Author Archive: Dan Markovitz
Dan Markovitz is the founder and president of TimeBack Management, and is a faculty member of the Lean Enterprise Institute. He has worked with Qualcomm, WL Gore & Associates, the University of California, American Express, Merrill Lynch, the law firm of Fenwick & West, the NYC Department of Health, and Planned Parenthood of New York City, among other clients. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal and Time.com, written for the Wall Street Journal, Industry Week, The Manufacturer, Superfactory, and the Journal of Accountancy. He is also a regular contributor to Evolving Excellence, the LeanBlog, and the New York Enterprise Report. Prior to founding his own firm, Mr. Markovitz held management positions at Sierra Designs, Adidas, CNET and Asics Tiger. He also has experience as an entrepreneur, having founded his own athletic footwear company. He holds a BA from Wesleyan University and an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
You’ve Got Too Much Time on Your Hands. Really.
Toyota calls it “lowering the water level.” Imagine a value stream or a production process as a river. Reducing the inventory in the process – “lowering the water level” – exposes the “rocks” that represent all of the hidden costs and waste in production. Only by revealing those rocks can you improve the process and [...]
TPS: The Thinking Production System
Teruyuki Minoura of Toyota, and John Shook, co-author of Learning To See and senior advisor in the Lean Enterprise Institute, say that “TPS” should really stand for “Thinking Production System.” In their view, more than anything else, a manager committed to Lean must constantly ask questions: Why do we have parts piled up here? Why [...]
