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Steve,
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I am a proponent of Lean Six Sigma practices but it does not work in all situations especially software development. Other situations where it does not work well are small volume shops, craftsman type situations, or any type of custom work. I was recently talking to a person who works in a custom truck body company. The have more work than they can keep up with lately so they are going down the Lean path. It will fail as they still manufacture the trucks one at at time in single bays rather than a production line. They can implement portions of the philosophy such as 5S but it will not reap the benefits they were initially sold. I currently work with a software development team and no matter how they try to keep to schedules and meet their design requirements, there is always a issue that requires a rework. I can also name several projects that I worked on where the results were a home run but the companies understood and supported the efforts. They also had the volume where it made sense to implement Lean Six Sigma projects.
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Jim Thomson
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Rehoboth, MA
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On December 2, 2019 at 2:48 PM Stephen Offiler <soffiler@gmail.com> wrote:
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Jim, count me as surprised to hear you label Lean as a "flavor of the day"
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On Mon, Dec 2, 2019 at 2:22 PM macowboy <
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The problem is see with Lean and other flavor of the day fixes is the lack of management support for the program. Management goes through the.motions to say that they have implemented a specific program with out understanding what resources are needed. I know firsthand of one company in RI that got state funding for Lean training but ended up just pocketing the money. The excuse was that it would not work at their company. The persons company had a dramatic decrease in personnel and eventuality sold to a holding company. The former owner is now the executive director of a RI manufactures site.
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Don't forget to add six sigma to your lean program otherwise you will just make bad parts faster!
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Jim Thomson
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Rehoboth, MA
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Sent from my Samsung Galaxy , an AT&T LTE smartphone
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-------- Original message --------
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From: Stephen Offiler <
<a target="_blank" href="mailto:soffiler@gmail.com" rel="noopener">soffiler@gmail.com</a>>
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Date: 12/2/19 9:01 AM (GMT-05:00)
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To: Antique Tractor Email Discussion Group <
<a target="_blank" href="mailto:at@lists.antique-tractor.com" rel="noopener">at@lists.antique-tractor.com</a>>
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Subject: Re: [AT] Big Truck Pickups
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I agree that Lean principles are most naturally applied to production type environments. But a good "Lean thinker" can apply tools such as the Five S's and the Seven Wastes to pretty much anything, including non-repetitive administrative tasks.
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On Mon, Dec 2, 2019 at 7:42 AM Mark Johnson <
<a target="_blank" href="mailto:markjohnson100@centurylink.net" rel="noopener">markjohnson100@centurylink.net</a>> wrote:
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<p>I should be more fair...the application of Lean did not cause the financial difficulties - those are endemic to the company and have been for a couple of decades - but the organization has not, in my view, benefited significantly from their use. There is still (I left their employ about 15 months ago) a severe tendency toward administrative bloat and decision-making that takes place at entirely too high a level. The local site manager here doesn't even have the authority to close the office when the weather is impossible (e.g., a 12-15 inch snow, which happened twice while I worked there). <br></p>
<p>Personally, I found the Lean principles to be viable but the company is one of those "Lean in Name Only" users. I do question the use of Lean in the delivery of IT services because they aren't a production line. Each customer's services are unique in many ways, and it seems really difficult to create a standard service catalog. <br></p>
<p>Mark J<br></p>
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On 12/1/2019 9:05 AM, Stephen Offiler wrote:
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Hold on a second there Mark. Since I've already stated my position as a proponent of Lean/TPS, I should probably play devil's advocate here. You imply the application of TPS has caused financial difficulties. I suspect the reality is the financial difficulties came first, TPS was perhaps one of many tools employed to turn the barge around, and we have no way of knowing whether the decline might have been even worse had they not tried TPS.
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On Sun, Dec 1, 2019 at 8:30 AM Mark Johnson <
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<p>A former employer (3-letter IT company with a 100+ year history, otherwise to remain nameless) has been trying to apply TPS to information technology services. Its NYSE stock price should tell you how successful they have been...</p>
<p>Mark J</p>
<p>Columbia, MO<br></p>
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On 11/30/2019 7:27 AM, Stephen Offiler wrote:
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Absolutely. The Toyota Production System (TPS) is studied around the world and applied in every imaginable industry as "Lean Manufacturing" and in service industries like hospitals as simply "Lean".
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I have a couple decades of experience with Lean Mfg. and I would count myself as a proponent although I've also seen some of the Achilles' Heels. It is a very collaborative system at its core, and won't work well unless the entire workforce is engaged. In short what I'm saying is that I cannot imagine a UAW shop embracing Lean.
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On Sat, Nov 30, 2019 at 7:42 AM James Peck <
<a target="_blank" href="mailto:jamesgpeck@hotmail.com" rel="noopener">jamesgpeck@hotmail.com</a>> wrote:
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Toyota does a really good job at controlling the manufacturing process. Not so good at the attractive design process. Toyota refused an offer to take GM for free in the 2008 GM bankruptcy. That was an extremely wise decision. Everything necessary to make GM work well would have been politically unpopular.
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<br> Remember, Toyota can manufacture cars and trucks in the US using Americans and make money. There may be more.
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<br> Steve Offiler AT List member Mechanical Engineer (
<a target="_blank" href="mailto:soffiler@gmail.com" rel="noopener">soffiler@gmail.com</a>); So which automotive companies in your estimation are not run by cabbage heads?
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<br> James AT List Member (
<a target="_blank" href="mailto:jamesgpeck@hotmail.com" rel="noopener">jamesgpeck@hotmail.com</a>); They have cabbage heads running Ford as well. The recent Ranger is far less attractive than the one that preceded it.
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<br> Steve Offiler AT List member Mechanical Engineer (
<a target="_blank" href="mailto:soffiler@gmail.com" rel="noopener">soffiler@gmail.com</a>); <snip> I've paid so little attention to the return of the Ranger that I barely could tell you it exists. <snip>
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