Occasionally a low-cost change comes along that generates massive savings. At Toyota Motor Corp.’s assembly plant in Buffalo, WV, the manufacturing team came up with just such an extraordinary innovation.

"Creative" and “lean.” Do those words go together? I have been a lean practitioner for more than 20 years, and I’ve never heard the phrase “creative lean.” But don’t we love those creative solutions? Don’t we get excited when an idea comes from out in left field and it works?

Alabama is home to state-of-the-art auto plants operated by Daimler, Honda, Hyundai and Toyota. It’s also home to a state-of-the-art assembly line that builds toy cars out of Lego blocks: Tiger Motors.

Kaizen (continuous improvement) is a key principle behind lean manufacturing initiatives in all industries.

Over the last decade, lean manufacturing has been prescribed as a cure-all in a wide variety of industries.

HAGERSTOWN, MD—It’s often said that if you really want to find ways to improve your business, ask an employee. At the Volvo truck assembly plant here, employee suggestions have yielded “significant savings.”