From the Editor

Welcome to the Superfactory Newsletter!

The Superfactory video library, with nearly 600 virtual factory tour and lean informational videos, has become a little cumbersome to maintain. So just last week we launched Superfactory TV to maintain the videos in a YouTube style. It will take us some time to move all the videos to this new site, so in the meantime the old video pages are still available. Visit Superfactory TV.

We are running a promotion with our partner Gemba Academy where we'll send you the Gemba Academy Lean Starter Package DVD, a $97 value, for no cost with the purchase of any Superfactory PowerPoint presentation package or bundle.

- Kevin Meyer

Manufacturing Excellence News

Stories of interest to the lean community.

• The seduction of routine (and other obstacles to spotting opportunities)
  FT.com - May 29, 2010
• Lean principles move from factory floor to clinic
  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Guy Boulton - May 29, 2010
• Green Street and Main Street Are In the Same Neighborhood
  IndustryWeek - Sarah H. Krasley - May 27, 2010
• Leadership Through Ambiguity
  Life Science Leader Magazine - Marilyn Nyman - May 26, 2010
• What Manufacturing Won't Go Offshore
  Software Advice - May 24, 2010
• Toyota Invests to Reopen NUMMI
  Zacks.com - May 21, 2010
• Create value to "fight China price
  American Chronicle - Martin Harshberger - May 21, 2010
• Quick reply to change vital to industry
  Fort Wayne Journal Gazette - Clint Keller - May 20, 2010
• On the Rise -- Morey Corp.: Nimble Pursuit of Lasting Value
  IndustryWeek - Steve Minter - May 18, 2010
• How Chinese Suicides Could Hurt Apple
  Newsweek - May 28, 2010
• Time-saving techniques boost bottom line at B and J
  Northern Nevada Business Weekly - Rob Sabo - May 31, 2010

In the Evolving Excellence Blog

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Recent posts in the Evolving Excellence blog include:

• The Royal Monkey - Software companies are still pushing MRP with bolt-on lean "capability" - without understanding real lean.
• I Know How Tough it is to be Chinese - The U.S. complains about Chinese manufacturing subsidies, but how does the U.S. look to Mexico?
• Rejuvenating... To Lead Without a Title - An opportune time for an opportune book on personal leadership.
• Freight is the Tail, Not the Dog - Oh the angst over Walmart's latest supply chain scheme - but does it benefit lean manufacturers?
• The Next and Final Lean Frontier - Here comes lean sales and marketing!
• Human Ideas and Aliens - Once again behold the power of human creativity.
• Rationalizing Mediocrity - Some companies still believe they are unique and lean principles don't apply to them.
• The Ripple Impact of a Small Change - Only a day after health reform passed, the mistakes in the 2000 page bill are becoming apparent.
• It's About Time, Not Inventory - A focus on inventory reduction distorts real lean.
• We're Going Linear - Will drive-thru shopping expand to major appliances?

Visit the Evolving Excellence blog...

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Featured Book

Building a Lean Fulfillment Stream will change the way you think about your supply chain and logistics networks giving you a way to act using lean principles to transform and continuously improve. In this pioneering workbook, lean logistics veterans Robert Martichenko and Kevin von Grabe explain step-by-step a comprehensive, real-life implementation process for optimizing your entire fulfillment stream from raw materials to customers, including two critical concepts: calculating the total cost of fulfillment and collaborating with across all functions and firms along the stream.

More Information | Previous featured books

Featured Article

Living in an Upside Down World
By Norman Bodek

Traditionally our focus has been to help our organizations to reduce costs, to improve quality, to reduce the timeline, to improve the flow, to improve productivity, to improve safety, to improve customer service, and to make a lot of money for the stockholders. Of course, that is why we have a job. We are told we are there to serve the interests of the company we work for. But, something is surely missing in the above scenario.

How about us? Do we count?

A year ago, I visited a Toyota plant in Japan and noticed a young worker on the line installing about eight bolts onto every automobile. It looked like a very tedious and difficult job as the automobile was overhead and this required the worker to stretch. I walked over to the worker and spoke to a supervisor nearby. I asked, “How long will he have to do that job?” The answer was, “Well, he has a takt time of one minute. He has one minute to tighten all of the bolts. He will do that same job all day. He has 500 cars to work on today. He will probably do the same job for the next 3 to 6 months.” I was shocked to hear this.

A few days later, I visited a Canon plant and was shown a totally different system. Canon a few years back had a conveyor belt with around 60 people on the line doing very limited and repetitive tests. The problem with the conveyor belt is that it goes at the speed of the slowest worker. Canon changed the system, ironically, getting help from ex-Toyota managers who helped Canon setup manufacturing cells. Now, believe it or not one employee, working in a cell, is able to build an entire copier by themselves. One worker is able to assemble a total copier with over 1000 parts in one hour all by themselves. She is able to assemble seven copiers in a day and the copiers are produced with very high levels of quality at 30% to 50% faster than the conveyor belt.

I saw one of these workers at Canon say, “At the end of the day I feel as if I have given birth to seven new babies. I am so happy to work here.”

Often, when I keynote at a conference, I ask the audience, “What is your company's most important asset?” Virtually, everyone says, “People are our most important asset.” I then ask, “If people are your most important asset then why aren't they listed on your balance sheet?” Isn’t it ironical that we put inventory and machines on the asset side of the balance sheet but we don't put people. We don't encourage the investment in people, our best asset.

Read the entire article | Previous featured articles

Featured Evolving Excellence Blog Post

Freight is the Tail, Not the Dog
by Bill Waddell

Economy of scale is great when you've got it. The problem comes when you try to create it out of thin air. That tunnel visioned pursuit of economies of scale is apparent nowhere more clearly than in freight management. Listen to the wailing and gnashing of teeth that is coming from freight and logistics managers, along with simple minded accountants, at evil Walmart's latest oppressive move to take control of their inbound freight.

"The price cuts Wal-Mart is seeking are twice as much as the cost for transporting goods in some cases, said officials from two suppliers. In two instances, Wal-Mart asked for a 6 percent reduction in the price it pays for products based on its own cost calculation, while suppliers estimated the actual expense was equal to about 3 percent, the people said."

Now I don't know who these particular suppliers are, of course, and maybe they are right - but I doubt it. Peter Drucker in an amazingly forward looking article he wrote way back in 1990 called "The Emerging Theory of Manufacturing" wrote "the new system sees the plant as little more than a wide place in the manufacturing stream". Just how "wide'the plant is depends largely on just how hung up the freight people are on gaining economies of scale from truckload and container load shipments to save a few percent on the material cost. In way too many manufacturers the drive to save pennies from truckload scale sabotages the entire lean effort.

Read the rest and comment... (13 comments so far)