Maryland’s Healthcare Solution: Regulate Prices November 17, 2011
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in government, healthcare.Tags: government, healthcare
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In Maryland, healthcare prices are regulated by the state. For the most part, according to Quality News Today, this keeps the healthcare system financially solvent. It also helps to keep prices low, in terms of both healthcare and health insurance.
Check out the Quality News Today article here.
The Absurd Cost of Complexity June 2, 2011
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in government, Lean Thinking.Tags: government, Lean Thinking
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Those who participate in lean see unnecessary complexity when it comes about, says Kevin Meyer on the Evolving Excellence blog site. He provides the United States tax code: a bungle of 72,536 pages. It costs on average $431 billion for companies to stay ahead of changes, complete the forms, comply, and enforce. Mr. Meyer also presents the case of a company seeking alternative energy –only to be confronted with 148 conditions before construction can begin. Such constrictive regulation not only stifles creativity, but wastes money.
Read Mr.Meyer’s post here.
Will the U.S. Finally Get a National Manufacturing Strategy? June 2, 2011
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in government, manufacturing.Tags: government, manufacturing
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America has lost 5.5 million manufacturing jobs over the past decade, and members of Congress are now introducing legislation to require the development of a national manufacturing strategy to curtail the trend. Representative Dan Lipinski and Senator Sherrod Brown have sponsored bills that have gained support on both sides of the political aisle to help America keep its competitive edge. America recently lost its title as the leading goods producer in the world to China –a loss that cannot be taken lightly.
Read the IndustryWeek article here.
Workshop Tackles Extreme Manufacturing April 20, 2011
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in economy, government, manufacturing.Tags: economy, government, manufacturing
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According to IndustryWeek, Washington is paying attention to manufacturing in America. A workshop meeting conducted by multiple government agencies discussed what technological advances would make American manufacturing more competitive in the future. Key to the workshops was focusing on technology, and thinking in terms of big strategy, rather than incremental tactics. Among the conclusions? Rethink government funding, which is aimed at mission objectives rather than economic growth, specifically.
Check out the article here.
To Encourage Small Business, Learn from Europe February 4, 2011
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in economy, government.Tags: economy, government
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According to Scott Shane at Bloomberg Businessweek, American policymakers can learn a lot from European policymakers when it comes to small business. Whereas European small businesses are doing relatively well, American businesses –compared –do not. Among the reasons are lower European tax rates, lower regulatory barriers to starting small businesses, and loans are easier to obtain, among other things.
Check out Mr. Shane’s article here.
How Apple’s iPhone Widens the Trade Deficit with China (And How to Fix It) January 22, 2011
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in economy, government, supply chain.Tags: economy, government, outsourcing, supply chain
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Though the iPhone is an American invention, it is contributing $1.9 billion to the trade deficit with China. Developing countries export the high-tech products that affluent countries themselves invent. If Apple were to pursue American workers instead of Chinese workers, the manufacturing cost of a phone would rise from $6.50 to $68 per phone –but selling it for the going rate of $500 would still give Apple a more than-50% profit margin. And if the U.S. produced and sold its own phones, that $1.9 billion trade deficit would disappear –and the U.S. would add $5.7 billion to U.S. exports.
Check out the FastCompany analysis here.
Saving American Manufacturing: Easy Political Solutions Won’t Save Jobs December 13, 2010
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in economy, government, manufacturing.Tags: economy, government, manufacturing
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As manufacturing jobs hang in the balance in an unstable economy, solutions about how not only to save the jobs – but to engender job growth in manufacturing as well – is the stuff of debate, especially since the midterm elections recently. In an Industry Week article exploring various avenues of the debate (what can be done), writers who were featured suggested everything from changing the language used in exports (from Americanized English to formal English) to elimination of certain tax breaks that count towards restructuring for outsourcing.
Check out the Industry Week article here.
Nanotechnology Presents Regulatory Mess December 13, 2010
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in government, new products and technologies.Tags: government, new products and technologies
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An Industry Week article reveals that Oregon State University conducted a test that studied 200 nanomaterials in pesticides for their safety risks. Though most nanomaterials did not pose any health hazards, some did. For this, regulations are on the way, from producers disclosing nanoparticle ingredients to rigorous tests to Environmental Protection Agency mandates. Add to that local, state, national, and international laws and regulations concerning nanomaterials, and a number of difficulties arise. However, efforts are underway to form a coalition of nanomaterial producers to address such concerns.
Read the Industry Week article here.
Former Lean U.S. Senate Candidate Launches LeanAmerica.org September 14, 2010
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in government, leadership, lean.Tags: government, leadership, lean
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Paul Akers, Republican primary candidate for senator for Washington, may have failed in his bid to break into politics, but he seems prepared to succeed with the launch of his new website, LeanAmerica.org. The website seeks to apply lean concepts and lean improvements to the United States government. The objective is to put a lean leader in every government organization and department in order to effectively curtail and eliminate waste. Lean Thinkers: This is your Call to Arms!
Check out Jon Miller’s analysis here and Paul Aker’s website here.
State Solar Subsidies Fall Victim to Economic Downturn August 12, 2010
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in economy, government, green business.Tags: economy, government, green business
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State and local subsidies for the upfront costs of families seeking to make their homes go green are being scaled back or eliminated. In some cases, taxes are being raised on those who have gone green. But, as the Smart Planet article points out, the cost of solar arrays are becoming more affordable as time goes by.
Check out the Smart Planet article here.
China Is Overtaking U.S in the Clean Energy Race July 16, 2010
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in government, green business.Tags: energy, government, green business
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A report from the Pew Charitable Trusts finds that China has overtaken the United States in clean energy and technology investments. In 2009, Chinese government-funded initiatives meant China invested $34.6 billion in clean technology. The United States came in second with $18.6 billion; and the United Kingdom in third with $11.2 billion. However, since 2005, investment in clean energy has increased by 230%.
Check out the FastCompany analysis here.
Companies See Mixed Results Implementing Energy Efficiency Measures June 18, 2010
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in government, green business.Tags: energy, government, green business
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Companies worried about pending carbon emissions legislation are looking to preempt new laws by looking for energy efficient production alternatives. Either production costs or increased energy tax rates –or both –will strain companies. While some companies may find it easy to reduce energy consumption, other companies will find it difficult to make energy changes, with costs ranging in the range of hundreds-of-millions of dollars. The steel industry, for example, has cut emissions by a third over the past two decades –but the technology they need to continue cutting emissions hasn’t progressed enough yet –and the pending carbon emissions legislation doesn’t allow enough time.
Check out the New York Times article here.
Ten US Senators Want Administration To Adopt National Manufacturing Policy April 20, 2010
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in economy, government, manufacturing.Tags: economy, government, manufacturing
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A bipartisan group of ten United States Senators want President Barack Obama to adopt a national manufacturing policy. With six million manufacturing jobs lost in the last ten years, the Senators envision a “21st-Century manufacturing strategy” which entails greater public-private cooperation that engenders the sought-after growth in manufacturing. Such cooperation requires more investment, providing “for communities in transition”, and “improving market access.”
Check out the Connecticut Plus article here.
New Definition of Comparative Advantage April 20, 2010
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in economy, government.Tags: economy, government
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President Barack Obama’s “Economic Report of the President” sent to Congress last month did not clearly enough define the term “comparative advantage,” not that many do these days. Bill Waddell, over at Evolving Excellence, has decided to set things straight in one of his blog posts. The president’s report defined comparative advantage in terms of “cheapness” and not “quantity of labor,” as the original and genuine definition maintains.
Check out Mr. Waddell’s excellent post here.
Better Call the Waaaahmulance! April 20, 2010
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in economy, government, Lean Thinking, manufacturing, supply chain.Tags: economy, government, Lean Thinking, manufacturing, supply chain
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More and more companies are beginning to realize the drawbacks of outsourcing, and are beginning to look back to America for production. But many manufacturers are still heading overseas, and Kevin Meyer at Evolving Excellence looks at the case of Evergreen Solar, which is outsourcing to China. Too many companies throw their hands up if there is no governmental solution, when internal solutions can make government intervention or incentives unnecessary.
Read Mr. Meyer’s post here.
Senate Candidate Paul Akers Preaches Lean on Fox News March 23, 2010
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in government, leadership, Lean Thinking.Tags: government, leadership, Lean Thinking
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Republican Paul Akers, from Washington State, is running as a lean candidate. A “common-sense pragmatic guy”, Akers runs his company well, and wants to run the country well. Akers looks to lean for solutions to healthcare, and notes that government fiscal policy needs to focus on resource use, rather than raising taxes. Efficiency, stripping of waste, and continuous improvement is what Akers does at his company, and wants to do in Washington, D.C: “Politicians should put the constituents first.”
Check out the video here.
Personally, I felt embarassed for the way the Fox News Talking Head who badgered, spun, and attempted to politically pigeon-hole Akers. Anybody else feel that he just should have asked questions, let viewers listen to Akers responses, and decide for themselves?
Chris Collins Leads Lean Six Sigma in Erie County Government February 17, 2010
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in government, Lean Thinking, six sigma.Tags: government, Lean Thinking, six sigma
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With a skyrocketing national debt, and the desperate search to eliminate waste, it’s about time a politician has transferred waste-cutting methods to government. Chris Collins, Erie County’s Executive, has applied lean six sigma principles to managing local government, “running the county like a business.” Aside from 35 years of experience in the private sector, and working for a salary of $1, Mr. Collins has also donated the remainder of his salary to charity. His application of lean six sigma principles to Erie County has resulted in eighteen completed projects.
Check out the Gemba Panta Rei article here.
GM’s Dangerously Naïve Owners February 3, 2010
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in automotive, economy, government, Lean Thinking.Tags: automotive, economy, government, Lean Thinking
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Critics of the Obama administration’s takeover of General Motors, and the subsequent stocking of GM with politically-appointed and inexperienced leaders now have more concrete evidence to their opposition of such moves. GM is going to be running a third shift on a permanent basis. In other words, the assembly lines will never stop moving. Ever.
Why?
According to the article,
The Obama administration auto task force that oversaw GM’s reorganization last spring was startled to learn that the industry standard for plants to be considered at 100% capacity was two shifts working about 250 days a year. In recommending that the government invest about $50 billion in GM, the task force urged the company to strive toward operating at 120% capacity by traditional standards.
The article goes on to bolster critics of the plan:
But industry manufacturing experts are skeptical, noting that the federal task force had limited automotive experience. “Do those guys understand the business?” asked Ron Harbour, whose Harbour Report is a widely followed analysis of auto-plant efficiency.
Running continuously means there is no time for cleaning, repairing, restocking, maintenance, and other necessary and helpful tasks conducted during downtime. This is a common error of traditional accounting, writes Kevin Meyer at EvolvingExcellence. “Traditional accounting creates the desire to fill unused capacity in order to absorb overhead, depreciation, and other indirect costs. Usually regardless of whether demand actually exists for that capacity,” he writes.
And the Obama administration is hard-pressed by critics –and the American taxpayer –to make up for its $50 billion investment in GM. But overproduction of cars, hiring third shifts, and leaving no time for improvement are dangerous, non-lean, and counterproductive moves.
Check out Kevin Meyer’s analysis here.
Quit Groveling and Get Lean December 30, 2009
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in economy, government, Lean Thinking.Tags: economy, government, Lean Thinking
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President Barack Obama is attempting to convince banks to loan to small businesses to jumpstart the economy. And some small businesses are saying they need to take out loans to get going. But Bill Waddell over at Evolving Excellence will have none of it. He points to Henry Ford, $50,000 in capital, and the empire that Ford built –all without ever borrowing another dime. Mr. Waddell also points to the empire Toyota built in post-World War II Japan –all without a loan because there were no loans to be had.
Lean can solve the problems. Instead of a retailer doing business in China and “then blaming everyone else when you can’t finance a supply chain that takes months to get your goods from some factory 9,000 miles away… start looking for a closer, lean supplier with shorter cycle times, and therefore shorter lead times…”
Businesses do not have to rely on outside help to help themselves. Continual improvement can come on the inside. It doesn’t require banks or the government to create business. Mr. Waddell summarizes his position by saying, “I don’t want the government bailing out a non-lean company with my money because it is run by some guy who is unhappy that his 1970′s business thinking doesn’t work any more.”
Check out Mr. Waddell’s post here.
Are Americans Working Harder and Getting Paid More? April 5, 2009
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in economy, government, manufacturing.Tags: economy, government, manufacturing
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On her Lean Reflections blog, Karen Wilhelm takes aim at statistics. With the economy in the tank, we hear facts and figures quoted every night, it seems, on the news. But what do these numbers really mean?Wilhelm highlights a recent article in the New Yorker as an example. By scrutinizing the details, she shows how sketchy, and potentially misleading, Bureau of Labor Statistics stats such as “average hourly wage” and “productivity” can be. The problems this raises are manifold. Numbers are not what their labels often lead us to believe. By reading too deeply, we can draw incorrect conclusions. Also, policymakers use these numbers to create policy decisions, often based on poor data and poor understanding of the data.
Read this post. The next time you get a sense of accomplishment when you hear that “manufacturing productivity in the U.S. increased last quarter,” you may want to think twice.
Read the post here.
Communicating Lean Efforts: An Example of Lean Government March 10, 2009
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in government, Lean Thinking.Tags: government, Lean Thinking
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The article provides an edited version of a document from Enterprise Lean, a coordinated State of Minnesota government initiative for improving the organizational performance of Minnesota’s state government agencies. Though the information was prepared for government agencies, its message is certainly applicable for private-sector businesses.Your thoughts? Could other government entities you know benefit from lean?
Read the full article here.
Is It Time for a Postal Service 2.0? February 16, 2009
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in Lean Thinking.Tags: government, Lean Thinking
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Calls for an overhaul of the U.S. Postal Service are getting louder. They’ll only increase in volume in the runup to a 2¢ increase in the price of a first-class stamp, scheduled for May 11.The extra postage is needed to cover the rising costs of a sprawling operation that employs 685,000 people, operates 37,000 retail locations, and in fiscal 2008 delivered 202 billion pieces of mail in every state, city, town, and village in the U.S. and its territories.
In an effort to rein in costs, the Postmaster General floated the idea of cutting back on mail delivery to five days a week from six.
But what USPS may need most is a technological revamp. So say two startups that specialize in digital document delivery. Earth Class Mail provides mail-scanning services for consumers and small businesses. The company’s CEO, Ron Wiener, says it’s cheaper to deliver a document over a computer network than by hand, especially when the recipient lives in a remote area, and so much of what is delivered via mail begins its life as an electronic file.
He may have a point. But what will become of all those free flyers that I use to start fires? Whom will the neighborhood dogs chase? And what will I put on the post at the end of my driveway?
Read predictions about the future of mail here.
The Electric Car Battery War February 16, 2009
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in government, green business, manufacturing.Tags: government, green, manufacturing
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President Barack Obama has set a target of 1 million electric cars on U.S. roads by 2012. Most experts agree that lithium ion, which can be used to create batteries that weigh far less and store more power than those in today’s hybrids, will be the dominant technology.The big question is whether any U.S. battery maker will be a major player by the time a mass market develops for electric cars, which could take a decade. The field is already crowded.
Should Uncle Sam provide billions in loans and grants to a promising but unproven business? Or should the government wait for the market to sort things out before it backs a U.S. company? The risk is that by then another major industry could go the way of memory chips, digital displays, the first solar panels, and the original lithium-ion batteries used in notebook PCs and cell phones. American scientists, funded by federal dollars, were at the forefront of each of those. Yet the industries-and the high-paying manufacturing jobs that go with them-quickly ended up in Asia. U.S. labor costs and taxes drove many operations abroad, but often industries fled simply because Asian governments, banks, and companies were more willing than Americans to risk big capital investments.
Read the full article here.
Lt. Randy Russell, Lean in Law Enforcement, Part 2 February 9, 2009
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in government, Lean Thinking.Tags: government, Lean Thinking
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This episode of the LeanBlog podcast is the second part of a two-parter with retired Lt. Randy Russell of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, an innovator in the use of Lean methods for improving law enforcement (a link to Part 1 is here imbedded in the article). In this episode, Randy discusses examples of how Lean methods are helpful in law enforcement and how 5S or standardized work can help save a life.Listen to the podcast here.
States Seek Efficiency Through Lean Techniques January 26, 2009
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in government, Lean Thinking.Tags: government, Lean Thinking
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More state governments are applying continuous improvement techniques based on lean thinking to cut costs, improve service and make employees more productive. For example, Ohio has cut the time it takes to get a complaint decided at the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation from an average of 142 days to 34. Iowa has cut the time needed to obtain an air quality construction permit from 62 days to six. Massachusetts has cut the time to get a death certificate from 95 days to five. “It has taken off like wildfire around the country,” said Teresa Hay McMahon, performance results director in Iowa, where kaizen was first used in state government about five years ago.Read this extensive article dtailing many of the gains.
