socio-technical systems Archives

The Intuitive Lean of Steve Jobs

Posted by Lawrence M. Miller | Aug 21, 2013 | Corporate Culture, Leadership, Lean Culture, Lean Management, Lean Manufacturing, Organization Design and Process Improvement, Socio-technical systems | 7

When we think of lean our mind first goes to the workings of the Toyota factory. However, the principles of eliminating waste and achieving interruption free flow may be found at an even more profound level in the design of Apple’s breakthrough products and the intuition of Steve Jobs. Reading Walter Isaacson’s recent and excellent biography of Jobs I am struck by the intuitive sense of lean, of flow, of simplicity, that he demanded from both the aesthetics and the technical workings of every product. You would be hard pressed to find an executive with a better sense of the interaction between the social and the technical.

Lean and Meta Principles: The Unity Principle

Posted by Lawrence M. Miller | Dec 6, 2012 | Corporate Culture, Leadership, Lean Culture, Lean Management, Lean Manufacturing, Managing Change, Organization Design and Process Improvement, Organizational Behavior Management | 3

Some companies have engaged in what they think are “lean implementations” by reducing lean to component parts and experimenting with one component over there, another over here, and a third somewhere else. That is guaranteed to fail. The very idea of reducing lean to its component parts fails to “get it.” I believe that the first principle of meta-lean is what I called in a previous book, The Unity Principle. Honda took this principle to heart and sought to apply it in their U.S. operations.

Lean: Is It A Change Methodology or An End State?

Posted by Lawrence M. Miller | Jul 9, 2012 | Lean Culture, Lean Management, Lean Manufacturing, Organization Design and Process Improvement | 6

Is “Lean” a change methodology or an end-state, where we are going, or how we are getting there. Many lean implementations fail due to a failure to appreciate effective change methodologies. Whole-system architecture is a “macro-lean” change methodology.

Lean Organization & Whole-System Architecture

Posted by Lawrence M. Miller | Jan 24, 2011 | Corporate Culture, Lean Culture, Lean Management, Lean Manufacturing, Organization Design and Process Improvement | 1

Lean Organization and Culture A recent discussion on the NWLEAN Yahoo discussion forum compared lean manufacturing systems to the human body, an organic, inter-active and interdependent system. I think this is a very useful...

Tag: socio-technical systems

The Intuitive Lean of Steve Jobs

Lean and Meta Principles: The Unity Principle

Lean: Is It A Change Methodology or An End State?

Lean Organization & Whole-System Architecture

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