Lexicon Term

Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA)

PDCA is an improvement cycle based on the scientific method of proposing a change in a process, implementing the change, measuring the results, and taking…

Article

Why Lean Startup Experiments are Hard to Design

Grace Ng, co-founder of Javelin (a software and services company dedicated to implementing Lean Startup), reflects on what she's learned helping entrepreneurs launch products and…

by Grace Ng

Article

EWABI, Earth Corporations (E-CORPS) & Electric Bamboo Bikes

Can electric bamboo bikes made in Bali offer a potential solution to global social, economic and environmental injustice? What does it mean that the Earth…

by Mark Donovan

Article

Your Conversations on Lean Thinking and Practice in Healthcare

Check out the conversation topics (and report outs) from the Open Space learning session at the Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit last week in LA!

by Darlene Dumont

Article

Practicing Lean Fundamentals in an Office Environment

Applying lean principles in service organizations and administrative processes within manufacturing companies often confounds companies. Lean faculty member and author Drew Locher offers four key…

by Drew Locher

Article

How Lean Tools Support the Principle of Respect (Part 1)

We first met Andy Ward when he was struggling to save his plant from closure in The Lean Manager. Since then he's helped lead a…

by Lean Leaper

Article

Why We Believe that Pull Flows Are Too Often Overlooked

In this incisive series of articles on the essential value of pulled flow, the lean sensei women argue, in the words of Catherine Chabiron, that…

by Lean Sensei Women

Article

How to Coach a Person Who Doesn't Want to be Coached?

How do you coach someone who doesn't need your help or who thinks they know everything? This was one of several interesting questions raised during…

by Lex Schroeder

Article

5S, Hygiene, and Healthy Habits

5S-like practice can uncover hidden beliefs and misconceptions, and pave the way to adopting new hygiene practices – as opposed to arbitrary imposition, argues Michael…

by Michael Ballé

Article

Why audit standard work? And what is the best approach?

Dear Gemba Coach: Can you help me determine the best way to conduct audits of standard work (SW)? The Toyota Way Fieldbook describes a layered…

by Michael Ballé

Article

What should I expect as a lean manager?

Dear Gemba Coach: I’m currently a team leader, and I’ve been offered a job as a lean manager – what should I expect?

by Michael Ballé

Article

Deploying Improvement Habits: From Starter Kata to Meta-Habits

Learners using the Kata routine approach every problem with the “skeleton” of the Kata routine, and understand that they are not experimenting to the solution, says…

by Brandon Brown

Article

Continuous Improvement is Good, But Is It Lean?

Take a look at your organization. Is Lean clearly directed and connected to strategy? Are senior leaders directly involved in specifying the process improvements needed?…

by Dave LaHote

Article

Can you implement TPS if management doesn’t accept the fundamental values of the Toyota Way?

Dear Gemba Coach: How can we implement the principles of  TPS if our management doesn’t accept the fundamental values of the Toyota Way?

by Michael Ballé

Article

How is standardized work different from the Taylorist one best way?

Dear Gemba Coach: How is standardized work different from the Taylorist one best way?

by Michael Ballé

Article

The Lean Bakery: A Q&A with 365's Staff

In their first interview with The Lean Post, Leo and Agus Tena, children of the authors of the new LEI book "The Lean Bakery," describe…

by Agus Tena and Leo Tena

Article

Warning: What You Call Kaizen May Really Be Rework

If you begin your lean management transformation on the shop floor, you run the risk of having to rework processes and products that should have…

by Chet Marchwinski and James Morgan, PhD

Article

The Value of A Visual Schedule is Developing Shared Understanding

People closest to the work should understand it best, so they are in the best position to share what the work is including what they…

by Katrina Appell, PhD

Article

The Best of The Lean Post 2013: Top Posts

It's time to look back on the best posts of 2013 (as determined by you, Lean Post readers). Which articles did you expect to make…

by Lex Schroeder

Article

Why you can't convince your boss to support lean activities, unless ...

Dear Gemba  Coach: I work as a deployment champion in a manufacturing company, but I don’t have the support of my managers because they don´t…

by Michael Ballé