A supplier who is a part of the same company as its customer is an internal supplier. They may provide products, services, or other resources. They are the upstream processes and the support groups that provide their coworkers with the tools, materials, and work-in-process to do their jobs. Internal suppliers Read more…
In the last few months, I’ve seen several speed traps set up in schools zones where multiple police officers line up and systematically pull over a steady stream of drivers. Now, I’m not in the car with those drivers, but I would bet that most of them aren’t intentionally trying Read more…
Taiichi Ohno (February 29, 1912-May 28,1990) is considered by many to be the father of the Toyota Production System. He eventually rose to the rank of executive vice president in the company.
While Ohno had many innovative ideas and published several landmark books (see them and other books about him here), perhaps his biggest creative leap was integrating the American supermarket system of resupply into the automotive industry. He was able to lay the foundation for kanban systems, pull, and one-piece flow by changing the way components were supplied to production processes.
I’m a fan of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Recently Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger (the ‘Hero of the Hudson’) was a guest on the show. Jon Stewart brought up a part of Sully’s book (Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters) where Sully had mentioned that his copilot had Read more…
Continuous Improvement Lessons of the Day We have a lot of content on our site. When you are looking for something specific, it is easy to find, but what about when you just want to develop your continuous improvement skills? It can be overwhelming to have so much to choose Read more…
So, it is a Sunday morning, and the outlook for today is bleak. You see, it is the bye week for my favorite football team–the Chicago Bears. I can handle the wait from the end of the season until the first game of the next one, but giving me a Read more…