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A Frequent Mistake—Undoing an Assembly Line—Part 2

Christoph Roser — Tue, 07 May 2024 11:00:58 +0000

Assembly lines are THE way to do mass production. Yet, with constant regularity people try out to undo the assembly line, only to fail in their endeavor. In my previous post I looked at examples by Volkswagen in Salzgitter, Volvo in Kalmar, and Opel in Bochum, who all tried, just to switch back to an ... Read more

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A Frequent Mistake—Undoing an Assembly Line—Part 1

Christoph Roser — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 11:00:44 +0000

Assembly lines are everywhere in mass production. From mobile phones to cars to airplanes, almost all items produced in large quantities come from an assembly line. Just look around you wherever you are and try to find a produced item that did NOT come from an assembly line. My general recommendation is that if you ... Read more

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250 Years after the Birth of Eli Terry

Christoph Roser — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 11:00:56 +0000

Two hundred fifty years ago today, clockmaker Eli Terry was born on April 13, 1772 in (what is now) South Windsor, Connecticut, USA. He was one of the earliest industrialists using mass production with interchangeable parts in the USA, contemporary with the better-known muskets of Honoré Blanc in France (ca. 1785), and long before John ... Read more

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50 Years after the Death of Lillian Evelyn Gilbreth

Christoph Roser — Sun, 02 Jan 2022 11:00:45 +0000

Fifty years ago today, Lillian Evelyn Gilbreth (May 24, 1878 – January 2, 1972) passed away. She was an early pioneer in optimizing and streamlining work, which is especially remarkable in a time when women were supposed to be at home in the kitchen instead of pursuing science and engineering. I already wrote briefly about ... Read more

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115 Years after the Birth of Joseph Juran

Christoph Roser — Tue, 24 Dec 2019 11:00:32 +0000

On Christmas Eve 115 years ago, Joseph Moses Juran (December 24, 1904 – February 28, 2008) was born. He was a highly respected and very influential quality guru. His work not only helped the United States, but also changed Japan, possibly even more than that of his better-known colleague Edwards Deming. Time to look back ... Read more

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150 Years after the Birth of Albert Kahn

Christoph Roser — Thu, 21 Mar 2019 11:00:22 +0000

Albert Kahn (1869–1942) is an often unknown but very influential figure in the history of manufacturing. An architect by trade, he revolutionized industrial architecture, and is often nicknamed the “Architect of Detroit.” Most modern factories have a design that goes back to his innovations. Since he was born exactly 150 years ago on March 21, ... Read more

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Hoshin Kanri and the Kanri Noryoku Program: Rejuvenating Toyota

Christoph Roser — Tue, 29 Jan 2019 11:00:23 +0000

In my previous posts I explained how Hoshin Kanri works. This post looks at how Toyota embeds Hoshin Kanri as part of their overall management structure. Toyota started this in 1979 when director Masao Nemoto started the Kanri Noryoku Program (管理能力プログラム), usually shortened to KanPro. Linguistics The term Hoshin Kanri comes from Japanese. It is written ... Read more

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How Cheap Can You Make it?

Christoph Roser — Tue, 25 Dec 2018 11:00:18 +0000

I was on a quest, a quest to find the cheapest ballpoint pen possible. And what I found was amazing. Modern manufacturing has achieved stunning productivity, where even a complex product like a ballpoint pen can be produced at costs that were unbelievable only a few decades ago. While everybody can make a pen, the ... Read more

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