After more than three decades, we know one thing for sure: Lean management (as well as TPS) has proven itself to be inadequate as a replacement for Classical Management. Why? Because Lean has failed to offer business owners and corporate executives the things that they want and need most: The … [Read more...] about Reimagining Lean
Lean People Never Understood CEOs
Gaining the attention and commitment of CEOs for Lean management requires that we understand them. We think we do. In fact, we have long thought that we do. But in truth, Lean promoters, advocates, and practitioners never have. Even accomplished Lean CEOs don't understand their peer CEOs. The many … [Read more...] about Lean People Never Understood CEOs
How Leaders Sabotage Lean
Let's take the word "leader" to mean anyone in an organization who has management responsibility, beginning with supervisors and extending to CEOs. Most leaders have good intentions when it comes to doing their job, satisfying customers, and helping the organization prosper. Yet, even leaders with … [Read more...] about How Leaders Sabotage Lean
Money vs. Process View of Cost
Two of the principal teachings of Toyota-style kaizen is to think of cost problems in terms of processes and in non-financial terms such as time, distance, space, defects, quantity, turnbacks, etc. To be able to effectively think in non-financial terms, we were taught to understand the difference … [Read more...] about Money vs. Process View of Cost
Business Leaders’ Case for Ignoring Lean
My enduring curiosity and passion for problem-solving led me to work on a problem that the principal leaders of the Lean movement either ignored or told me that it would be a waste of time. I could not ignore it and I did not see it as a waste of time. My view is that arousing interest in Lean … [Read more...] about Business Leaders’ Case for Ignoring Lean
The Problem Lean May Never Overcome
The image at right shows the problem that Lean, as well as its predecessor systems of progressive management, has been unable to overcome and may never overcome: The inability to displace de jure -- except in rare cases, and for only a limited time. Sooner or later, de jure wins.The image shows … [Read more...] about The Problem Lean May Never Overcome
Freeish Trade, Economic Nationalism, and Lean
When I worked as a supply chain manager in the mid-1990s, I faced tremendous pressure from company leaders to offshore large chunks of the $106 million in annual spend of the work supplied to us by some 50-plus first-tier manufacturers located in the Connecticut river valley. I resisted that … [Read more...] about Freeish Trade, Economic Nationalism, and Lean
Why University Teaching Rarely Improves
In higher education, the job of a professor is well-defined. It consists of three things: teaching, research, and service to the university and one's profession.Teaching involves three tasks: preparation (of the course), execution (delivering the course), and follow-up (guiding students' work, … [Read more...] about Why University Teaching Rarely Improves
What Gets Measured Gets Managed?
Unfortunately, most people mindlessly believe the statement: "What gets gets measured gets managed." Click here to learn how this statement is easily proven to be untrue. The commonly believed statement "If the worker hasn’t learned, then the instructor hasn’t taught" is also easily proven to … [Read more...] about What Gets Measured Gets Managed?