Industry 4.0 refers to the fourth industrial revolution as envisaged by German government. We are in the beginning of fourth industrial revolution which involves tight integration of modern information technology in the manufacturing and supply chain operations. Given this what is the future of lean?… Read more
You are the company owner or CEO. You implemented lean but the programme has failed. Why? Who to blame? Certainly don’t blame your employees or the middle managers or someone else. You are the cause of the failure. You failed to show lean leadership.… Read more
One of the challenges for western countries in producing products within their respective countries is high Labour costs. The labour costs are over three times cheaper in Asia! This is precisely the reason why many companies in West outsource their manufacturing in Asia.… Read more
Is ‘value-stream map’ (VSM) same as ‘flow diagram’? Is VSM or ‘takt time’ or ‘lean flow’ applicable to only highly repetitive, high volume and low variety manufacturing situations? Are these tools for staffing determinations? Lean Guru, John Shook, answers these questions in this very informative article.… Read more
Is lean all about productivity? If so how is this different from Taylorism? How is human element seen in these two approaches? For a lean guru’s comments on this read more…… Read more
Is lean applicable in Office environment? When no widgets are made and when there is nothing to see how can one learn to see? How easy or difficult to apply lean principles in office environment? Where do you start? For answers to these questions, read more…… Read more
