Saturday, June 21, 2014

Donated Efficiency


Today I learned that in lieu of money, Toyota donated efficiency to the Food Bank of NYC. Their experts cut wait times in a Harlem soup kitchen from 90 minutes to 18 minutes. In one Brooklyn warehouse, simply changing the size of boxes allowed workers to cut packing time from 3 minutes to just 11 seconds.

The article was in the New York Times





What's interesting is that the method Toyota uses - continuous improvement and measurement - was introduced to Japan by the Americans to help rebuild after WWII.
"After WWII, to help restore Japan, American occupation forces brought in American experts to help with the rebuilding of Japanese industry while The Civil Communications Section (CCS) developed a Management Training Program that taught statistical control methods as part of the overall material."

Maybe Toyota can fix the  VA hospitals next.

6 comments:

  1. I think a lot of places in this country could use a little "kaizen".........it's amazing how those few changes bumped efficiency up that much huh?

    NO KIDDING on them fixing the VA hospital thing, Linda...........what an awful mess THAT is...........and a sad and disgraceful one too........how was that allowed to even happen?

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    1. Carol- totally agree about the VA problem. The sad part, I'm afraid it's only going to get worse.

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  2. I agree Carol. How could the VA hospital mess gotten as bad as it did. We are so busy helping others that we forget our own men and women who fought for us??? Some new ideas are greatly needed, and it starts with our own.

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    1. Myra, the VA needs a complete overall. Unfortunately things change but at a snails pace. So Sad

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  3. Now if our government , men in office could be fixed .

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    1. Only if we vote the people out and get rid of cooperate america running out lives.

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