Just read Mina Kime's enlightening account of the J&J McNeil quality disaster in Fortune. Forget about the fact that the adulterated products did not and most likely would not have harmed consumers, the problems cited are very serious and go straight to the heart of GMP's. 

Recent postings in the WSJ blog and elsewhere have asked the troubling question: Does Lean Manufacturing, by definition, lead to quality control problems? Click here for an interesting read. (For something that doesn't require registration, click here.)

I've always found one of the most evocative terms in the Toyota lexicon to be “gemba” ----the real place, or as it has more poetically been translated, “the place where truth will be found.”  The word already implies that you may have preconceived notions of what the truth is and need a reality check. What better way to define the workplace, whether that's a laboratory or a factory?

In a sad turning point in Toyota's history, and, perhaps the whole history of the Lean movement, Toyota  plans to liquidate the Lean showcase NUMMI plant in Fremont, California "by the end of August." Read more from yesterday's story in the San Francisco Business News.

Last month, I visited a Toyota plant for the first time, the fabled NUMMI plant in Fremont, California.  The factory has fallen on harder times:  production stopped on some lines in December.