Management Improvement Articles on Manufacturing

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."

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."

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."

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."

Engines of Democracy by Charles Fishman, Oct 1999
"The 170-plus people who work at this plant try to make perfect jet engines. And they come close. On average, one-quarter of the engines that GE/Durham sends to Boeing have just a single defect -- something cosmetic, such as a cable not lined up right, or a scratch on a fan case. The other three-quarters are, in fact, perfect."

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."

Back to the Future at Ford by Larry Smith, Mar 2005
An interesting look at management efforts at Ford from the 1970s through the early 2000s.

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."

Toyota Thinking Production System by , Jun 2003
"There can be no successful monozukuri (making thing) without hito-zukuri (making people). To keep coming up with revolutionary new production techniques, we need to develop unique ideas and knowledge by thinking about problems in terms of genchi genbutsu. This means it's necessary to think about how we can develop people who can come up with these ideas."

Creating Sustainable Competitive Advantage by M. Reza Vaghefi, Oct 2001
"Toyota in particular has done so not only in its own plants but also in supplier plants that were experiencing problems. The Toyota Production System transcends physical and cultural barriers; it can be effective in other countries and cultures, if there is a will to implement it and if necessary conditions are fulfilled." (link broken so using Google cache)

La-Z-Boy changing production lines to compete with China by Buzz Ball, Feb 2006
"The primary purpose of the new concept is to increase product numbers. The cells have become so efficient that it has cut the manufacturing time of a chair down from two and one-half days to just three hours."

Manufacturings Influential Thinkers and Doers by John S. McClenahen, Mar 2006
"the best manufacturing thinkers of the last several decades" are Taiichi Ohno and Shigeo Shingo, contends Mercer's Slywotzky

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."

NUMMI Plant a Model for Ailing Car Industry by Tim Simmers, Mar 2006
"Its secret to success, besides the common sense of building small cars and trucks that are in demand, has been its good labor relations and adoption of Toyota's 'lean manufacturing' techniques. Referred to as the 'Toyota Production System (TPS),' it is steeped in Japanese business lore and terms that stress and lay out a road map for quality, efficiency and production advances."

Getting Lean Right by Jamie Flinchbaugh, Jan 2004
"So how is it that such a low percentage of companies that know about lean can turn it into a success? It's not because they haven't heard about continuous flow, or they don't know how to do the 5S's, or they've never seen a kaizen workshop. It is because the leadership, cultural, organizational and implementation challenges are bigger than most people anticipate."

No More Lean Excuses by Dan Jones, Feb 2006
"I have recently been getting a striking reaction from many senior management audiences. They all agree that products have got vastly better over recent years, but they equally agree that the process of ordering and buying them and getting them serviced has got worse!"

What Makes Toyota Tick by Vanessa Chris, Feb 2006
"Every aspect of the assembly process flows flawlessly into the next ﾗ making the plantﾒs 157 processes seem like one. Parts from suppliers are delivered on racks that attach seamlessly onto Toyotaﾒs assembly cells."

The Essence of Jidoka by Mark Rosenthal, Dec 2002
"What does jidoka mean? A common answer to this question is 'autonomation' or 'automation with a human touch.'"

Inside TPS at Toyota, Georgetown, Kentucky by Ralph Rio, Mar 2006
"Toyota believes people need to be intimately involved with the process to understand how to improve it. The team member writes the standardized work they use because the person performing the work is the true expert. People are trusted to understand the process and improve it."

Toyota Powers to the Front by , Apr 2006
"The aim proposed here for any organization is for everybody to gain - stockholders, employees, suppliers, customers, community, the environment - over the long term."

Training Within Industry by Jim Huntzinger, Jan 2007
Lean blog podcast interview by Mark Graban.

Toyota's Real Secret: Hint, It's Not TPS by John Teresko, Jan 0002
"Another advantage derives from the company's lean manufacturing experience. 'A key factor is Toyota's ability to adapt and move the lessons of TPS upstream to product development,' says Brian Shepherd, division vice president, product development, with PTC, a Needham, Mass.-based provider of product development solutions. "One example is their determined efforts to synchronize processes."

Transforming Your Business To Lean: Lessons Learned by Dave Gleditsch, Jan 2007
"First and foremost, we should always keep the customer at the forefront of the planning and implementation process. A key to success is in being able to find the customer in every single metric you choose to measure your Lean transformation progress by."

It's not easy being lean by Paul Glader, Jun 2006
"Five management layers, including the chief executive, seems like a lot to Nucor. (The company quibbles that the executive vice presidents aren't a new 'layer,' they just replace one chief operating officer.) But five is paper-thin compared with many other industrial and manufacturing companies"

The triumph of lean production by Steve Schifferes, Feb 2007
"More than 400 trucks a day come in and out of Toyota's Georgetown plant, with a separate logistics company organising the shipments from Toyota's 300 suppliers - most located in neighbouring states within half a day's drive of the plant. Toyota aims to build long-term relationships with its suppliers, many of whom it has taken a stake in, and says it now produces 80% of its parts within North America."

Machine Revisited by Jim Womack, Mar 2007
Podcast of Mark Graban interviewing Jim Womack; discussing the reissue of Machine that Changed the World: "the biggest disappointment... was to have people tell me it was a great book about fa factories."

Supplier Development at Honda, Nissan and Toyota by Mari Sako, May 2004

Relentless by Detroit News, Nov 0002
"In a reflection of Toyota's team-oriented approach, its executive pay is paltry by U.S. standards. Analyst Ron Tadross at Banc of America Securities estimates the total annual compensation of Toyota's CEO at under $1 million - about as much as a vice president at GM or Ford Motor Co. makes in a good year."

Onshoring by Kevin Meyer and Mark Graban, Mar 2007
Lean blog podcast: interview on lean manufacturing .

What Engineering Has in Common With Manufacturing and Why It Matters by Alistair Cockburn, Apr 2007
"Software engineering is more like manufacturing than most people expect. Once we spot their similarities, we can apply the lessons learned over the last 50 years in manufacturing to software development. This article picks six lessons to apply to software development gleaned from the manufacturing industry."

State of the Auto World by Jim Womack, May 2007
Podcast interview by Mark Graban. "G.E. has been a 'make the numbers' company as opposed to a 'fix the company' company, says Jim. But now GE is saying they have to be like Toyota... 'is there anything beyond Six Sigma or even to Six Sigma?'"

No Satisfaction at Toyota by Charles Fishman, Dec 2006
"What is so striking about Toyota's Georgetown factory is, in fact, that it only looks like a car factory. It's really a big brain--a kind of laboratory focused on a single mission: not how to make cars, but how to make cars better. The cars it does make--one every 27 seconds--are in a sense just a by-product of the larger mission. Better cars, sure; but really, better ways to make cars. It's not just the product, it's the process."

Louisville Slugger: The sweet spot by Paul V. Arnold, May 2007
"Kentucky is today home to many plants owned by companies that have become synonymous with Deming/CI/lean ideals - Toyota, General Electric, Ford and Johnson Controls, to name several. However, few have been at it longer than H&B. Its leadership is shown in the fact that Jack Hillerich serves on the W. Edwards Deming Institute board of trustees and is on the executive board of the Louisville chapter of the Center for Quality of Management. 'We live this stuff every day,' says Hillerich. 'It's to the point where people on the plant floor aren't even thinking about it, but they are doing it.'

Innovation Agility by Kevin Dehoff and John Loehr, Jun 2007
"By investing the shusa [chief engineer] with these multiple roles, Toyota gives that person the authority to quickly and effectively make the necessary trade-offs between technical and cost requirements for the benefit of the program. But this shusa-style authority can be vested only in someone with the technical skills, business acumen, and managerial experience to warrant it. And developing such skills takes time: At Toyota, becoming a shusa is a 20-year process in which promising engineers, with a good 10 years of experience in a particular functional area, are promoted to assistant chief engineers, where they need another 10 years of seasoning before being promoted to shusa."

Thought Leaders -- Lean On Me by Jim Womack, Dec 2007
"Toyota has a supplier management system that is still the best-in-class, and a good part of Toyota's recent quality issue has been bringing in a whole bunch of non-Toyota traditional suppliers and trying to teach them the Toyota Management System, and they're struggling because it turns out -- and I should know this better than anybody, it's what I've been doing for the last 20 years -- it's hard to get people to change old ways of thinking." This interview includes many other great insights.

My Life and Work by Henry Ford, Jan 1922
Henry Ford's 1922 book is available online.

My First Trip to Japan by Peter R. Scholtes, Feb 1986
Report on trip to Japan to learn about how Japanese management focused on quality and productivity improvement to meet and exceed customers needs and expectations.

Toyota Kyushu - The Manufacturing Ballet by Kevin Meyer, Aug 2008
"Every sixty seconds. A car to an SUV to a hybrid version of that SUV back to a car... think about the material flows, line balancing, standard work required to keep such a line humming along. That should give pause to anyone believing that Toyota doesn't do mixed model production, or that quick changeover is a pipe dream. ... Toyota is a bit unique in that they have, and operate to, formal 50 year plans. Not five year plans like the rest of us. Fifty. This crisis was expected, cash reserves created, strategies created to implement training in order to come out the other side ahead."

Manufacturing and the Economy by John Hunter, Oct 2005
"The conventional wisdom was that the rest of the world would not be able to compete with the United States for high wage, high value jobs. It turns out the rest of the world is much more able to compete for that work than was expected. ... To achieve economic success in the next 50 years will require doing what we did well last century well again, improving things we could get away with doing poorly and learning and applying new ideas (in management and elsewhere)."

Geared for Happiness by Clare Crawford-Mason and Robert Mason, Nov 2008
"quality first and follow through with the honest practice of developing quality products and quality people ... Deming liked to tell how the Great Western Sugar would take newspaper ads to advise the farmers when to plant, thin and harvest their sugar beets so they would get the best crop. This led him to advise Toyota to work with their suppliers and customers rather than go for the lowest price or highest profit."

How to Develop Products like Toyota by , Nov 2008
"Toyota tends to stay as flexible as possible until relatively late in the development stage. He cites as an example Toyotas practice of leaving manufacturing tolerances to be set by die makers rather than by design engineers creating the prints. Die makers make die dimensions as close as practical to those in the CAD database, but have the flexibility to modify them so body parts fit together well. Manufacturing engineers then set tolerances around manufacturing capabilities."

Remembering NUMMI by Gipsie Ranney, Jan 2009
"The most remarkable insight I gained at NUMMI came as an answer to a question from a member of the touring group. The person asked what had been learned about the reasons that management/labor conflict had been reduced so much. The tour guide answered, "The answer we get from members of the labor force is that the Japanese do what they say they will do." This was the same labor force that had held the record for most grievances filed per year in an assembly plant in the U.S. ... The Big Three are responsible for managing their organizations wisely. I think that will take more than money. It will take a different culture and a different mind."

Toyota's Legendary Production System by Alex Taylot III , Dec 1997
"Mike DaPrile, who runs Toyota's assembly facilities in Kentucky, describes it as having three levels: techniques, systems, and philosophy. Says he: 'Many plants have put in an andon cord that you pull to stop the assembly line if there is a problem. A 5-year-old can pull the cord. But it takes a lot of effort to drive the right philosophies down to the plant floor. A lot of people don't want to give the needed authority to the people on the line who deserve it.' Adopting TPS means acquiring a different mindset. In most plants, for instance, workers try to overproduce because once they fill their quotas, they can take it easy. As a result, the flow of work proceeds in fits and starts. At Toyota, overproduction is considered one of the worst forms of waste. The company designs the work to flow from process to process without peaks or valleys and still arrive in just the right quantity for the customer. That results in a smoother-running plant, and it keeps everybody busy. Says Shook: 'TPS takes an incredible amount of detailed planning, discipline, hard work, and painstaking attention to detail.' To see TPS in action is to behold a thing of beauty..."

The Top 10 Titans of TPS by Jon Miller, Nov 0002
"1. Henry Ford was the founder of the Ford Motor Company. He revolutionized repetitive manufacturing of automobiles through standardization of parts, the moving assembly line and continuous improvement or product and process. Inspired imitation by Toyoda family to build automobiles... 2. Sakichi Toyoda was and inventor, industrialist, and founder of Toyota Looms Works. He gave us the jidoka concept, inspired the Toyota Precepts and set the development of the Toyota Production System in motion... 3. Charles R. Allen created and taught the methodologies which were developed into Job Instruction and eventually Training Within Industry during World War II..."

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.

The Extraordinary Vision of Henry Ford by Jamie Flinchbaugh and Tom Jackson, May 2003
"The second distinguishing characteristic of Ford's vision was that it was multidimensional. Henry Ford looked at every aspect of his business to achieve his grand vision: product, process and people. His product vision was based on interchangeable parts that fit together every time and a product that didn't break down as you used it; a product so cheap to build that everyone could afford it."

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."

Manufacturing plant as classroom: Reinventing continuous learning by Bonnie Del Conte, Mar 2009
"Team members are required to study the Lean philosophy and methodologies, and can choose to take twelve core courses in the company's Dur-A-Flex University, an in-house education program that operates primarily during the lunch hour. 'We want every owner to learn not just about Lean, but about every aspect of our business - from chemistry to installation techniques, finance, IT and accounting,' said Greider. 'As a result, our team members identify and solve problems, and flexibly move about as needed throughout the business, zigging and zagging and making their own decisions along the way.'"

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 manufacturing example from 1985.

Kamigo Engine Plant Tour Review by Art Smalley, Sep 2006
"Once you strip away all the fancy buzzwords surrounding the company it is simply rigorous problems solving or kaizen depending upon which side of the performance line you are on."