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Lean Thinking and Lean Manufacturing
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Lean Thinking and Lean Manufacturing Articles
Articles by James Womack -
Directory of Lean Thinking web sites
Lean Thinking and Lean Manufacturing Books
Using Integrated Management Systems to Design a Lean Factory by Jamie Flinchbaugh, Oct 1998
Another excellent article from the CQM Journal. The author explores how to design in lean manufacturing when setting up a production system.
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A Study of the Tovota Production System from an Industrial Engineering Viewpoint by Shigeo Shingo, Jan 1989
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Applying Theory of Constraints Principles and Lean Thinking at the Marine Corps Maintenance Center by Mandyam Srinivasan, Darren Jones and Alex Miller, Jan 0005
"The principles in Theory of Constraints can be used in conjunction with Lean thinking to leverage even more benefits for the enterprise. Like Theory of Constraints, Lean thinking is a means of enabling a growth strategy."
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Cleaning Up With SPC by Steven S. Prevette, Sep 2001
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Beyond Lean: Building Sustainable Business and People Success through New Ways of Thinking by Jamie Flinchbaugh, Dec 2001
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Six Sigma Comes to IT by Edward Prewitt, Aug 2003
Published in CIO magazine: "Once confined to manufacturing groups, the quality improvement program called Six Sigma is now being used to clean up IT's act."
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Toyota Production System by Mikio Kitano, May 1997
Paper by Mikio Kitano, President of Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America, Inc. to accompany presentation at the Lean Manufacturing Conference at the University of Kentucky, 1997.
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Workcell Design and Layout by ,
"Workcells and Cellular Manufacturing are at the heart of Lean Manufacturing."
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How To Compare Six Sigma, Lean and the Theory of Constraints by Dave Nave, Jan 0003
"When you are working through the apparent conflicting claims of performance
improvement programs, my advice is to concentrate on the primary and secondary effects of their philosophies. Once the values of a specific improvement program are identified, the comparison of those values with the values of the organization can make the method of selection easier, if not obvious."
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Six Sigma and Kaizen Compared: Part 1 by Raphael L. Vitalo, Feb 2005
"Kaizen, as a method for making improvements, is usually understood as part of Lean. However, the term Kaizen is used in two ways. The first use refers to the pursuit of perfection in all one does. In this sense, Kaizen represents the element of continuous improvement that is a fundamental part of the Quality Model. In a business context, it includes all activities, personal and teamed, that leverage learning to make processes better at satisfying customer requirements. In this use of Kaizen, it has always been a part of the Quality Model (?Improve constantly and forever? - W. Edwards Deming)."
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Bringing Lean Systems Thinking to Six Sigma by Paul Mullenhour and Jamie Flinchbaugh, Mar 2005
"Traditional lean efforts will help you reduce flow time and waste, leading to improvements that will boost overall quality. Six Sigma, with its focus on statistics, will help you deliver a more consistent product. But to fully support your long-term goals, you need the all-important third component: the cultural change that comes with adopting lean rules, principles and vision."
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Toyota Has a lot to Teach Us by David Hendricks,
Article on Kazien in the San Antonio Express-News.
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Manufacturers Like Us by David Drickhamer,
"Almost two-thirds of the Chinese manufacturers say they follow a "total quality management" philosophy, possibly reflecting the quality orientation of the Chinese manufacturers surveyed (or a jargon translation issue). Less than 20% singled out some version of "lean manufacturing," which is the driving force behind operational improvement for 55% of U.S. manufacturers."
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Lean Six Sigma - A Perspective by Norman Bodek,
"Lean focuses on identifying value as perceived by the customer and then eliminating everything that isn?t value, the waste, out of the process. Lean comes from the industrial engineering discipline, whereas Six Sigma comes out of the statistical quality control discipline. Six Sigma focuses on reducing variability in the key output variables that are important to the customer."
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Thinking Lean by Doug Rich and Dave Bassett, May 2005
The first thing the kaizen initiative did was to simulate the process layout. This was accomplished through a series of steps ranging from AutoCAD and paper dolls to an actual scale model set up on a portion of the shop floor. By going through this exercise, we were able to review the logical flow of all process steps, which helped ensure that we reduced the distance traveled by each spindle during the manufacturing process.
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Lean Six Sigma in Healthcare by Henk de Koning, John Verver, Jaap van den Heuvel, Soren Bisgaard and Ronald Does, Jan 0003
"This article outlines a methodology and presents examples to illustrate how principles of Lean Thinking and Six Sigma can be combined to provide an effective framework for producing systematic innovation efforts in healthcare. Controlling healthcare cost increases, improving quality, and providing better healthcare are some of the benefits of this approach."
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A Lean Walk Through History by Jim Womack, Jan 2005
"Once you are sensitized to the depth of lean history, along with its many advances and setbacks, it's easy to begin filling in some of the other milestones:
By 1765, French general Jean-Baptiste de Gribeauval had grasped the significance of standardized designs and interchangeable parts to facilitate battlefield repairs. (Actually doing this cost-effectively in practice was another matter and required another 125 years.)"
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Lean Software Development by Mary Poppendieck, Sep 2003
"All lean thinking starts with a re-examination of what waste is and an aggressive campaign to eliminate it. Quite simply, anything you do that does not add value from the customer perspective is waste."
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Muda, Service, and Flow by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins and Hunter Lovins,
Chapter from Natural Capitalism. "The nearly universal antidote to such wasteful practices is what Womack and Jones call 'lean thinking,' a method that has four interlinked elements: the continuous flow of value, as defined by the customer, at the pull of the customer, in search of perfection (which is in the end the elimination of muda)."
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Comparing Lean Six Sigma to the Capability Maturity Model by Kenneth D. Shere, Sep 2003
Lean Six Sigma and the Capability Maturity Model "are based on institutionalizing defined processes, performing quantitative measurement of the processes, and improving the processes based on these measurements. Both approaches address the systemic problems that have existed in our approach to software and systems engineering. Neither approach will be successful unless a substantial corporate commitment is made."
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MIT OpenCourseWare: Lean/Six Sigma Processes by Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld,
"Students of this course will develop a broad understanding of Lean/Six Sigma principles and practices, build capability to implement Lean/Six Sigma initiatives in manufacturing operations, and learn to operate with awareness of Lean/Six Sigma at the enterprise level."
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Why the Lean in Lean Six Sigma? by Mary Poppendieck, Jan 2006
"Lean software development changes the focus from gathering requirements to encoding all requirements in tests. It introduces the concept of refactoring, that is, creating a simple design at the beginning of development to handle early requirements, and then improving the design later."
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Going Lean in Health Care by James P. Womack et. al., Nov 0002
"Lean principles hold the promise of reducing or eliminating wasted time, money, and energy in health care, creating a system that is efficient, effective, and truly responsive to the needs of patients ? the 'customers' at the heart of it all."
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Role of Management in a Lean Manufacturing Environment by Gary Convis, Jul 2001
"Since this column is meant to link automotive engineers with lean manufacturing, I would like to share my personal experience as a mechanical engineer who started out in the traditional way of manufacturing, and along the way discovered a much better way - the Toyota Production System." Gary Convis is the President of Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky.
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The Toyota Way Goes Bottom-up by Subir Roy, Aug 2005
"the new president who has identified three goals: offer drastically better value in terms of environment, safety, quality and cost; contribute to the economy; and give something back to society through non-business activity (corporate social responsibility)."
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The Car Company in Front by The Economist, Jan 2005
"At the core of TPS is elimination of waste and absolute concentration on consistent high quality by a process of continuous improvement (kaizen). The catchy just-in-time aspect of bringing parts together just as they are needed on the line is only the clearest manifestation of the relentless drive to eliminate muda (waste) from the manufacturing process."
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Lean From The Get-Go by Derek Korn, Jul 2005
"Mr. Malone sums up the visual factory concept in this way: 'If everything is identified and shop work space is just large enough to hold what you need?and only what you need?then you eliminate the ability to create waste.'"
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Edson Puts The Squeeze On Waste by Ron Richardson, Jun 2005
"In doing its own thing, Edson scrapped a computer-based kanban system in favor of its manual set up because, as Hattin explains,"it's self-managed and provides quick visibility on the tasks on hand."
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The Lion of Lean: An Interview with James Womack by Francis J. Quinn, Jul 2005
"Lean people are always technology skeptics. They?re not Luddites, mind you, they?re just technology skeptics. They spend their time on creating a process that requires as little information as possible, while the rest of us try to figure out how can we get more and more and more information."
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The Dramatic Spread of Lean Thinking by Jim Womack, Apr 2005
"I am delighted with the spread of lean thinking far beyond the factory and
far beyond the high-wage economies to every corner of the world and to
every value-creating activity."
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Oh, What A Company! by Gary S. Vasilash, Mar 2005
"Toyota and the Art of Continuous Improvement. How the best manufacturer in the industry just keeps getting better."
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The Best Factory in the World by Norman Bodek, Aug 2005
From his book, Kaikaku : "Pictures of areas of the factory or the office hung throughout the plant. Workers were encouraged to look at the pictures and talk about them together, then to make improvements."
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Eliminating Complexity from Work: Improving Productivity by Enhancing Quality by Tim Fuller, Aug 1985
Redesigning a process to eliminate non-value added steps. A lean thinking example from 1985.
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Lean Development by Freddy Ball? and Michael Ball, Sep 2005
Explores the Toyota system for product development: "it is not a collection of best practices which can be implemented piecemeal, but a system."
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Lean Manufacturing - An Idea Whose Time is Coming to Forest Products by Thomas G. Dolan, Nov 2005
"In fact, while many understand the basic concepts and have tried various implementations as quick fixes to problems, most miss its full and lasting potential. The full capability of the lean philosophy involves creating a culture of observing and learning and an ability to implement, to innovate, and to continuously improve."
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Lean Manufacturing: The 3rd Generation by David Drickhamer, Mar 2004
"Forget everything you think you know about lean manufacturing. Just-in-time production, kanban cards, 5S, set-up reductions and standardized work -- those are all just tools. It's time for the younger crop of U.S. manufacturing leaders to take lean to the next level. Is your company ready for TPS2?"
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Building Better Powertrains Through Lean Approaches at Toyota by Kermit Whitfield, May 2004
"The truth is that while the people at [Toyota WV] are not exactly Luddites, the dogged pursuit of the Toyota Production System?through simple visual management techniques and standardization, standardization, standardization?helps set them apart."
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Lean Manufacturing Visionary Jim Womack On Frontiers Of Lean Thinking by Jim Womack, May 2005
"by bonus systems motivating sales staff to make the month or make the quarter and producing a wave of orders at the end of the reporting period. A better approach to these problems is to revamp the bonuses so they are rolling averages rather that don't encourage big batches of orders."
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Lean Development and the Predictability Paradox by Mary Poppendieck, Dec 2003
"The best way to achieve predictable software development outcomes is to start early, learn constantly, commit late, and deliver fast. This may seem to cut against the grain of conventional project management practice, which is supposed to give more managed, predictable results."
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Lean Manufacturing and the Environment by , Oct 2003
"Most organizations begin by implementing lean techniques in a particular production area or at a pilot facility, and then expand use of the methods over time. Companies typically tailor these methods to address their own unique needs and circumstances, although the methods generally remain similar."
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TPS vs. Lean and the Law of Unintended Consequences by Art Smalley, Dec 2005
"In every piece of TPS literature from Toyota, this stated aim is mixed in with the twin production principles of Just in Time (make and deliver the right part, in the right amount, at the right time), and Jidoka (build in quality at the process) as well as the notion of continuous improvement by standardization and elimination of waste in all operations."
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Lean Manufacturing Interview by , Dec 2005
Mohammed Ajlouni, Managing Director of Jordan Specialized Vehicle Manufacturing Company: "In a truly lean environment, suppliers are partners. They will be expected to supply the required material, the right quality, the right quantity, at the right time, every time."
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Measure for Measure by Moumita Bakshi Chatterjee, Jan 2006
"Supported by 500-plus Six Sigma Black Belts and Master Black Belts, 150 Lean Coaches, these teams have implemented 400-plus breakthrough improvements, 3,000-plus Kaizen improvements that enhanced productivity by 6-8 per cent year-on-year."
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Lean at NUMMI by Patrick Waurzyniak, Sep 2005
"NUMMI's production system is patterned closely after TPS, which is constantly changing and being updated, notes Gonzalez-Beltran. The pillars of TPS are the waste-reduction techniques of Just-in-Time production, bringing inventory to where it is needed and at the right time, and also jidoka, which provides machines and operators the ability to detect abnormal conditions and immediately stop work if such conditions occur."
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Lean Consumption by James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones, Mar 2005
"Lean production transformed manufacturing. Now it?s time to apply
lean thinking to the processes of consumption. By minimizing
customers? time and effort and delivering exactly what they want when
and where they want it, companies can reap huge benefits."
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Lean Accounting (Lean Beans) by Sue Sondergelt, Jan 2005
"We must get rid of Standard Cost and Absorption Accounting for managing the business. This is 1930's thinking, when business was all labor, little material, and very little overhead. Today business is all material, very little labor, and moderate overhead."
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Learning From Toyota -- Again by John Teresko, Feb 2006
"The Toyota Production System (TPS). While Toyota carefully describes its fabled system as an operating philosophy for guiding the management of an entire enterprise."
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Single Piece Flow by Rich Weissman, Feb 2006
"In traditional manufacturing, specific operations were done in batches by departments that specialized in individual manufacturing tasks like machining, welding, assembly, and test. Through the integration of lean induced cellular manufacturing processes, cross-trained employees produce just the amount of completed products that are required by other internal operations or the end customer. By eliminating complex set-ups, buffer stock, and large batches, lean companies are able to reduce lead times, increase flexibility, reduce inventories, and improve product quality."
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Teaching the Big Box New Tricks by James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones, Nov 2005
"The consequence, in terms of performance, is remarkable. Total "touches" on the product (each of which involves costly human effort) have been reduced from 150 to 50. The total throughput time, from the filling line at the supplier to the customer leaving the store with the cola, has declined
from 20 days to five days."
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The Masco Mapmakers by Bill Waddell, Feb 2006
"They learned that having the top people work hands-on in a kaizen was a lot more effective than sitting them down in a big room and subjecting them to a Power Point description of lean."
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