All Comments on 'An Exercise in Team Building'

great story. i’ve lived through the aftermath of 5S.

Love the outsiders that know how to reform the system!

5

I could relate to the consulting busy bodies, zero inventory wonks. But also on the other side a boss who didn't understand me talking to machine operators, they know the machines! Glad her feminine side shone through and they both learned how good it could be.

Think we'be all been consulted at some time in our careers with dunno us results. Another sweet love story.

Good story with well payed out plot. It was a little bit narrative driven, but great love scene for their first coupling was perfect. 4.2*

Been there, done that, you have it right as a auto supplier company.

Great story. As a print production mgr. we slotted every Friday afternoon for head pressman do maintenance on 6 unit roll to roll press. Boy was it hard not to cancel Fridays' afternoon down time if there's a super rush and salesmen frothing at the mouth. But it worked to equipment's benefit !

Hot dam! I've been a car guy all my life and learned the hard way that buy American does not always work. The Japanese forced the big three to up their game to improve the quality of their product. Good job. Five well deserved stars.

It was interesting how the author wove in the changes in manufacturing and management philosophy at the time. The us businesses really did need to change their ways. Everyone did reduce defects and squeezed out “slack” and excess inventory, and implemented “just in time” throughout the supply chain. But that was just the backdrop to a lovely story about a relationship.

A little too heavy on the 5-S side story, could flesh out the characters a little and a bit more descriptive on the eroticism, it is Literotica after all.

That should be doubtful results.

Simply perfct.

As most of your stories a 5*. I still like "18 Wheels and a Denim Skirt" the best!

Yeah, my favorite line from the consultants for their failure was "They're not executing at the division level." Sorry bunch of clowns.

A well balanced effort. Good information about putting together a good department, good analysis of the importance of people skills, very likeable characters, and a cute little romance all worked in together. The author continues to show a very high skill level for our enjoyment.

The Hoary Cleric

Good story. For sure, a lot of the insights that went over to Japan & came back were great. But the idea that it doesn't matter what the context, tools, and output are is truly flatheaded. Consultants really need to understand not just global principles but the specifics of the business they're advising.--and definitely the people involved

.

That said, there are also always those for whom "But we've always done it this way" is a mantra. Usually there are reasons for the way things are done, and they are really, really important; but there still may be better ways, and asking questions is really, really important, too.

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Thanks for a great read. A few typos, but well written.

What you have written about was the implementation of Quality Circles in the 50's and 60's in the US and Japan with W. Edwards Deming leading the way here. It took some time for the US manufacturers to accept what Toyota had found to be very effective in keeping costs down and for us to learn that JIT (just in time) saved huge amounts of money in parts inventory. The consultants described in this story hadn't learned that it was vital to let the workers figure out where the problems were originating, but eventually we figured it out. The workers almost always knew what was causing manufacturing problems, but it was difficult to convince upper management to let them make the suggestions that resulted in cost reduction through control of parts rejection. I implemented quality circles in one manufacturing area in the mid 70's and in one year we dropped rejections in one area from the mid teens to under 10% which represented a lot of money. This story was a bit too much about the improvement of manufacturing and too little about the personal relationship developed, but this author does do that a bit much. Still a good read. 4*

q

Excellent story