This is the second of my two contributing installments for John Hunter’s fifth annual review roundup. In this post, I am honored to review Peter Abilla’s blog Shmula, a blog about, “business, technology, and stuff in between.”
I must admit, I have no idea what a “Shmula” is, be it noun, verb, adverb, obscure lean acronym…
However, I do know that Peter Abilla is a thought leader, speaker, consultant, and professor, among other things. He’s got a very refreshing blogging approach, both in perspective and content. Heck, Peter studied math, philosophy, and more. I studied math, theology, and other stuff.
We’re practically related!
Truly, Peter is unique. His posts touch upon not only lean manufacturing, but queueing theory, and operations research. He is not your stereotypical ex-ops guy.
Abilla wrote 76 posts during 2012. Here’s a quick summary on just a smattering of his work.
- Legislating The Toyota Production System: Making the Application of Lean the Law. Peter shares a story about how the governor of the State of Washington issued an executive order around implementing lean within the state government. Interesting change management approach, but it appears there were some positive, measurable results.
- Using Constraints and Bottlenecks to Prevent Childhood Obesity. This Shmula post reflects on how inhibiting flow can be a good thing.
- Overthinking: Are You Guilty of Missing the Mark? My personal answer to this is, “Yes!” Peter muses about designed experiments and the relevant differences between males and females.
- Eliminate, Combine, Rearrange, Simplify: Work Analysis Sheet Template Download. (Hey, everybody loves free downloads.) ECRS is one of those very simple, but powerful strategies. It was first articulated, to my knowledge, as part of Training within Industry’s (TWI) Job Methods program.
- DMV Queueing Properties: Waiting in Line at the Local Department of Motor Vehicles. DMV and queueing sounds redundant, doesn’t it? Here, Peter shares some queueing theory that we can all understand.
OK, so there are 71 more 2012 Shmula posts to check out. I do hope that you visit Peter Abilla’s blog.
Please let me know if you figure out what a “Shmula” is.
Also, please see ALL of John Hunter’s 2012 Management Blog Carnival activity right here. The lean blogosphere has so much to offer.
Related posts: Management Improvement Carnival #126, Blog Carnival Annual Roundup: 2011 – Steven Spear, Blog Carnival Annual Roundup: 2011 – Lean Blog, Blog Carnival Annual Roundup: 2011 – A Lean Journey, Blog Carnival Annual Roundup: 2012 – Old Lean Dude