Article

Expanding the Purpose of Catchball

Learn how catchball, the process of colleagues tossing ideas back and forth to improve them iteratively, helps get the job done while building capability simultaneously.

by Josh Howell

Article

Ask Art: What is the Best Lean Leadership Development Program?

Leaders learn and adopt lean thinking the same way everyone else does: by practicing it. Here are a few ideas that will help you get…

by Art Byrne

Lexicon Term

Takt Time

Takt time is a calculation of the available production time divided by customer demand. For example, if a widget factory operates 480 minutes per day…

Article

Learn from the Error, Every Time

It's an awful feeling when you think everything is going just fine and then discover you've made an error. But errors are inevitable. It's what…

by Joshua Rapoza

Article

Is "lean" now just an over-hyped word that is losing its value?

Dear Gemba Coach: I have spent the day with a group of people in the LeanIT, Agile, ITSM, IT4IT, DevOps, etc. worlds.  We were all…

by Michael Ballé

Article

Calling a Time-Out for Coaches

What's the most effective approach to coaching? Lean coaches Mark Reich and Laura Mottola share practical approaches that include methods such as invoking struggle, providing…

by Masia Goodman and Mark Reich

Article

Is momentum loss normal during a lean transformation?

Dear Gemba Coach: One of our outpatient wards reduced waiting time by 75% and got an award for their lean improvement project. But then momentum…

by Michael Ballé

Article

Just Trying “Stuff” Is Not A Real Experiment

"Today it seems like you can’t throw a stick of butter without hitting someone who is “running a lean experiment” on one thing or another,"…

by Brent Wahba

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

12 Wastes of Product & Process Development

The wastes found in manufacturing are well known and relatively visible. But as you move upstream into the very different realm of product development, wastes…

by Katrina Appell, PhD and John Drogosz, PhD

Article

Lean Thinking and Information Flow

"Most of my career has been spent on making the production floor more efficient, i.e. the delivery of a product," writes Mary Morgan. "I remember…

by Mary Morgan

Article

The Cure for Bad Meeting Syndrome

"Anyone who leads a group needs the ability to design and plan a meeting," writes Alice Lee. "This isn’t just something that happens; it’s a…

by Alice Lee

Article

Use Lean Development Principles to Avoid "Traveling Hopefully" Down the Wrong Path

Lean development is less about creating highly detailed plans based on things you can’t possibly know in the beginning of a development program (like conventional…

by James Morgan, PhD

Article

How Much Control Do I Need (and Need to Give Up) to Lead?

Dear Gemba Coach: I am interested in setting up a team for implementing lean. So far I have been trying to make changes on my…

by Michael Ballé

Article

People First Leadership: A Conversation by Jim Morgan with Alan Mulally

Alan Mulally is a brilliant engineer who led historic transformations as CEO of Boeing Commercial and then Ford Motor Company. But just as important as…

by James Morgan, PhD

Article

The End of an Era

When General Motors filed for bankruptcy yesterday it marked the end of an era. The first truly modern, manage-by-the-numbers corporation, created by Alfred Sloan in…

by James (Jim) Womack, PhD

Article

Why Is Failure Key to Lean Success?

Dear Gemba Coach: I am a LSS black belt working with a sensei to improve our performance. We conduct many workshops that get results, but…

by Michael Ballé

Article

Being 'Right' is Not Enough

All of us have problem-solving experiences to reflect on and learn from. And what better time to draw out that learning than now, when we…

by Josh Howell

Podcast

Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn: A Podcast with Katie Anderson and Isao Yoshino

Join us for this WLEI podcast with Katie Anderson and Mr. Isao Yoshino on his experiences with Toyota that formed the basis for Katie's new…

by Katie Anderson and Lean Leaper

Article

Toyota's New Material-Handling System Shows TPS’s Flexibility

Art Smalley, LEI author and faculty member, reports on Toyota's new material-handling system for assembly areas that he saw in action at an engine plant…

by Art Smalley