running at..
This entry was posted in lean, old lean dude, lean manufacturing, continuous improvement, Toast Kaizen, change management, coaching, management, bruce hamilton, lean in healthcare on December 02 , 2013.

Thankful for Inventory

I heard a tongue-in-cheek radio ad for a local tobacco shop yesterday extolling the secondary benefits derived from tobacco, namely the tobacco sales..
This entry was posted in lean, old lean dude, downtime, bruce hamilton, equipment, lot size, safety stock, inventory, eoq on November 25 , 2013.

Half Full or Half Empty?

I’ve always felt the need to accentuate the positive, something I think I picked up from my mother. In tense situations she would always interject..
This entry was posted in old lean dude, lean manufacturing, GBMP, staff meetings, plant tours, bruce hamilton, idea systems, toyota production system on November 08 , 2013.

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