Category Archives: old lean dude (9)

October was Lean conference month for me: First our own Northeast Lean Conference in Worcester (pronounced “Wustah”), then the international AME..

One of Shigeo Shingo’s popular status quo targets was engineers, whom he placed in three categories: Table engineers—those who just sit around a..

I was lucky that the first boss I ever had (at age 13) had much to teach at a point when I had much to learn. Chris M. was a brilliant but illiterate..

Early along, as a student of the Toyota Production System (TPS), now referred to as “Lean,” I struggled with some of the concepts and systems. For..

Last weekend in the Nantucket ferry terminal, I passed a defunct phone booth, the ornate wooden kiosk kind that was used twenty years ago to frame a..

The following post is inspired by The Teachings of Don Juan, an anthropological novel from the 1960’s written by Carlos Castaneda chronicling his..

A friend and colleague remarked to me recently “You know the Lean market has become mature,” implying a depth and breadth of Lean understanding in..

I wrote a post a little more than five years ago about Variety Reduction Program (VRP), an amazing but little known product design optimization tool...

Twice in the last month I’ve heard the phrase “Traditional Lean” used in public presentations. In neither case did the presenter explain the..

Many moons ago when I was just getting started on my lean journey, I visited a large automotive supplier to benchmark pull systems. My own factory..