Article
Key Traits and Behaviors of Great Lean Consultants
"If you want to accelerate your lean practice I highly recommend reaching out to a good lean consultant to serve as your coach, teacher, trainer,"…
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Article
Book Review: Four Types of Problems
If you are developing a problem solver in your personal life or on your team, or if you’re continuously developing as a problem solver yourself,…
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Video
Lean Principles Speed Workflow in New Product Development
After successfully implementing lean principals in manufacturing, Solar Turbines took them to product development processes, reducing firefighting and boosting development velocity. LEI’s Chet Marchwinski recently…
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Article
Just-in-Time Roundup: Great Lean Reads from Across the Web (Vol. 8)
Check out our picks for high value lean reads you may have missed - this time from Inc., Harvard Business Review, Planet Lean and more.
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Article
Why We Believe People-Free Plants and Services Prevent Learning
We (Lean Sensei Women) are a group of women from different continents, horizons, and professions who share a commitment to the development of people. We…
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Article
Do we need more research to understand what works and what doesn’t when implementing lean healthcare?
Dear Gemba Coach: There are controversies over whether lean/TPS works in healthcare or not. Authorities in lean practice suggest conducting research that compares outcomes with…
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Article
Is lean problem solving different from regular problem solving?
Dear Gemba Coach: How is lean problem solving any different from regular problem-solving?
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Cultivating Intuition at the Gemba
Our trainers conditioned us to water the seed of experience and use it not just to fire-fight but rather be more predictive and value add…
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Article
When Lean Gets Personal
Lean is not simply about making things better; Jim Morgan shares how his experience with lean healthcare taught him how lean helps make people better.
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Article
Advice from the Gemba: Top Mistakes Lean Leaders Make I
Making mistakes is a natural part of lean thinking and practice. Here, three LEI faculty members share some common, yet easily avoidable mistakes made by…
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Article
How Teaming Produces Execution-as-Learning
Amy C. Edmonson, Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School, shares a concept she calls "teaming", a way of working that brings…
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Article
Managing the Wisdom of the Many
"Lean organizations that depend on the qualities of rare individuals face multi-dimensional risks," writes Boaz Tamir, President of Israel Lean Institute. In his first piece…
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Article
Lean and Agile: Finding a Role for Your Leadership in Your Transformation Model
"Lean and Agile are two of the most commonly discussed (and hotly debated) principles for managing a business, particularly when there’s a transformation underway," writes…
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Article
HR Strategies for Successful and Sustainable Lean Transformations
The interest in strengthening employee engagement is sometimes considered a separate topic from lean transformations. Cheryl Jekiel, who has over 25 years of experience in…
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Article
Soliciting Suggestions in Ways That Don't Backfire
Sometimes well-intentioned lean activities like asking for suggestions can backfire; Cheryl Jekiel shares specific ways to prevent mishandling ideas from your people.
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Article
Ugly Babies, Silent Enemies and Other Short Stories from a Continuous Improvement Conference
Besides the lessons, challenges, and results that belong to a company’s lean transformation, there are personal journeys as well. Here’s a summary of some we…
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Article
"Too Busy to Walk the Gemba"
Chris Weisbrod of Catalysis explains why healthcare leaders often claim they're too busy to walk the gemba and shares a strategy for reversing that mindset.
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Article
Try These Three Deliberate Practices of Lean Coaching
A lean coach doesn’t do PDCA; she or he has three deliberate practices that keep the PDCA gear rolling with a check, adjustment, new purpose…
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Article
What Too Many Value Stream Maps Completely Miss
Believe it or not, up to half of all the value-stream maps that cross Drew Locher's desk are missing something extremely important. In his first…
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Article
The Designer's Dilemma
Durward Sobek unpacks the "designer’s dilemma"—the situation wherein you have the MOST freedom to make decisions when you know the LEAST about the problem. Learn…
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