Poor Frederick Winslow Taylor. Almost everyone hates him these days. Yet, just about everyone loves Taiichi Ohno. Why? What Taylor started -- the application of the scientific method to management (Scientific Management), the field of industrial engineering, and ensuring non-zero-sum outcomes for … [Read more...] about Love for Ohno, Hate for Taylor?
The Back Story – Conversations with Taiichi Ohno
This is the back story to the book Conversations with Taiichi Ohno. Why write a fictional account of conversations with Taiichi Ohno (1912-1990)? There are a several reasons for doing so. The first reason is that people are losing touch with Taiichi Ohno. They don't know who he was. They don't … [Read more...] about The Back Story – Conversations with Taiichi Ohno
Why Aren’t You Solving Ohno’s Problem?
The Lean Enterprise Institute's Lean Transformation Framework encompasses five questions. The first question is: "What problem are we trying to solve?" For most people, it is a reasonable first question to ask. But there are two other important related questions: 1. Who … [Read more...] about Why Aren’t You Solving Ohno’s Problem?
Reusable Processes
I have long been concerned about organizations that struggle with Lean transformation and the impact on the company, its employees, and other stakeholders. People’s lives and livelihoods depend upon Lean, so it’s no small matter when Lean succeeds or fails. This has been a major focus of my work for … [Read more...] about Reusable Processes
Coaching Lean Without Knowing
One problem that has long been a concern is how to turn managers into effective coaches when they have little or no practical experience with kaizen and have never personally engaged in basics such as set-up reduction, visual controls, creating a flowline or kanban system, etc.? This is in addition … [Read more...] about Coaching Lean Without Knowing
The One Difficult Thing Hypothesis
Given what we know today about the benefits of Lean management to organizations and people, it is surprising that Lean is not widely recognized as a much better alternative to conventional management. Neither CEOs nor workers demand Lean management as a solution to their problems. As a result, there … [Read more...] about The One Difficult Thing Hypothesis