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Books > Business & Economics > Industry & industrial studies > Manufacturing industries > General
In today's global business arena, the shop floor now covers the
world, and what ties everything together is communication. Author
Sam Yankelevitch challenges readers to apply the transformational
magic of lean thinking to the waste and confusion that plague
global supply chains when cultures collide and meaning gets mangled
in even the simplest conversations. Using entertaining real-life
stories, Lean Potion #9 demonstrates that communication is a
process and illustrates how lean champions like you can adapt
familiar lean concepts and tools--such as Five S, PDCA, and the 7
Wastes--to address miscommunications that cause unbudgeted costs,
confusion, and frustration. Lean Potion # 9 is a call to action for
leaders at all levels to embrace the power of lean to reengineer
communication processes. Communication is the next lean frontier.
Are you ready to explore it?
Understanding what lean manufacturing is does not take rocket
science, nor does it take a conference of ten experts to bear down
to the basic concepts. Simply put, lean manufacturing is the
achievement of the greatest efficiency and profitability for a
company by eliminating the wasteful methods and activities that are
commonly present in corporate regimes. At first glance, some firms
are intimated with the thought of adopting lean manufacturing
because of its fancy sounding name. But, if truth be told, it is
actually easier than seems. What you just need to have is the
dedication and the discipline to see things through and make change
happen.
How America can rebuild its industrial landscape to sustain an
innovative economy. America is the world leader in innovation, but
many of the innovative ideas that are hatched in American
start-ups, labs, and companies end up going abroad to reach
commercial scale. Apple, the superstar of innovation, locates its
production in China (yet still reaps most of its profits in the
United States). When innovation does not find the capital, skills,
and expertise it needs to come to market in the United States, what
does it mean for economic growth and job creation? Inspired by the
MIT Made in America project of the 1980s, Making in America brings
experts from across MIT to focus on a critical problem for the
country. MIT scientists, engineers, social scientists, and
management experts visited more than 250 firms in the United
States, Germany, and China. In companies across America-from big
defense contractors to small machine shops and new technology
start-ups-these experts tried to learn how we can rebuild the
industrial landscape to sustain an innovative economy. At each
stop, they asked this basic question: "When you have a new idea,
how do you get it into the market?" They found gaping holes and
missing pieces in the industrial ecosystem. Even in an
Internet-connected world, proximity to innovation and users matters
for industry. Making in America describes ways to strengthen this
connection, including public-private collaborations, new
government-initiated manufacturing innovation institutes, and
industry/community college projects. If we can learn from these
ongoing experiments in linking innovation to production, American
manufacturing could have a renaissance.
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