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I‘ve been doing quite a bit of home improvement recently--installing new flooring, painting, etc. I’ve got a few sore muscles but the sense of pride in my achievement (plus the money I saved by doing it myself) makes it all worthwhile.
I have to admit that I’ve never been very handy, and I’ve never really gotten the thrill that some people find from “doing it myself.” My brother genuinely enjoys home improvement and could probably build an exact replica of the Taj Mahal given enough time. Usually my home improvements stem from the need to save money.
This current project--replacing wall-to-wall carpeting with wood flooring--was something that I never thought I would (or could) do. But after some words of encouragement from friends (thanks, Jeff) and getting quotes of $3,000 to install flooring in just one room, I thought it was worth the try. I researched the products, bought the necessary tools, watched a bunch of videos on installation (God bless, You Tube), and took the plunge. Three days later my room was done, it looks terrific, and I saved about $2,500.
Last month we reviewed how Ford Motor Co.’s lean concepts were slowly phased out of the organization. The concepts, however, weren’t lost: Toyota realized their potential and improved upon them.
Toyota’s chief of production, Taiichi Ohno, embraced Ford’s concepts wholeheartedly. He applied them to machining operations and then to other areas of production. As a result, the Toyota Production System (TPS) was born in the 1960s and nurtured through the 1970s.
The real test of the TPS came in 1984, when Toyota and General Motors formed a joint venture called New United Manufacturing Inc. to build a car sharing designs, assembly processes, suppliers, and people. Although the venture’s performance didn’t meet expectations, the lean concept began there and spread to other U.S. and international organizations.
Meanwhile, IBM started focusing on process improvement. Since the late 1970s it had benchmarked its international internal operations and gathered best practices from Japan, Germany, and the United States. These best-practice approaches were called “process compatibility.” They focused on streamlining all support processes and used tools such as flowcharting, as-is process mapping, and value engineering.
