Web Writing

Note: Before the dot-com debacle, Office.com was one of the Web's most comprehensive business sites. In June 2000, I began writing a biweekly column for them on innovative practices in manufacturing. Some 17 stories later, I had covered such topics as kaizen, the quality movement, U.S. energy policy, lean manufacturing principles, training processes and e-commerce developments. The story below and its sequel were syndicated to yahoo.com's small business site. 

Is the 'Lean Production' Process  Right for You? Lean production means thinking about your business in a whole new way. By John F. Goodman for Office.com

June 6, 2000 — This article is the first of a two-part series on lean production, the process of consistently eliminating waste from every aspect of manufacturing. In this segment, two experts provide an overview of lean manufacturing and how it can work for you. What is all the hoopla about lean production? Is it just another "flavor of the month" in management models? Is it another Japanese theory that simply doesn't apply in the United States? Or is it something your business should actively consider? To get some answers, Office.com went to two respected authorities to uncover the ways in which lean production can and should work for you. The idea behind lean production is to eliminate waste consistently from every aspect of production, including the flow of parts and materials from suppliers and the flow of goods to customers. While lean involves planning, scheduling, managing and communicating as well as fabricating, its focus is on the shop floor where pilot projects may begin the process. The idea is to identify those value-added parts of the company's production operation, i.e., those parts of the process that the customer is willing to pay for, and separate out or eliminate the non-value-added activities, i.e., the waste. On average, 5 percent of production activities add value; 35 percent are necessary but non-valuable; and 60 percent are basically "waste."   John Shook, partner in the Lean Enterprise Institute and the first American to become section chief at Toyota in Japan (where the lean concept began), talked about value as defined by the customer. "The value of people in the organization is given highest regard, and business processes are organized accordingly: People are given responsibility to provide value for customers.   click here for more