Article

Public Service: Lean's Next Frontier?

John O'Donnell and Lex Schroeder share the thinking behind LEI's new Public Service Value Network and invite you to contribute to a new and fast-growing…

by Lex Schroeder

Article

Lean Business-IT Integration, Part One: Who Wants to Go Talk to IT About This One?

In this, the first of a five part series, LEI faculty member Steve Bell begins with the importance of lean business-IT integration. Part Two offers…

Download

gold-mine-ch1

Faculty

Alan Noss

Alan received his introduction to lean when he worked for 13 years in the Service Parts Logistics Division of Toyota. He was responsible for training,…

Article

How Lean is Apple?

Apple may not worship at the altar of lean, but a close look at its operations and strategy show clear resonance with established lean principles.

by Tom Ehrenfeld

Case Study

Book Clubs Help Agricultural Company Cultivate Lean Culture

Two continuous improvement leaders explain how they successfully use book clubs to spread and align understanding of lean management at a large company with multiple…

by Chet Marchwinski

Article

How Can Lean Affect Shareholder Value?

Lean can help challenge assumptions and surface opinions that ultimately improve shareholder value, argues Michael Balle.

by Michael Ballé

Article

How to Make Your Planning Process More Effective

Learn why Toyota's planning process is much more effective than traditional approaches used by North American companies. David Verble shares what he learned working at…

by David Verble

Article

The Lives of Your Grandchildren Depend on Innovating New Healthcare Models

Renowned healthcare transformation experts examine what it will take to reinvent healthcare models through innovation and propose a new process for finding them.

Article

Standardized Work is a Goal To Work Toward, Not a Tool to Implement

Standardized work can be an ugly thing in the hands of control-oriented bureaucrats and a beautiful thing when it enables creativity and continuous improvement, says…

by Jeffrey Liker

Article

How Cascading A3s Deploy Responsibility to Think as Well as Assign KPIs

During a recent virtual workshop on how to use the A3 problem-solving methodology, a CEO asked how to cascade A3s down through every level of…

by David Verble

Article

Tips for Following Through on Improvement Plan Execution

There is a critical difference between follow-through and follow-up during the A3 problem-solving process as David Verble, a veteran lean management coach with 30+ years…

by David Verble

Article

Selling Water by the River

The most important challenge facing the lean community is that of sustaining both tangible and intangible improvements, says Dan Prock, who suggests that developing kaizen…

Article

What's Your Lean Origin Story? And Why Does It Matter?

I’m wondering, as a leader and a coach, how can I help others develop similar routines, propagating, for example, the principle of 'work/er first' or…

by Josh Howell

Article

Bad People or A Bad Process?

Standing in a nightmare of a line at the airport prompted Jim Womack to reflect on this problem, and conclude that this was indeed a…

by James (Jim) Womack, PhD

Article

The Wonder of Level Pull

Many years ago in Toyota City I first witnessed the twin concepts of level production and the smooth pull of needed items throughout a complex…

Article

Q & A with the Authors of Building a Lean Fulfillment Stream

A Conversation with Robert Martichenko and Kevin von Grabe, authors of Building a Lean Fulfillment Stream: rethinking your supply chain and logistics to create maximum value…

by Robert Martichenko

Article

Lean Thinking is Horizontal Thinking

In the first of a two-part interview,  Jim Womack, founder and senior advisor of LEI, talks with LeanBlog podcaster Mark Graban about a variety of lean…

Article

When problems arise, what helps you keep your focus on the work?

Learning how to create and adhere to management standard work requires a clear understanding of where all team members add value in service of our…

by Lex Schroeder

Article

When a Passion for Caring Becomes a Commitment to Process Improvement: Judy Worth and Karl Ohaus on Lean Thinking for Healthcare Organizations

LEI interviews lean practitioners and co-authors of Perfecting Patient Journeys Judy Worth and Karl Ohaus about the potential for lean thinking in healthcare, the value…

by Lex Schroeder