Article

Serious Games

Boaz Tamir (President of Lean Institute Israel) and lean coach Smadar Cohen Isvoranu share their reflections on a recent lean product and process development workshop…

by Boaz Tamir

Article

Is there “mudagement” in your organization?

"Mudagement." What a strange word. But to Tony Lamberton, the concept behind that word has made all the difference in identifying invisible waste in his…

by Lean Leaper

Article

Using A3 Thinking to Solve Recruiting Problems: An interview with Gavin Martin

It's a shame that A3s are often thought of as being meant to solve manufacturing problems. The reality is they can be used to explore…

Article

Is Lean Getting "Fat?"

"Yes, lean has successfully spread around the world and gone from manufacturing to nearly every other type of value stream," writes Brent Wahba. But on…

by Brent Wahba

Article

Ask Art: How Do We Prevent Backsliding?

Backsliding is inevitable. "The key is to anticipate the backslide and take early, aggressive, organized steps to prevent it from happening before it starts," writes…

by Art Byrne

Article

The Lab is Open

Why it's important to create a way to challenge assumptions and develop know-how, solve problems, and continuously improve--even during a crisis.

by Josh Howell

Article

The Secrets of Lean

"The key to Lean is that it creates understanding, not knowledge," write John Ehrenfeld (Executive Director of the International Society for Industrial Ecology) and LEI…

by Tom Ehrenfeld

Article

Avoiding the Pitfalls of Leader Standard Work

What are some problems a lean practitioner might run into when implementing leader standard work? Ken Abbs and Scott Ullman reflect on four they experienced…

by Ken Abbs and Scott Ullman

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Why Leadership Needs to Drive the Bus

"Lean change can start from the bottom-up, I won’t say that it can’t, but the situation needs to flip quickly to leadership so that leadership…

Article

View Crises as Manageable Challenges Through Steady Lean Leadership

If you are using lean to tackle a series of crises, you may not be using lean in the first place, say a range of…

by Lean Leaper

Video

Jim Womack and Dan Jones on the Evolution and Future of Lean

At the UK Lean Summit last month, Roberto Priolo caught up with Jim Womack and Dan Jones to talk about the current and future state…

by Roberto Priolo

Article

How Menlo's Virtual Teams Are Lighting the Way Forward

While Menlo Software continues to adjust to the never-ending changes caused by COVID-19, founder Rich Sheridan takes solace that they are teeing up these challenges…

Article

Will Artificial Intelligence Replace Shop Floor Thinking?

How does lean thinking help understand whether AI could replace shop floor thinking? Jacob Stoller argues that whether or not one attributes this to an…

by Lean Sensei Women

Article

Mura, Muri, Muda?

Twenty years ago this month, when my first daughter was born, the young men I supervised in MIT’s International Motor Vehicle Program went dashing out…

by James (Jim) Womack, PhD

Article

3 Interview Questions to Gauge Candidates’ Problem-Solving Capacity

It's always great to promote from within when trying to fill lean leadership roles. But what if you have to fill the positions using external…

by Derrick Redding

Article

Sometimes Smaller is Better - and Better is Lean

LEI CEO Eric Buehrens reflects on how lean relates to the deeply hopeful story of renewal, reconstruction, and citizen engagement in places that have been…

by Eric Buehrens

Article

Looking Back and Ahead at The Lean Transformation Summit

Read the highlights from the 2014 Lean Transformation Summit in Orlando (featuring transformation stories from companies like GE, Cardinal Health, and Food Bank For New…

by Chet Marchwinski

Article

Advice from the Gemba: Personal Kanbans for Lean Beginners

Kanban boards. For many of us, they were the first visual management tools we used that taught us the benefits of lean. They're simple, effective…

by Cameron DiGregorio and Kristen Gandek

Article

From Supply Chains to Value Streams

Fifteen years ago I first began to study lean supply chains, by observing Toyota’s inbound parts supply chain and later their aftermarket parts distribution system.…

by Dan Jones

Article

What is the best way to start gemba walks and keep them focused ?

Dear Gemba Coach: We are looking to implement gemba walks in our facility. This is new to everyone including myself although I have been exposed…

by Michael Ballé