And You Thought Martha Was A Crook
20 October 2005
That Delphi, GM and Ford are struggling to deal with 'legacy costs' - the cost of guaranteed paychecks and health care coverage for retired an…
Why Delphi Is Important
19 October 2005
One more sad story out of Detroit really doesn't mean much. The Delphi bankruptcy is actually one of the auto industry's lesser crises at the…
Delphi - Even Lean Manufacturing Can't Prevent Bankruptcy
18 October 2005
Over the last several months we have written several posts on the problems with the U.S. auto industry, specifically GM and Delphi. Last May we discu…
Where Is Marketing In All of This?
18 October 2005
A senior manufacturing manager was telling me the story of his company's initial move down the lean path, and how it began at an annual company of…
Made In Shanghai
5 October 2005
Most folks in the U.S. have never heard of Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC). They will. SAIC has a joint venture with General Motors…
Lean Government - Reduce Size, Pork, or Waste?
30 September 2005
The Gemba Panta Rei blog has an interesting post on lean government, specifically discussing the successes at the postal services in Denmark and Canad…
Lawyers, Used Car Salesmen and Lean Consultants
30 September 2005
I recently had a chance to catch up with an old colleague - my first boss, in fact - who is now a senior executive with a Midwestern manufacturing com…
Strategic Planning, Hoshin Kanri, and Objectives
29 September 2005
As the third quarter ends many of us begin to plan for 2006. In some organizations this is a regimented formal process with very defined inputs and o…