Banner Image

Category Archives: lean

Customer First Santa

Every December the man in the red suit delivers cheer and presents to millions of happy children around the world. It seems like magic, but a closer..
This entry was posted in lean, old lean dude, lean manufacturing, kanban, six sigma, kaizen, toyota production system, leansixsigma, operational excellence on December 14 , 2018.

More Than Toast

It’s hard to believe that 2018 is the 20th anniversary for the Toast Kaizen video. After two decades, nearly one hundred and fifty thousand copies..
This entry was posted in lean, old lean dude, lean manufacturing, kanban, six sigma, lean thinking, Toast Kaizen, Shingo Institute, kaizen, shingo prize, lean healthcare, lean accounting, toyota production system on September 26 , 2018.

Lean Society

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” This quote from George Orwell’s political allegory, Animal Farm, occurred to..
This entry was posted in lean, old lean dude, lean manufacturing, six sigma, continuous improvement, shingo model, Manager, process, toyota production system, Knowledge Worker, operational excellence on July 21 , 2017.

Lean Wizards

October was Lean conference month for me: First our own Northeast Lean Conference in Worcester (pronounced “Wustah”), then the international AME..
This entry was posted in lean, old lean dude, TPS, six sigma, continuous improvement, lean thinking, Toast Kaizen, Toyota Production System. Lean manufacturing, kaizen, 5S on October 31 , 2016.

Mistake-Proofing Mistakes

There is a popular lore provided by Shigeo Shingo, that the original name for mistake-proofing (Poka-Yoke) was “fool-proofing” (Baka-Yoke). Shingo..
This entry was posted in lean, old lean dude, six sigma, continuous improvement, standard work, error-proofing, pokayoke, poka-yoke, toyota production system, shigeo shingo, mistake proofing, manufacturing on December 08 , 2015.

Putting The Pieces Together

Summer’s here, and that means a family vacation to the beach, the boardwalk and the Hamilton’s favorite Pizza place. We all agree that Manco’s pizza..
This entry was posted in lean, old lean dude, continuous improvement, Toast Kaizen, improvement kata, Pizza, northeast lean conference, kaizen, bruce hamilton, toyota production system, Lean Culture on July 24 , 2015.

Long-Term Sinking

This past week my organization, GBMP, moved from our home of twenty years at the Boston campus of the University of Massachusetts. The UMB College of..
This entry was posted in lean, old lean dude, continuous improvement, Shingo Institute, Stability, toyota production system, foundation on June 30 , 2015.

Overproduction

Not wishing to rub salt in the wounds of my beleaguered Red Sox, their meteoric rise from last place in 2012 to first place in 2013 and subsequent..
This entry was posted in lean, old lean dude, six sigma, continuous improvement, kaizen, overproduction, gemba, toyota production system, seven wastes, shigeo shingo on September 25 , 2014.

I'm Against It!

A recent viewing of a Marx Brothers film caused me to reflect on one of the questions I’m frequently asked, “How do you deal with people that are..
This entry was posted in lean, old lean dude, TPS, kaizen, lean in healthcare, gemba, toyota production system on September 02 , 2014.

How We Learn

While I am an unabashed proponent of learning by doing, I have a list of books that have over the years been essential to me as a framework for..
This entry was posted in lean, old lean dude, continuous improvement, policy deployment, favorable environment, culture, kaizen, hoshin kanri, managerial engineering, bruce hamilton, ryuji fukuda, countermeasures, CEDAC, reliable methods on August 08 , 2014.

Be Careful What You Wish For - Part II

Four years ago I posted a funny story passed along to me by a Lean friend, that dealt with the consequences of crazy measures, and how lack of..
This entry was posted in lean, old lean dude, continuous improvement, GBMP, Toast Kaizen, factory, Shingo Institute, bruce hamilton, gemba, lean conference on May 27 , 2014.

Always Made in America

[Blogger’s Note: A couple of important events coming up in the next couple weeks give me an opportunity to showcase a great American manufacturer in..
This entry was posted in lean, old lean dude, six sigma, Shingo Conference, TSSC, Toyota Production, continuous, made in america, operational excellence, ohba, Whirlpool on April 23 , 2014.

Lines

As any conference-goer can attest, the shortest distance between two points is not a straight line when that line is the lunch line. At Lean..
This entry was posted in lean, old lean dude, six sigma, continuous improvement, kaizen, TSSC, bruce hamilton, LEI, inventory, Jamie Bonini, John Shook on March 17 , 2014.

Patience

In 1966, a freshman at a college in Maine attended a speech given by Floyd McKissick, newly appointed head of the Congress of Racial Equality, better..
This entry was posted in lean, old lean dude, TPS, continuous improvement, Toast Kaizen, Martin Luther King, employees, managers, bruce hamilton, patience, toyota production system, acceptance, change, Lean Culture on January 16 , 2014.

Clearing the Bar

When I was fifty years younger and fifty pounds lighter I tried my hand at pole vaulting, a peculiar track and field event that involves running at..
This entry was posted in lean, old lean dude, lean manufacturing, continuous improvement, Toast Kaizen, change management, coaching, management, bruce hamilton, lean in healthcare on December 02 , 2013.

Thankful for Inventory

I heard a tongue-in-cheek radio ad for a local tobacco shop yesterday extolling the secondary benefits derived from tobacco, namely the tobacco sales..
This entry was posted in lean, old lean dude, downtime, bruce hamilton, equipment, lot size, safety stock, inventory, eoq on November 25 , 2013.

Innovation Centennial

This week marks the one hundredth anniversary of the introduction of a moving assembly line at Henry Ford’s Highland assembly plant, an innovation..
This entry was posted in lean, old lean dude, Toyota, Toyoda, Ford on October 11 , 2013.

Subscribe to receive new blog posts via email.

Looking for something specific?