Companies adopting a Lean philosophy strive to remove or shorten time spent on activities that the customer doesn’t value. For example, although steps like estimating and makeready are thought of as ...

Is there a component of lean that’s more widely taught than The Eight Wastes? In any lean seminar or text, they are usually among the first concepts mentioned. (Sometimes, they are represented as The ...

Every business is unique. For most, simply adopting a single, prescribed approach is a risky move. In the case of Six Sigma, it can be especially tempting to, seeing the success of major companies ...

“They need a conveyor,” said the guy on my left as we observed the assembly process. Operators walked back and forth from the assembly station to bring finished parts to the shelf and to get ...