Chapter 14. Global Lean Champions: Passing the Torch
Chapters 4 and 11 have already crowned Dell in manufacturing and Wal-Mart in retailing as the new kings of lean. That may be news to many or most of the lean community, who continue to hold Toyota in highest esteem as the paragon of lean. However, its many-year performance on the inventory-based leanness scale has been poor. That does not mean anything is wrong with the Toyota system. It is still good as ever, as far as it goes. As for Toyota itself, the data suggest that it has not been intensively and effectively practicing a full set of lean tools.
Who is? Maybe nobody. Dell's and Wal-Mart's lean tool sets do not appear to be all that full, either, because neither is known for zealously practicing the lean core. Their advanced applications of lean in the pipelines is their chief capability. This chapter begins with relatively brief commentary on those Dell/Wal-Mart proficiencies. Following that is a close, comparative look at Toyota the company: how the world's premier automaker and money machine has faded in measures of leanness, and the long-term effects of that on its (or any company's) competitiveness.
WHERE LEAN COUNTS MOST: TIGHTENING THE CHAINS
The Dell and Wal-Mart advantage is no big secret. Anyone who reads the stories about them in the business press should roughly understand. The usual shop-floor formula that most lean-inclined companies focus on—cells, kanban, TPM, 5S, one-piece flow, kaizen events—are not the big ...
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