Press Release

Lean Enterprise Institute Webinar to Challenge Conventional Thinking about Leadership

Registration is open now for the September 9, 2014, free webinar “How to Lead with Respect.”

Press Release

Cambridge, MA-Based Lean Enterprise Institute Announces 2 In-Depth Workshops for Creating and Sustaining Continuous Improvement Cultures

The sessions at the Institute’s Cambridge office will help managers and executives build competitive advantages through daily process improvement and innovation.

Press Release

Lean Enterprise Institute Launches 7 New Workshops for Starting and Sustaining Lean Transformations

The new workshops address fundamental and advanced lean concepts for manufacturing and service companies.

News

Lean Enterprise Institute Announces Its First Grant for Improving the Teaching of Lean Management in Schools at Every Level

The Boston-based nonprofit, a global thought leader in continuous improvement products and services, awarded its first grant to Oakland University, MI. The grant will support…

Article

Creating a System to Achieve Ambitious Goals: A WLEI Podcast

A lean veteran describes a system that can help leaders take their organizations to the next level.

by John Cotter and Tom Ehrenfeld

Article

The (Real) Lean Firefighter: Bringing Lean to the Grand Rapids Fire Department

Brad Brown had no lean experience when he joined the Grand Rapids Fire Department (GRFD) in 2003. But as the Great Recession went into full…

Article

Developing a Kaizen Consciousness with Shingo Prize winner Michael Balle

Michael Ballé, co-author of The Lean Manager, published by the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI), cautioned in a podcast interview with Business 901 that managers or executives…

by Joseph Dager

Article

Don Berwick on healthcare spending: “We have to improve our way out of this”

Dr. Donald Berwick, former administrator of the federal Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services, says the U.S. will have to "improve our way out" of…

by Frank Vinluan

Article

Not So Simple: Pioneering Lean Product Development

Jean Cunningham, LEI’s executive chair, offers lessons from her time as CFO of lean management pioneer Lantech when it successfully deployed lean principles to product…

Article

Not a High-Volume Widget Manufacturer? Lean Still Makes Sense for High-Mix, Low-Volume Production

If your organization deals with a wide variety of products that incur fluctuating demand and your customers are ever increasing the product range while demanding…

Article

Now is the Time for Resilience and Adaptability!

People and organizations can create the conditions for building their own resilience by drawing from TPS, the Thinking People System, says Sandrine Olivencia. But for…

by Sandrine Olivencia

Article

Follow-up Q & A to the Webinar "Integrating Leader Standard Work with Visual Management Tools”

This webinar was one of our most popular and highly rated. From among the hundreds of questions that we received during the webinar, we selected…

by Joe Murli

Article

Why don't people learn from experience?

Dear Gemba Coach: On the gemba, we have many problems to manage every day. People don’t seem to learn from their experience. Is there any…

by Michael Ballé

Faculty

Ben Root

Ben Root received his Master’s Degree in Human Resource Management, Training and Development from Golden Gate University and his B.S. degree in Business Management from…

Article

In Search of Value Stream Architects

Recently I've been spending most of my gemba time walking through value-creating processes in organizations far away from manufacturing. And the further away I get…

by James (Jim) Womack, PhD

Article

Why Toyota Won

In an op-ed opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal, James P. Womack, founder and chairman of the Lean Enterprise Institute, explains that Toyota "won"…

by James (Jim) Womack, PhD

Article

Performance versus costs, part 2

Dear Gemba Coach: I’ve read your recent column on performance versus cost with great interest, as I believe we’re currently having a similar discussion at management…

by Michael Ballé

Article

Why Visualize?

Dear Gemba Coach: Why do you insist so much on visualizing information?

by Michael Ballé

Article

Mapping a Reading List to Lean

We humans want to see what is happening, understand how we and our colleagues best collaborate, solve problems, make good decisions, and have an insatiable…

by Jim Benson

Article

Back to Work

Only a month ago I wrote about going beyond Toyota. And in light of the last month's events, I suppose that must seem prescient. But…

by James (Jim) Womack, PhD