Banner Image

Category Archives: toyota production system

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.

Silver Toaster Spirit

Bob C. was a front-line employee with twenty-five years experience. His day was spent operating a machine that stripped and terminated leadwire..
This entry was posted in old lean dude, lean manufacturing, kanban, six sigma, continuous improvement, kaizen, recognition, employee engagement, toyota production system on August 13 , 2018.

Excelize Me: 4 Myths & 4 Realities of Racing to Automate

On the eve of our celebration of the American Revolution, here’s a post about another revolution: Industry 4.0.
This entry was posted in old lean dude, lean manufacturing, kanban, six sigma, kaizen, 7 wastes, Industry 4.0, automation, toyota production system, information automation, Lean IT on July 03 , 2018.

Leader Standard Waste: Part One

Three years ago I wrote a post entitled “The Emperor’s New Huddle Boards,” in which I expressed concern about the trappings of improvement without..
This entry was posted in old lean dude, kanban, six sigma, Toast Kaizen, David Mann, kaizen, standard work, toyota kata, bruce hamilton, toyota production system, leader standard work, standardized work on May 01 , 2018.

First Lady of Adult Literacy

At the Gemba: Avelino Coehlo and Ines Chiodo show the First Lady a cause and effect problem solving method.
This entry was posted in old lean dude, kata, lean manufacturing, kanban, continuous improvement, kaizen, shingo prize, ESL, toyota production system, barbara bush on April 19 , 2018.

Who Cares for the Care Givers?

Last month I joined Eric Buhrens, CEO at Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI) to host a leadership team from the Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center. They..
This entry was posted in old lean dude, lean manufacturing, lean thinking, GBMP, Toast Kaizen, lean enterprise institute, kaizen, 7 wastes, bruce hamilton, lean in healthcare, toyota production system on April 13 , 2018.

Rosie the Robot

Speaking at the 2003 Shingo Conference, Guy Briggs, General Manager of North American operations for General Motors lamented,
This entry was posted in old lean dude, lean manufacturing, IoT, Industry 4.0, toyota production system, General Motors on November 30 , 2017.

Happy Hollow Lean

Today is a favorite holiday for me, full of make-believe supernatural and candy, and unencumbered for the most part by significance. For this..
This entry was posted in old lean dude, lean manufacturing, six sigma, continuous improvement, GBMP, Toast Kaizen, kaizen, toyota production system, operational excellence on October 31 , 2017.

Tools or Culture?

With our annual Northeast LEAN Conference just a few days away, I want to relate a personal story about the theme of this year’s conference,
This entry was posted in old lean dude, TPS, lean manufacturing, kanban, continuous improvement, kaizen, 7 wastes, Changeover, SMED, toyota production system, shigeo shingo, enterprise excellence on September 14 , 2017.

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.

The Final Frontier

On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first US astronaut to journey to the “final frontier.” Atop a Mercury rocket, Shepard launched into a..
This entry was posted in old lean dude, TPS, lean manufacturing, six sigma, continuous improvement, shingo model, lean thinking, Shingo Institute, lean in healthcare, toyota production system, Lean Culture on June 05 , 2017.

Babel

I grew up in a small manufacturing company where nine different languages were spoken. English was the language of managers, office workers and some..
This entry was posted in old lean dude, lean manufacturing, continuous improvement, shingo prize, ESL, toyota production system on March 20 , 2017.

Cartwheels

Most often when we think of a wheel, it’s in the context of transportation, one of the more obvious and ever-present of the 7 wastes. In fact, the..
This entry was posted in old lean dude, lean manufacturing, continuous improvement, 7 wastes, toyota production system, shigeo shingo, eoq on January 31 , 2017.

Back To The Future

Here is an article I wrote ten years ago, recently resurrected from the lost letter file. I can’t remember why I wrote it or for whom. Originally..
This entry was posted in old lean dude, lean manufacturing, continuous improvement, GBMP, Toast Kaizen, TPS. oldleandude, kaizen, bruce hamilton, toyota production system on December 22 , 2016.

How to Rework a Charlie Brown Tree

Last weekend, as I forked over $70 for a “live” Christmas tree, I had a flashback to a very different experience when I was still a kid. My family..
This entry was posted in old lean dude, lean manufacturing, GBMP, creativity, toyota production system on December 21 , 2016.

A few of my favorite....books

During a recent Tea Time with The Toast Dude webinar, I shared a few of my favorite books. These are the books that I recommend to students of Lean..
This entry was posted in old lean dude, lean manufacturing, continuous improvement, toyota production system, operational excellence on December 06 , 2016.

Caramel Corn Kaizen

Holiday shopping last week at one of my favorite food places, Johnson’s Popcorn, I came upon a scene reminiscent of our Lean training video Toast..
This entry was posted in old lean dude, lean manufacturing, continuous improvement, VSM, kaizen, popcorn, toyota production system on December 01 , 2016.

Subscribe to receive new blog posts via email.

Looking for something specific?