Article

Lean for Healthcare Organizations in South Africa: An Interview with Lean4NGO Founders Steve Bell and Karen Whitley Bell

In this interview, LEI speaks with Steve Bell and Karen Whitley Bell about a Lean4NGO workshop they offered with Norman Faull of Lean Institute Africa…

by Lex Schroeder

Article

Using Lean Thinking to Help Schools Get the Resources They Need at DonorsChoose.org

A fantastic example of how lean thinking and practice has moved into the nonprofit sector, DonorsChoose.org began its lean journey in 2007 when its leadership…

by Lex Schroeder

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

Lean Practitioners Gather to Share Ideas that Grow the Bottom Line by Growing People’s Knowledge

We were among the nearly 2,000 lean thinkers attending the 2014 AME conference, organized around six value streams: Engaged People, Daily Improvement, Innovation, Extended Enterprise,…

Article

Small Batch: Hand-Picked Articles form the Global Lean Community (Vol. 2)

Our picks for the best high-impact learning stories and columns from Planet Lean.

by Lean Leaper

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

Light Students’ Fire for Learning Through Teaching Lean

One of the greatest motivations for teaching for me is when I have a tangible impact on students’ thinking and learning. While traditional management accounting…

Article

Pivoting Just-In-Time with Hoshin Kanri at Toyota

Learn about the power of hoshin kanri, a systematic approach to defining a strategy and, more importantly, a management system that engages all people to…

Article

Beyond 'Linear' Intelligence: Learning Lean Through Shared Experiments and Improvements

Learning entails far more than a linear set of directions from one person to another, argues LEI's Masia Goodman, who presents ways that the upcoming…

Article

Ask Art: Why Switch from Batch to Lean?

Switching from batch production to a complete lean enterprise produces benefits far beyond immediate financial results, argues Art Byrne. Read this for details on your…

by Art Byrne

Article

How Stalwart Lean Leadership and Classic Lean Practices Yield Operational and Clinical Excellence

Organizations can achieve the seemingly impossible when they have steadfast lean leadership, a sharp focus on purpose, and experience applying "classic" lean thinking and practice.…

by Alice Lee

Case Study

Creating the Course and Tools for a Lean Accounting System

A unit of Parker Hannifin used a financial kaizen and other lean accounting techniques to bridge the gaps between shop-floor improvements and traditional financial statements.

by Chet Marchwinski

Article

Leadership Q&A: Dr. Jack Billi, associate dean and associate vice president for medical affairs

From the LEI senior executive series on lean leadership:Jack Billi, M.D., associate dean for clinical affairs, University of Michigan Medical School, professor of Internal Medicine…

by Chet Marchwinski

Article

Leadership Q&A: Karl Wadensten, president, VIBCO

From the LEI senior executive series on lean leadership:In the first couple years of its lean transformation VIBCO, Inc. saved over $2 million in inventory, cut…

by Chet Marchwinski

Article

Follow-up Q & A to the Webinar "Big Company Disease: What is it? and Why Should I Care?”

The following questions represent the most-asked ones that we couldn't get to during the webinar “Big Company Disease” with presenter Pascal Dennis.

Article

Lean Business-IT Integration, Part Two: Obstacles to Value-Stream Transformation

In this, the second of a five part series, LEI faculty member Steve Bell offers a framework to help overcome the common obstacles to a…

by Steve Bell

Article

Lean Business-IT Integration, Part Four: The Lean Learning Leader

In the fourth article of a five-part series on Lean IT, LEI faculty member Steve Bell addresses leadership and IT governance. Part One begins with…

by Steve Bell

Article

Identifying the Organizational Problem and Opportunity at Community Servings

Lean is first and foremost about learning by doing, so during summer 2012, the LEI team headed to Community Servings (the gemba) to learn its…

by Lex Schroeder

Article

Helpful Coaching? Part One: Who Says What’s Helpful?

David Verble, a lean practitioner and Lean Enterprise Institute faculty member, offers advice for what kind of coaching is helpful for people with problem solving…

by David Verble

Article

Developing a Problem-Solving Culture at Herman Miller: An Interview with Lean Practitioners George Mason and Dan Bos

In this interview from the Lean Coaching Summit in December 2012, George Mason, a Herman Miller Performance System (HMPS) manager, and Dan Bos, an operations…

by Lex Schroeder