Come help us celebrate our joining the “Club 100″ at the Thursday, June 20th celebration of the 100 fastest growing privately held companies in Oregon. Thanks to our wonderful customers we have consistently grown over the last three years.
(This is the eighth in a 12-part series on the origins of Lean in the U.S. and my role as one of its pioneers.) As Americans we have every reason to be proud. No nation in the history of the world has been more prosperous and no nation has ever enjoyed the standard of living [...]
(This is the seventh in a 12-part series on the origins of Lean in the U.S. and my role as one of its pioneers.) “We decided to try and apply some of the manufacturing concepts in the office,” Bob Watson told me back in early 1985 when I interviewed him for a story I was [...]
(This is the sixth in a 12-part series on the origins of Lean in the U.S. and my role as one of its pioneers.) Omark’s Oregon® brand saw chain plant was located in my hometown of Milwaukie, Oregon. On this historic day in 1983, our manufacturing team was very proud to be presenting to a [...]
(This is the fifth in a 12-part series on the origins of Lean in the U.S. and my role as one of its pioneers.) It was clear that employees in Japan were engaged. Toyota was famous for andon, a manufacturing term used to describe a system whereby employees could “pull the cord” and alert management [...]
(This is the fourth in a 12-part series on the origins of Lean in the U.S. and my role as one of its pioneers.) By 1984 Omark was gaining wide recognition as one of the best companies in America. The company was featured in what I believe was the first book written in the U.S. [...]
(This is the third in a 12-part Series on the Origins of Lean in the U.S.) To get the Omark revolution underway, in early 1982 we bought the first 500 copies of Shigeo Shingo’s A Study of the Toyota Production System that were imported into the U.S. Because it was the first edition it was [...]
(This is the second in a 12-part Series on the Origins of Lean in the U.S.) “Go find the best management practices in the world!” That was the challenge that Omark Industries’ president gave the task force I was assigned to in late 1981. It was a broad and exciting charter, one that would significantly [...]
(This is the first in a 12-part Series on the Origins of Lean in the U.S. and my role as one of its pioneers.) Those who have read my book, Business at the Speed of Now, and who work with the great team at Mass Ingenuity, rarely hear us talk about Lean. Even though the [...]
This is the tenth and final installment in a Series on Organizational Culture, its role, how it is shaped, and how it can be changed. Culture change has long been the stuff of hocus pocus and black magic. Many people talk about it, but it seems difficult to find real success stories because the levers [...]