Toyota NUMMI: Optimism at the dawn of a new era?
Last month, I visited a Toyota plant for the first time, the fabled NUMMI plant in Fremont, California. The factory has fallen on harder times: production stopped on some lines in December. read more
View ArticleToyota to Close NUMMI Plant in Fremont
In a sad turning point in Toyota's history, and, perhaps the whole history of the Lean movement, Toyota plans to liquidate the Lean showcase NUMMI plant in Fremont, California "by the end of August."...
View ArticleGo Out and Gemba
I've always found one of the most evocative terms in the Toyota lexicon to be “gemba” ----the real place, or as it has more poetically been translated, “the place where truth will be found.” The word...
View ArticleCan Lean Negate Quality Control? Lessons From Fallen Lean Icons Toyota and J&J
Recent postings in the WSJ blog and elsewhere have asked the troubling question: Does Lean Manufacturing, by definition, lead to quality control problems? Click here for an interesting read. (For...
View ArticleEZ Pass Testing, Coercion and Buck Passing: A Tale of Broken Pharma QA and...
Just read Mina Kimes' enlightening account of the J&J McNeil quality disaster in Fortune. Forget about the fact that the adulterated products did not and most likely would not have harmed...
View ArticlePharma CEOs' Big Question - Should I Stay Or Should I Go?
A growing number of pharma CEOs are now dealing with the consequences of failing to care about workplace realities and what Toyota called the gemba, or place where truth will be found.If the idea of...
View ArticleCould Pharma Use a Dose of Paranoid Leadership?
I took time this morning to listen to a podcast interview with MIT Sloan professor Steven Spear on what characterizes “high velocity” organizations. (Spear is the author of “Chasing the Rabbit: How...
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