“So what? This produces a onetime cash windfall from inventory reduction and speeds return on investment, but is it really a revolutionary achievement? In fact, it is because the ability to design, schedule, and make exactly what the customer wants… — James P. Womack Copy Share Image
“Taiichi Ohno blamed this batch-and-queue mode of thinking on civilization’s first farmers, who he claimed lost the one-thing-at-a-time wisdom of the hunter as they became obsessed with batches (the once-a-year harvest) and inventories (the grain depository).4 Or perhaps we’re simply born with batching thinking in our heads, along with many other “common sense” illusions—for example, that time is constant rather… — James P. Womack Copy Share
“In the lean enterprise, Sales and Production Scheduling are core members of the product team, in a position to plan the sales campaign as… — James P. Womack Copy Share Image
“So, how do you make value flow? The first step, once value is defined and the entire value stream is identified, is to focus on the actual object—the specific design, the specific order, and the product itself (a “cure,” a trip, a house, a bicycle)—and never let it out of sight from beginning to completion. The second step, which makes… — James P. Womack Copy Share
“Steve Maynard’s solution was to form a team for each product to stick with that product during its entire production life. This team—consisting of a marketer, a product engineer, and a tooling/process engineer—proceeded to enter into a dialogue with leading customers (major contractors) in which all of the old products and solutions were ignored. Instead, the customer and the producer… — James P. Womack Copy Share
“The first visible effect of converting from departments and batches to product teams and flow is that the time required to go from concept… — James P. Womack Copy Share Image
“By contrast, work in an organization where value is made to flow continuously also creates the conditions for psychological flow. Every employee has immediate… — James P. Womack Copy Share Image
“The most important task in specifying value, once the product is defined, is to determine a target cost based on the amount of resources… — James P. Womack Copy Share Image
“How can performance be improved? Sweat and longer hours are not the answer but will be employed if no one knows how to work… — James P. Womack Copy Share Image
“This approach seems completely backward to traditional managers who have been told all their lives that competitive advantage in manufacture is obtained from automating,… — James P. Womack Copy Share Image
“What is the muda-free cost of this product, once unnecessary steps are removed and value is made to flow? This becomes the target cost… — James P. Womack Copy Share Image
“started with marketing, which commissioned surveys comparing Wiremold’s products with the offerings of competitors. When an “opportunity” was identified, usually a gap in the… — James P. Womack Copy Share Image
“Our initial objective in creating a value stream “map” identifying every action required to design, order, and make a specific product is to sort… — James P. Womack Copy Share Image
