Comments on: Thomas Johnson on Lean thinking

By: anders

anders — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 07:15:02 +0000

Jo,
Yes, trust of the workforce is important. To view employees as factors of production, as resources, that can be moved around and optimized is limiting. That perception in itself sets a limit for the productivity and creativity of the workforce. We optimize something limited. Better to include them and look at them as co-workers, co-creators of the business idea. True strength and because of this also competitiveness in business lies in working together.
/Anders

By: MCP Europe

MCP Europe — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:44:29 +0000

On this topic of lean thinking i’d like to add when it comes to lean manufacturing in a lean environment it is essential to have trust of the workforce so that they understand that productivity improvements would never cost them their jobs”
We know that one using Lean thinking principles will reduce costs but on the other hand when the workforce feel that feel of insecure job stability it will definitely affect their daily performance not helping production improvement.
Cheers,

By: anders

anders — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 13:19:46 +0000

By now I own the book and have skimmed a few pages. I was surprised to find a Swede as coauthor, Anders Broms from Scania, manufacturer of lorries. An interesting fact is that they seemed to have managed the financial crisis better than Volvo. Scania had a different approach.
/Anders

By: Climatarians | Joost

Climatarians | Joost — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 07:33:12 +0000

Thanks for the enlightening post. Yes, change needs to come from the inside and has to be holistic. A piece meal approach to fixing things does not necessarily solve the main issue. Some symptoms may be taken care of, but the root problem would still be present. I guess this is where Lean Management differs and deals with the foundation rather than just the apparent problem.

Good insight!
Joost Hoogstrate