It is common knowledge that the biggest management consulting businesses go from company to company "solving" the same problems using the same or similar "solutions" whose trade names change over time. The long-lived success of top tier consulting's business model is significantly aided by the … [Read more...] about Apparent Problems More Profitable Than Actual Problems
Love for Ohno, Hate for Taylor?
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
The Back Story – Critique of Lean
This is the back story to the book Critique of Lean. Lean is a product. Products are designed. Designs have weaknesses. Critique of Lean examines weaknesses in the product and its design. In the nearly 30 years since the term "Lean" was introduced, we have a just handful of examples of (Real) … [Read more...] about The Back Story – Critique of Lean
Comparing TPS and Lean
I recently posted a truncated version of the graphic below with caption: "Not perfect, but close. It's about right." The response was overwhelmingly positive. A great majority of people recognized it as a unique comparison, one that they had never seen before, and also an accurate comparison that … [Read more...] about Comparing TPS and Lean
Producing Business Results With Lean
In the previous post, Why Lean Keeps Thriving, I used the image at right to show how Lean has drifted far from it's original interpretation in 1988 as being synonymous with the Toyota Production System (exclusive of the "Respect for People" principle until ca. 2007). The drift in the meaning of Lean … [Read more...] about Producing Business Results With Lean
Why Lean Keeps Thriving
Branding, promotion, and the stated or implied close association with Toyota; e.g. "...Toyota, the leading lean exemplar in the world..." In this statement, the former university researchers who gave us Lean take credit for Toyota's work. See the image below to understand why the statement makes no … [Read more...] about Why Lean Keeps Thriving