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Can Lean Manufacturing Put an End to Sweatshops?

Harvard Business Review

Producers in less-developed countries compete by keeping costs low. It involves replacing traditional mass manufacturing with “lean manufacturing” principles. In addition to improved product quality and delivery times, the lean approach has been linked to improved terms of employment.

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Innovating the Toyota, and YouTube, Way

Harvard Business Review

By sheer happenstance, I had just gotten a copy of Gemba Walks , a collection of essays by James Womack , a co-author of the automotive classic The Machine That Changed The World and a pioneering importer of Toyota-inspired lean production insights and methodologies to America. What does it mean for your company and industry?

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Stop Trying to Predict Which New Products Will Succeed

Harvard Business Review

When is it possible to predict a product’s success? How you answer this question may be the most important factor in how you design your product development process — and, ultimately, in whether your business succeeds or fails. Is market performance predictable for a specific product or class of products?

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Britain’s Patient-Safety Crisis Holds Lessons for All

Harvard Business Review

They created and maintained a close connection to frontline staff — what Jim Womack , the expert in lean production and thinking, calls “going to gemba ” — Japanese for “the actual place.”. Their attention was on their finances — understandable and even appropriate these days.

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