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From the Editor
 Welcome to the Superfactory Newsletter!
We apologize for being a little later this month due to some unexpected summer projects! The September issue will appear in your inbox in about a week.
Now is the time to invest in lean improvements. Check out Gemba Academy, which has just added a new course on Quick Changeover, as well as a series of Lean Thinker Interviews and Lean Leader Interviews. The Seven Wastes course is also now available with Spanish subtitles.
The Superfactory LinkedIn group has over 3,000 members. If you're a member of LinkedIn, or are interested injoining the largest professional social networking group, also join theSuperfactory Group.
You can also follow us on Twitter to stay informed of new content and lean manufacturing news.
- Kevin Meyer |
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Manufacturing Excellence NewsStories of interest to the lean community.
- US productivity gains key to profit surprises
Calgary Herald - David Pett - Aug 12, 2009
- The Promise of the 'Lean Startup'
BusinessWeek - Eric Ries - Aug 12, 2009
- Ten Practices for Applying Agile/Lean Software Management
informIT - Dean Leffingwell - Aug 11, 2009
- Michelin boosts workforce skills
Ballymena Times - Aug 11, 2009
- What it takes for a small manufacturer to make it
Kansas CW - Aug 10, 2009
- What will it take to lure back manufacturing?
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Aug 8, 2009
- Efficiency expert shares Toyota techniques with businesses
Rocky Mount Telegram - John Henderson - Aug 7, 2009
- Latest Starbucks Buzzword: 'Lean' Japanese Techniques
Wall Street Journal - Julie Jargon - Aug 3, 2009
- Womack Praises Ford, Uncertain About GM, Chrysler
Ward's Auto (subscription) - Tom Murphy - Aug 4, 2009
- Process innovation: A key to unharvested wealth
Reliable Plant Magazine - Roger La Salle - Aug 4, 2009
- CFO Brings Big Ideas to a Small Company
CFO.com Magazine - Aug 13, 2009
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In the Evolving Excellence Blog
Join over 5,000 readers who get their daily dose of blunt manufacturing and business reality by subscribing to the Evolving Excellence blog!
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Recent posts in the Evolving Excellence blog include:
Visit the Evolving Excellence blog... |
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Upcoming Events
| 09/01/2009 | PLC Training Workshop - Denver, CO - Business Industrial Network |
| 09/02/2009 | Benchmarking & Performance Measurement 2009 - Dallas, TX - AME |
| 09/09/2009 | Motivating Others While Leading Change - Mason, OH - Definity |
| 09/09/2009 | Achieving Supply Chain Excellence - Austin, TX - AME |
| 09/10/2009 | Effective Communication - Mason, OH - Definity |
| 09/14/2009 | Six Sigma White Belt - Dayton, OH - U-Dayton |
| 09/15/2009 | Setup Reduction TPM Blitz - San Antonio, TX - AME |
| 09/15/2009 | Training Within Industry - JI - Bakersfield, CA - AME |
| 09/15/2009 | Setup Reduction and TPM Blitz - San Antonio, TX - AME |
| 09/15/2009 | Green 101 - Burlington, ON - AME |
| 09/16/2009 | Lean Service - Dayton, OH - U-Dayton |
| 09/16/2009 | Change Agent Skills - Cambridge, MA - LEI |
| 09/16/2009 | MES Multi-Country Rollouts - Webinar - WTG |
| 09/17/2009 | Lean Tools for the Office - Morris Plains, NJ - NJ MEP |
| 09/21/2009 | Accelerating Cost Reductions - Pasadena, CA - Caltech |
| 09/21/2009 | Process Excellence for Service - Chicago, IL - IQPC |
| 09/21/2009 | Lean Experience - Novi, MI - Lean Learning Center |
| 09/22/2009 | PLM Road Map 2009 - Detroit, MI - CPD Associates |
| 09/22/2009 | Human Error Prevention - Chattanooga, TN - High Tech Seminars |
| 09/22/2009 | Thinking About Manufacturing Excellence - Athens, GA - AME |
| 09/23/2009 | How to Lay Out a Warehouse or Distribution Center - San Diego, CA - U-Kansas |
| 09/24/2009 | Principles of Lean Manufacturing - Morris Plains, NJ - NJ MEP |
| 09/24/2009 | Root Cause Analysis - Chattanooga, TN - High Tech Seminars |
| 09/24/2009 | Lean Supervisor - Hamilton, ON - EMC |
| 09/26/2009 | Operational Excellence Conference - St. Louis, MO - IIE |
| 09/28/2009 | Six Sigma Executive Champion - Dayton, OH - U-Dayton |
| 09/28/2009 | Nuclear Quality Requirements for Procurement - Chattanooga, TN - High Tech Seminars |
| 09/28/2009 | QEH&S Auditing - ISO 19000 - Chattanooga, TN - High Tech Seminars |
| 09/28/2009 | Lean to Green Manufacturing - Austin, TX - SME |
| 09/28/2009 | Factory Physics: The Science of Lean Manufacturing - Ann Arbor, MI - U-Michigan |
| 09/28/2009 | Lean Kaizen Boot Camp - Novi, MI - Lean Learning Center |
| 09/28/2009 | 5S for the Office - Hamilton, ON - EMC |
| 09/29/2009 | Getting the Right Things Done - Philadelphia, PA - LEI |
| 09/29/2009 | Value Stream Mapping for the Office and Service - Philadelphia, PA - LEI |
| 09/29/2009 | Key Concepts of Lean in Healthcare - Philadelphia, PA - LEI |
| 09/29/2009 | 5S for the Office - London, ON - EMC |
| 09/29/2009 | Strategies for Lean Purchasing - Hamilton, ON - EMC |
| 09/30/2009 | Global Supply Chain Management - Ann Arbor, MI - U-Michigan |
| 09/30/2009 | How to Perform a 5S Event - Webinar - 5S Supply |
| 09/30/2009 | Managing to Learn: The Use of the A3 - Philadelphia, PA - LEI |
| 09/30/2009 | Value Stream Mapping for the Office - Brockville, ON - EMC |
| 09/30/2009 | Dyna-Flo Plant Tour - Edmonton, AB - AME |
View the full events calendar... |
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Featured Book
 The Birth of Lean
By Koichi Shimokawa
There are a lot of books that describe the Toyota Production System, but most do so in a way that implies that there was a master plan to create a company-wide improvement system. But as the pioneers in The Birth of Lean explain, there was no master plan—TPS came about through experimentation, trial and error, and an evolution of ideas that shaped Toyota’s structure and management system. This is an honest look at the origins of Lean, written in the words of the people who created the system. Through interviews and annotated talks, you will hear first-person accounts of what these innovators and problem-solvers did and why they did it. You’ll read rare, personal commentaries that explain the interplay of (sometimes opposing) ideas that created a revolution in thinking.
More information - Previous featured books |
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Featured Article
 The Obstacle to Lean Accounting
By Bill Waddell
The big problem with lean accounting is that, for the most part, we are incapable of dealing with reality - and I don't mean accounting's inability, I mean the rest of management. I have discussed lean accounting with literally hundreds of accountants, and I have yet to meet one who says that standard costs - or any version of full costs with all of the overheads allocated or assigned, whether it was done via traditional methods, activity based methods, or anything else - are accurate. Accuracy and integrity are accounting's stock in trade. The South American coffee industry thrives because of it. These people will work all day and night to resolve a few pennies of discrepancy in a million dollar balance sheet.
They know the full cost they generate is not a true statement of the cost of something. But they also know that their customers - the people who set prices, make planning and capital investment decisions, and those responsible for make-buy decisions - are far too often incapable of sorting through and making good business sense of the complicated realities. Full costs are not accurate, but they make life simple. Accountants often believe that full costs, while not true, are directionally good enough and that decisions made with them will generally be better than the decisions made by people with true, but messy, data that lean accounting provides. In many companiess they are probably right, but that does not mean that lean accounting is not an improvement. It only means that management has a problem to solve.
Read the entire article...
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Leading in the Gemba
by Kevin Meyer
Dr. Henry Mintzberg of McGill University's management school penned an article in the latest Business Week decrying a lack of management... not leadership. He eventually comes to the correct conclusion that traditional "leadership" needs to change... into something similar to what many of us know as "lean leadership."
It became fashionable some years ago to separate "leaders" from "managers"—you know, distinguishing those who "do the right things" from those who "do things right." It sounds good.
Yes, and then many organizations began to think use catchy phrases like "everyone's a leader" and "individual leadership" and such... without truly diving into what real, effective, leadership is. So what happened?
But think about how this separation works in practice. U.S. businesses now have too many leaders who are detached from the messy process of managing. So they don't know what's going on. We're overled and undermanaged. Corporate America has had too much of fancy leadership disconnected from plain old management.
So traditional "leadership" has evolved into ego-driven uninformed pontification...
I hear stories about this every day: about CEOs who don't manage so much as deem—pronouncing performance targets, for instance, that are supposed to be met by whoever is doing the real managing.
Moreover, studies show that vital information is typically transmitted to a CEO informally—orally, often, rather than in formal reports. Leaders removed from managing aren't going to get these messages.
So what's missing? Lean leaders know: the gemba. The place where it all happens, where value is created, and innovation is born. Dr. Mintzberg comes to that same conclusion.
American enterprise, so admired around the globe, was not built by currently fashionable "heroic" leadership but with leaders tangibly engaged in managing—and without today's bonuses, I might add.
Being an engaged leader means you must be reflective while staying in the fray—the hectic, fragmented, never-ending world of managing. The reward: access to the ideas flowing around you. As Stanford University emeritus professor James G. March put it: "Leadership involves plumbing as well as poetry."
Very true. Real leadership, lean leadership, involves a direct and ongoing relationship with the gemba... be it the factory floor, data center, classroom, or lab. Real leaders teach, challenge, support, and especially learn from the gemba.
Read the rest and comment (3 comments so far)... |
© 2009 Superfactory by Factory Strategies Group LLC. All Rights Reserved |
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