Small and Great
27 December 2006
Last week one of my favorite blogs, The Skeptical Optimist, had a post titled Grow or Die. In it Steve Conover proposes that companies must grow,…
A Sweeping Success
26 December 2006
When you read about a company, there is one very notable combination of phrases that will immediately tell you that they are probably knee-deep into r…
Understanding Lean at Whirlpool
26 December 2006
A few days before Christmas I received a long email with the subject of "Help me to understand." It was from a worker a Whirlpool's Evan…
Productivity Myths - Real Studies and Data
25 December 2006
Over the past week we've been exploring whether the outsourcing or offshoring of subassemblies, later finished, in the United States, has a hidden…
Productivity Myths - Comments From Real Economists
23 December 2006
Earlier this week we discussed the myth of manufacturing productivity, and how the number may not account correctly for reduced labor resulting from s…
The Idiot Grinch of Fake Lean
21 December 2006
The title of this post does not adequately convey my frustration, and outright anger, at the idiots that give lean a bad name. Our friend Dan Markovit…
Blog Tag: 5 Things You Don't Know About Me
21 December 2006
Be forewarned, this has nothing to do with lean manufacturing. Several of our blogger friends are engaged in a game of "blog tag," where we&…
Successful American Manufacturing
20 December 2006
We harp a lot, including yesterday, on American manufacturers that believe subsidies and trade barriers are necessary in order to compete globally. So…