Article

Why Lean Isn't Successful in Healthcare

How often do you choose to improve processes that may not provide any financial benefit whatsoever? Read why lean practitioner Janice Brathwaite thinks we can…

by Janice Brathwaite

Article

Advice from the Gemba: Keeping Senior Leadership Committed

The cost savings of lean are not always apparent in the short term. If your senior leadership was skeptical going into the transformation, this situation…

by Ken Eakin and Chris Vogel

Article

Active Caring

Caring about others, caring about quality, caring about professionalism. When you care, continuous improvement and action come naturally. Turner Construction CEO Peter Davoren says that…

by Jim Benson

Article

A Sensei in One's Own Land

In his first piece for The Lean Post, John Shook addresses the question of if, when, and how you and your organization should work with…

by John Shook

Article

Boatloads of Muda

Ken Eakin saw his fair share of waste during his 13 years in the ocean-shipping industry, especially in the transportation process. Now a lean coach,…

by Ken Eakin

Article

Getting Religious About Problem Solving

Have you ever heard of a lean transformation guided by scriptures? The people at LifeWayChristian Resources' distribution center in Tennessee have! Whenever possible, they use…

by Lean Leaper

Article

No Change is Easy: The Starbucks Siren Steps into Dunkin Donuts’ World of Orange and Pink

Lean is about a willingness to experiment and if necessary, change our approach to our work and our daily routine. Lisa Adams, a lean coach…

by Lisa Adams

Article

CI Sustainment: A Hiding Place for Complexity

"How many times has your continuous improvement solution wound up being more complex than the original problem?" muses Lynn Kelley. In her first piece for…

by Lynn Kelley

Article

Even Visual Management Starts from Need

Have you ever implement a visual management tool at your gemba after seeing it used successfully somewhere else? If so, according to Mark Hamel, you…

by Mark Hamel

Article

JoePa and Other Biases to Avoid

A recent viewing of the biographical film Paterno led LEI Senior Coach Mark Reich to reflect on the way many of us let biases filter…

by Mark Reich

Article

Respect the Customer By Respecting Your Worker

Lean provides us with a different approach to this vicious cycle. Build a management system in your company that allows employees to make the best…

by Mark Reich

Article

Yes, Lean is About Cost Reduction

Why focus on cost reduction? Because many of the cost-saving kaizens of are simpler and require less engineering resources, and this type of kaizen motivates…

by Mark Reich

Article

How One Company is Using Lean Fundamentals When Facing Disruption

Companies that have been built using lean principles are turning to these core ideals when confronting the unique challenges caused by today’s pandemic. Here's how…

by Michael Ballé

Article

Show Me the Money!

In his latest piece for the Post, Michael Ballé writes, "If we don’t get better at showing explicitly where the gains of lean thinking and…

by Michael Ballé

Article

How We Improved Our Tiered Daily Huddles

At Cleveland Clinic, where he leads a continuous improvement team, Nate Hurle and others have discovered ways to build on success with their tiered daily…

Article

Closer Collaboration for a Leaner Planet

Roberto Priolo, editor of Planet Lean, makes the case for lean learning and collaboration across the globe.

by Roberto Priolo

Article

Cowabunga! Implementing Lean at a Surfing School

Lean is difficult for many companies to grasp at first, often due to the cultural shift. If the organization's people are used to a more…

by Sammy Obara

Article

Effective Supervision 101

One of the biggest challenges for lean thinkers is translating lean thinking into lean doing, writes Stan Shaw. One of the best ways of making…

Article

Book Value: The Mental ABC's of Pitching

"With both the All-Star Game and our Lean Coaching Summit approaching, I got to thinking about ways that non-lean books offer insights into coaching and…

by John Shook

Article

Glad That I Asked You

About 400 of you responded with excellent suggestions for the final "Learning Session" for the upcoming LEI Lean Transformation Summit. As you will recall, every…

by John Shook