Art Smalley: Tools, Rules, Principles, and Lean Wallpaper
By Art Smalley, author of Creating Level Pull and co-author of A3 Thinking - Last updated: Tuesday, April 19, 2011 - Save & Share - Leave a comment
I have had a long and somewhat tortured fascination with regards to this topic and other similar questions. In terms of background when I returned to ...
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Toyota and Capital Investment
Art Smalley: Toyota and Capital Investment
By Art Smalley, author of Creating Level Pull and co-author of A3 Thinking - Last updated: Sunday, March 20, 2011 - Save & Share - Leave a comment
In the previous post I responded to a question about capital investment and the Ohira plant of Central Motors (a Toyota affiliated company producing the Yaris) that is...
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Ohira Plant and Investment
Art Smalley: Ohira Plant and Investment
By Art Smalley, author of Creating Level Pull and co-author of A3 Thinking - Last updated: Saturday, March 19, 2011 - Save & Share - Leave a comment
There are several parts to this question and I will probably break up my thoughts into two different posts on the topic of capital investment. The question asked perta...
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Always Room for Improvement
Art Smalley: Always Room for Improvement
By Art Smalley, author of Creating Level Pull and co-author of A3 Thinking - Last updated: Monday, February 21, 2011 - Save & Share - Leave a comment
The Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued their release of the study performed in conjunction with NASA engine...
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Financial Benefits
Art Smalley: Financial Benefits
By Art Smalley, author of Creating Level Pull and co-author of A3 Thinking - Last updated: Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - Save & Share - Leave a comment
Historically Toyota Motor Corporation has been a very profitable company over the past 60 years in what is generally a very cyclical business. Before its recent problems Toyo...
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Toyota Under Fire Review
I received a copy of the recently published book Toyota Under Fire by Jeffrey K. Liker and Timothy Ogden and was asked to write up a short review of the contents. In interests of full disclosure I am of course a former employee of Toyota Motor Corporation in Japan having worked in engine manufacturing. Also I have known Jeff Liker for over a decade and jointly participate with ...
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TPS Brochure
I ran across a well put together Toyota Production System brochure from Toyota's Industrial Equipment (TIE) Division. This one was put together by the European side of TIE operations. It does a nice job of explaining the Toyota Production System in 20 pages with a mix of text and graphics. It is worth a download a look if you are looking to spruce up your framework or see how a...
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When to Write an A3 Report
A reader named Vimal from a processing company writes in this week with the following question:
Organizations encounter a number of problems of extremely different variety, importance and scale on a daily basis. However, addressing each of these problems using an A3 approach can be very challenging. How do we determine whether or not a problem demands an A3 approach to solving...
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A3 Communication Advice
A client asked me to give some pointers pertaining to A3 presentations and communication points. Here is a list of ten things that I mentioned and a few words of advice pertaining to each point. The following list is not exhaustive by any means and is just intended as some points of practical advice for thought starters. (more…)
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Common Mistakes in A3 Report Writing
Assembly Magazine did an article similar to this topic some type a while ago. At a recent client off site meeting I was asked to briefly discuss common mistakes I see made in A3 reports. The list is simply populated by observation and no doubt might change over time. It also varies of course widely case by case, company by company, etc. Here are a dozen items that I mentioned d...
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