Article

Who Owns Your A3? (Part One)

LEI Director of Strategy and Operations Mark Reich shares how he learned a key lesson from his time at Toyota: always ask who owns the…

Article

Multiply the Improvers in Your Organization Every Day

Be prepared to commit the time, patience and tenacity to unleash the power of improvement your organization, says Andrew Quibell. He illustrates how to actively…

by Andrew Quibell

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WLEI Transcript with Natan Linder

Lexicon Term

Basic Stability

Having essential capability, availability, and flexibility in the 4Ms — manpower, machines, materials, and methods. A lack of basic stability in a process prevents improvements…

Lexicon Term

Pull Production

A method of production control in which downstream activities signal their needs to upstream activities. Pull production strives to eliminate overproduction and is one of…

Lexicon Term

Training Within Industry (TWI)

Training Within Industry (TWI) was a series of training programs developed during WWII enabling U.S. companies to hire and train huge numbers of new workers…

Press Release

Gemba-Based Education for Supply Chain and Distribution Professionals

Lean Enterprise Institute and LeanCor, a third-party logistics provider, partner to offer hands-on workshop.

Article

Let Your A3s Lead

Coach Eric Ethington shares how simply getting started with A3s as a means of engaging others in this process is a tactical approach that works.

by Eric Ethington

Article

Expanding Our Perspective on Lean Management, Part 2: Lean has its Roots in Spirituality

To explore the idea that there may be other angles for understanding lean management than business or analytical perspectives, a group of lean management practitioners…

by Joanna McGuffey and Thomas Richert

Article

It Starts Within: The Lean Journey of CI&T

The lean transformation of Brazilian tech company CI&T was unique in that it began with an implementation of hoshin kanri. In this interview from the…

by Cesar Gon and Bruno Guicardi

Article

Build Awareness Through Seeing How Eliminating Waste Reduces Costs

As we grow our people we must continue to add new dimensions of thinking to engage them in their work and to empower them to…

by Ernie Richardson and Tracey Richardson

Article

Jishuken, Part Two: The Power of Self-Learning

Consider Jishuken to be an intensive effort to drive individuals and the organization to a higher level, says Mark Reich, noting that if done right,…

by Mark Reich

Article

How do I set up an obeya room?

Dear Gemba Coach: I’d like to set up an obeya room – where should I start? What’s the simplest way to do it?

by Michael Ballé

Article

Distilling Lean Ideas Down to Their Essence

Andrew Quibbell, lean leader and VP of a global enterprise, loves teaching lean concepts. Finding PowerPoint wholly ineffective at communicating lean thinking, he's begun drawing…

by Andrew Quibell

Article

From Chaos to Kaizen: The Visual Way

In another of his visual depictions of the fundamentals of lean, Andrew Quibell illustrates the process of transforming a chaos-plagued organization into one of continuous…

by Andrew Quibell

Article

Are You Making Enough Mistakes?

How comfortable are you making mistakes? Do you make it safe for your team members to make mistakes? Boaz Tamir, Founder of Israel Lean Enterprise…

by Boaz Tamir

Article

A Principles-Based Approach to Changing Healthcare Management

"This year alone over 250,000 Americans will die due to medical error," writes Dr. John Toussaint. "How can so many smart people be making so…

by John Toussaint

Article

Does it matter if we call lean "lean"?

Dear Gemba Coach: If it works, why worry if it’s called lean, operational excellence, or the company’s excellence system? As long as we get results,…

by Michael Ballé

Article

How can I help middle managers handle contradictory instructions from top management?

Dear Gemba Coach: As a lean coach, how can I help middle-managers who are faced with contradictory instructions from top management?

by Michael Ballé

Article

Warning: What You Call Kaizen May Really Be Rework

If you begin your lean management transformation on the shop floor, you run the risk of having to rework processes and products that should have…

by Chet Marchwinski and James Morgan, PhD