Article

Two Giants, Two Communities, One Lasting Thing

In this graceful elegy of the impact of two pioneers who recently passed away, John Shook says: "Ezra and Norm belonged to adjacent communities –…

Article

Transforming a Food Desert to Food Oasis—During a Pandemic

How a group of volunteers used lean thinking and practices to make things better in their community -- and overcome the obstacles thrown in their…

Case Study

Shifting to Value-Stream Managers:a Shop-Floor Revolution Leads to a Revolution in Plant Organization

Two years into a lean transformation, the low-hanging fruit has been plucked and progress has started to slow. Read how a Thomas & Betts plant…

Article

Lean Warehousing and Distribution Benefits Your Company, Customers, and Supply Chain

Lean warehousing sounds like an oxymoron. But in this interview, lean practitioner and Toyota veteran David Graham explains how lean concepts apply to warehouse and…

by David Graham

Article

Lean Consortia: Sharing Experiences, Learning from Others

Manufacturers, healthcare organizations, government agencies, and others gain powerful benefits through collaborative learning and networking in lean consortia. Consortium members trade improvement ideas and experiences,…

Article

The Biggest Waste of All

"We can fix [problem symptoms] with basic lean thinking and tools, but unless our strategy is good, we will still create tremendous amounts of waste…

by Brent Wahba

Article

Signs of Progress

Dear Gemba Coach: We've been doing lean for several years now, and the program has had its ups and downs. What are the signs that…

by Michael Ballé

Video

Art of Lean on Problem-Solving, Part 5: Tuckman's Model of Team Formation

Coaching teams is the topic of this fifth part of an ongoing series on coaching problem-solving by Art Smalley. He compares the Tuckman Model with…

by Art Smalley

Article

Ask Art: I Want to Convert My Company to Lean. What Are the First Steps?

The former Wiremold CEO explains the commitment you must make— and the expectations you must set—when you start your continuous-improvement journey.

by Art Byrne

Article

6 Things You Can Do to Become a More Effective Lean Leader

This collection of articles from Lean Coach David Verble examines how the way managers and leaders talk to employees (and to each other) can contribute,…

by Lean Enterprise Institute

Article

The Time for Healthcare Leaders to Implement Lean Is Now – Stat!

Pioneering healthcare leaders have demonstrated that lean applied to healthcare can help solve the problems of quality, delivery of care, and cost. It’s time for…

Article

The Road to Production Hell is Paved with Lack of LPPD

The real work of companies like Tesla who face stupendous challenges in launching a product should have happened long before production commenced, says Jim Morgan,…

by James Morgan, PhD

Podcast

Seeking the Right Problems to Solve: Catch the WLEI Podcast with Author Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg

Learning how to frame your problem will help you solve it, suggests author Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg. He describes how in this episode of the WLEI podcast.

by Lean Leaper

Article

How to Save Time and Money in Innovation by Reusing Knowledge

Massive books of knowledge or huge lists weren’t very effective ways of getting the engineers he managed to reuse knowledge, notes Jim Morgan, PhD, a…

by James Morgan, PhD

eBook

The Lean Manager

For many companies, the most important problem is not doing lean; it is becoming lean. How can they advance beyond realizing isolated gains from deploying lean tools, to fundamentally changing how…

by Freddy Ballé and Michael Ballé

Article

Ask Art: How Should We Staff and Run Kaizen?

"Unless you have some lean knowledge before you launch any kaizen, your traditional ('batch' rather than 'flow') thinking will overwhelm you at every turn," writes…

by Art Byrne

Article

Ask Art: Is Lean a Strategy?

The debate over whether lean should be considered a strategy, philosophy, methodology, etc. is a long one. Merriam-Webster defines a strategy as "a careful plan…

by Art Byrne

Article

Lean Alone is Never Enough

Lean can help any organization become more efficient and effective, but there is much more to being successful than just being lean, says Brent Wahba.…

by Brent Wahba

Article

Coaches Need Improvement Too

"Whether you are a coaching client or a coach yourself," writes Brent Wahba, "you both have decided to pursue the world of continuous improvement, so…

by Brent Wahba

Article

Big Problems? Start Small

"In problem solving, we’re taught to ask a simple question, “Is this problem within my scope of control?” If yes, then we go after it.…

by Josh Howell