My full-time job since 1999 has been as a professor of Lean management at a university, where I teach both graduate and undergraduate courses. My areas of specialization are: Lean leadership, Lean management, management history, management decision failure analysis, and supply chain management. One … [Read more...] about Sharing the Knowledge
Profoundly Antagonistic Systems
One of W. Edwards Deming's great accomplishments was his creation of the "System of Profound Knowledge" (read more details here). The System of Profound Knowledge (SoPK) is described in Deming's book, The New Economics. In its most basic terms, SoPK is a framework designed to enable progress in the … [Read more...] about Profoundly Antagonistic Systems
Dismantling Classical Management
Since publishing my latest book, The Triumph of Classical Management Over Lean Management (February 2018), I've spent the last 10 months thinking a lot about how Toyota's management method (TMM) and Lean management are taught to people. The principal methods are via training and education. The … [Read more...] about Dismantling Classical Management
Escape the Ideological Bubble
In a March 2015 blog post titled "Abnormal Condition Alert," I said: Lean people are quick to criticize organizations with no Lean. We occasionally call out and criticize someone else’s bad Lean – their Lean. But we almost never criticize our Lean. This is an abnormal condition: Overproduction of … [Read more...] about Escape the Ideological Bubble
Lean Football
What would happen if Lean thinking were applied to American football?American football is in trouble. The league Commissioner and team owners know there must be changes made to the game to assure a future pipeline of skilled players and to grow its fan base for generations to come. But League … [Read more...] about Lean Football
That’s Not My Job
If you boil down Toyota's production system to its essence, its purpose is to synchronize supply to demand for buyers' markets. The ability to do so reduces the frequency and severity of stock-out (lost sales) or overproduction of finished goods (resulting in high costs and price discounting). The … [Read more...] about That’s Not My Job
Business as Experimental Science
Toyota’s management system is built on the true premise, concluded deductively, that problems are integrant to humanity. Because problems diminish human happiness and threaten survival – whether in life or in business – methods must be developed to do two things: solve problems and assure human … [Read more...] about Business as Experimental Science
Truth Has Consequences
A fundamental feature of Toyota’s management system (and its derivative, Lean management) is the search for the truth. Why? In order to make real improvement – versus merely the appearance of improvement – one must know what is actually happening. And herein lies a problem: People often do not want … [Read more...] about Truth Has Consequences
Selling Lean to Business Leaders
For many years, a large army of dedicated people have toiled to sell Lean management to the top leaders of businesses. Many different approaches have been tried, yet all have yielded virtually the same results. In most cases, we have been unsuccessful in selling top leaders the entire management … [Read more...] about Selling Lean to Business Leaders