Henry Ford could get the customer any type of Model T as long as it was black. But the Ford Motor Company now finds itself in the strange position of being able to supply vehicles in any color except (metallic) black as a result of the catastrophe in Japan. The...
Lean Horizon Consulting
Lean
Balanced Scorecards vs. Strategy Deployment
The original intent of the Balanced Scorecard attempts to identify targets (both financial and operational) that are strategic in nature. However, most companies that I am familiar with misuse this tool, and tend to merge daily management measures (KPI’s – Key...
Lean Principles in Information Technology
Lean Principles have been applied over the years in many different sectors delivering substantial results. Today there are many success stories almost in every business activity, however throughout my years of experience implementing Lean in different countries,...
Mark DeLuzio Interviewed on The Lean Nation
Lean Horizons President and CEO, Mark DeLuzio, was interviewed on The Lean Nation radio show with Karl Wadensten on April 12, 2011. If you missed the broadcast, you can click below to listen to the podcast. Click here to listen to Mark DeLuzio on The Lean Nation. The...
How do You Apply Lean Growth Solutions to Drive Sustainable Competitive Advantage
Successful, profitable innovation (the lifeblood of any company) means developing the right products for the right markets at the right times. For technology-driven product companies, the last remaining areas of competitive differentiation lie in their product...
What Should we do First, Lean or Six Sigma?
I continue to be asked: “what should we do first, Lean or Six Sigma?” Here is our position on this subject: Six Sigma is a problem solving tool. Problem Solving is a subset of Lean (which is comprised of many tools), and it makes no sense to build a culture around a...
How Do You Apply Lean To Administrative Processes?
Are your Lean efforts primarily shop floor focused? The late Dr. Deming stated that most customers do not leave an organization because of bad products; rather they leave due to bad processes. This would suggest that “back office” areas need to be transformed. Our...
Does Your Company Have a Lean Culture?
Why do so many companies fail at lean transformations? I get this question quite frequently. I have had the opportunity in my career to literally work with hundreds of companies. Those that don’t make it usually have one thing in common: lack of top-level support from...
Flatlined: Why Lean Transformations Fail and What to do About It
