Old Lean Dude
A Blog About Understanding The Toyota Production System and Gaining Its Full Benefits, brought to you by "The Toast Guy"
Category Archives: lean manufacturing (10)
Invisibility
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A chance reading recently provided a thought from Henry Thoreau that I think is worth sharing. Thoreau said: “The greatest compliment that was ever..
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August 14 , 2014.
Lesser Gods
I learned recently of the passing earlier this year of person I worked with twenty years ago at my last job in manufacturing. Manny S. was a ‘lesser..
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July 07 , 2014.
Addicted to Lean
One of my early lessons in leading change came at the age of 19, while working in in a program known as VISTA, Volunteers in Service to America. The..
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June 16 , 2014.
Permutations
For many years I worked for a manufacturer of pressure and temperature switches, a small company with a very big product selection. In our product..
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April 18 , 2014.
The Road To Lean
An old TV series I watched recently reminded me of an experience I have had many times in my work. In this I Love Lucy episode, Lucy is ordered by..
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April 04 , 2014.
Turkeys
Across a large swath of the U.S., the winter has been especially cold, snowy and dreary this year. So here’s a post with a link to a cheery video at..
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Shingo Institute,
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Discover Excellence,
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February 25 , 2014.
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,..
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set-up reduction,
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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..
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February 03 , 2014.
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..
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December 02 , 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..
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November 08 , 2013.