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Norman Bodek

Books

Articles

  • Lean Six Sigma - A Perspective   view details
    "Lean focuses on identifying value as perceived by the customer and then eliminating everything that isn't value, the waste, out of the process. Lean comes from the industrial engineering discipline, whereas Six Sigma comes out of the statistical quality" scroll down once you follow the link
  • What Is Muda?   view details
    "And the biggest waste of all is the underutilization of people's talents. If you just learn to ask people for their ideas and get them to participate in creative problem-solving activities, you will be amazed at what people can do."
  • The Toyota Secret: Constant Change And Growth   view details
    "Toyota has nine plants in North America and is opening a new plant in Mississippi, making cars with American workers with American wages equal to or better than other automotive companies. I believe that 75% of the cars assembled in North America contain
  • Zenjidoka - A Simple Tool for a Complex Problem   view details
    "Had the tools of the Toyota Production System been extended from the factory floor worker to every employee who makes contact with the customer, Toyota could have dramatically reduced the resulting financial impact and human tragedy. ... Zenjidoka is a new word meaning "Total Jidoka." Instead of confining Jidoka to the factory floor, Zenjidoka extends Jidoka to every employee who has any contact with the end customer."
  • Zenjidoka III - Building Excellent People   view details
    "Zenjidoka teaches employees (including the dealers) to be self-reliant, empowering them to use every tool and resource at their disposal to immediately investigate and address the customer’s problem... Companies that want to extend quality beyond the factory walls and implement Zenjidoka need to have employees who are skilled enough that they can be trusted with the autonomy to identify and solve customer problems. The development of excellent employees, or Hitozukuri, is necessary to make Zenjidoka work."
  • The Gemba Walk   view details
    "the plant manager got up from behind his desk. He asked me to join him on his daily walk; in fact he told me that he walked the plant twice a day every day and that it was the most valuable part of his day... The plant manager asked those questions and you could see the excitement on the face of the supervisor as he was answering the questions. I learned that there’s enormous power in the leader asking questions and then just listening – yes; this is the key to ask the question and then to just listen carefully, not judgmentally."

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