My last post about superficial improvement may have implied that the condition is limited to organizations with deep enough pockets to buy pricey automation.  There are also plenty of opportunities for superficial improvement in small shops.  Here’s an example of  a manual assembly waste that took years to eliminate: The product was housed in

As we begin another new year, here’s a post about resolutions.  In most organizations there are plans for something new in 2013 – maybe a new product or market, or a new machine or facility.  For those of us in the Lean world, new also means re-new – getting better with what we already have. [...]

Our machine shop was assisted by Toyota Supplier Support Center in 1996 to reduce set-ups on our CNC lathes.  TSSC had already helped us in a downstream final assembly department, and now we were endeavoring to provide just-in-time delivery to that department from machining.  After some study we were able to determine that one lathe [...]

Last week I visited with JVS, a terrific Boston-area organization whose mission “is to empower individuals from diverse communities to find employment and build careers, and to partner with employers to hire, develop, and retain productive workforces.”  I was reminded of my first experience with workforce development, one that was detailed in