The Newsletter of Lean Manufacturing & Factory Science

June 21, 2003                       www.strategosinc.com

Lean Manufacturing Strategy

Empirical Evidence for The Focused Factory

Our previous issue introduced "The Focused Factory." Many studies support this idea with empirical evidence and quantitative data. Our latest web page, Focused Factory Benefits, reviews five such studies with charts and summaries. They illustrate the impact of focus on overhead costs, quality and operating margins.

In "A Focus Example" we have a news article from The Kansas City Star. It tells of a husband and wife who invested their life savings in a business with only a single customer. Les Davis explains the advantages of focus and how he wrested 90% of Colgate- Palmolive's soap carton business from a non-focused competitor.

This topic is surprisingly controversial. I received a number of emails with thoughtful questions and some diverging views. You can follow these e-conversations at our Focused Factory Discussion page.

Our next issue addresses the "Key Manufacturing Task" and how to identify it. This is not self-evident, but Professor Terry Hill, of Oxford University, has shown us how to approach the question.

The new web pages have a lot of "meat" and took longer than planned (as usual). In addition our ISP had some serious problems last month and you may have had trouble accessing the site. Everything seems to be back to normal now and the next issue should be on schedule.

See you then.

Quarterman Lee