Good mornin gents!
Didn't get a chance to go to the liquor store, so I'm heading there over lunch after I ship off a few packages. Good news tho, I finished my Operations/Supply Chain Mgmt class to my mind can get a break from Six Sigma/Lean/JIT for a few days/months. 2 more classes left and then I'm not a fool anymore! 
You going to go for a green or black belt?
I would like to eventually, but this was just one of the classes for my MS.
While these are viable theories and have valuable components, for the vast majority of industry, they are simply buzz words, a fad that will be embraced with flourish, pomp and circumstance and abandoned in a year or two for the next new thing. People (management) simply aren't committed to leaving their comfort zones and protectionist practices that is required in any of these processes.
That's exactly it - and especially with the typically high cost of researching, pilots, reengineering, etc...most companies don't have all this extra money laying around to spend on such activities. Only a true engineering/manufacturing setting can really benefit from a lot of them. And like you said, the biggest hurdle are the people.
It was interesting that Bobcat, who is in West Fargo, is getting rid of 90% of their offices in their new corporate office, that is doubling in size, to make way for a very open floorplan. I was a bit surprised based on the construction industry that it would work, but they tried it in their smaller corp office in Bismarck and it went over really well.
