Replies

1. 
   McDesign | May 20, 2006 10:54pm | #1

   Scandinavia they use Legos.

   Japan they use Origami.

   Forrest

   
   

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   Edited 5/20/2006 4:43 pm by McDesign

1. 
   DougU | May 21, 2006 12:09am | #2

   Scandinavia they use Legos.

   There tolorances are much tighter than anything we do!

2. 
   Lansdown | May 21, 2006 01:58am | #4

   But we got Lincoln Logs!

2. 
   blue_eyed_devil | May 21, 2006 01:07am | #3

   are far more efficient than US practices

   Of course! Everything is Europe is superior to everything we do here in the states. They've been around for thousands of years and they don't come close to us in home ownership though. There's  a trade off for everything.

   "far mor efficient" is a debatable term.

   blue

    

3. 
   JerraldHayes | May 21, 2006 02:31am | #5

   While it's probably not the kind of answer you are hoping or looking for one of the dramatic ways the Scandinavians and Japanese are more efficient is not in their tooling and actual construction techniques but in how they organize their workflow. Finland and Japan are heavily into Lean Thinking and Lean Construction (think Just-In-Time and the Toyota Production System). You might want to check out Just In Time, Toyota Production System & Lean Manufacturing:

   Origins & History Lean Manufacturing for an overview of what those things are all about.

   What maybe sort of tragically ironic is that if you look at management philosophy as a product Lean Thinking was really invented and developed here in the United States by the likes of Henry Ford, Edward Deming, Joseph Juran and James Womack then seized upon by and really utilized by the Japanese and Finns. I wonder why are we so disinterested in learning how to adopt Lean Thinking in our work techniques here.

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1. 
   JMadson | May 21, 2006 04:06am | #7

   Lean Thinking requires all employees to put the company before themselves. That's near impossible here in the US.“The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” – Albert Einstein

4. 
   BillHartmann | May 21, 2006 04:00am | #6

   "Japan have building techniques that are far more efficient than US practices."

   Define efficient.

   From time to time there have been threads posted about home building in Japan.

   And often the quality is terrible. Homes are not sold, but torn down after 25-50 years.