Article

How the Hoshin Kanri Process Coupled with Coaching Drives Lean Transformation, Part 1

A veteran coach shares a few intangible truths you'll need to know to execute an organizational transformation using hoshin kanri.

by Laura Mottola

Lexicon Term

Continuous Improvement

Continuous improvement, also known as “Kaizen”, is a philosophy and set of principles that focuses on making small, incremental changes to processes, systems, and activities…

Lexicon Term

Kaizen

Kaizen is a Japanese word that means “continuous improvement”. Kaizen aims to make small, incremental improvements in processes and systems, leading to significant long-term benefits.…

Article

Be a Better Coach: Learn to “Force” Your Team to Reflect, Part 1

Sustaining a lean thinking culture requires consistent leadership and coaching that reinforces expected behaviors and practices. Here’s an example of how to ensure your frontline…

by David Verble

Article

The Lean Dentist Webinar Follow-Up Questions & Answers

After reviewing all the questions that we couldn’t get to during the webinar with Dr. Sami Bahri, several key themes emerged, such as lean leadership…

by Sami Bahri

Article

Join the Conversation and Stop the Rework

In the spring of 1997, as I was starting the nonprofit Lean Enterprise Institute, I visited a company that I hoped would be a founding…

by James (Jim) Womack, PhD

Article

Lean management case study series: Lean Partnership with Dealer Network Helps Vermeer Reduce End-to-End Inventory on Top Sellers

A lean transformation had taken heavy-equipment manufacturer Vermeer away from batch manufacturing, but batch ordering by dealers was delaying how quickly they got equipment like…

Case Study

Build Your “House” of Production on a Stable Foundation

Faced with downtime on key pieces of sophisticated equipment in a machine-intensive environment, Delphi's Plant 1 launched a successful improvement effort by focusing on rigorous…

Article

Lean Financial Planning – How well does your budget serve its purpose?

How well does your budget serve its purpose? Asking this question can lead to a rich and revealing discussion with operational and finance teams alike.…

Article

Why We Believe that Lean is About Changing Our Own Behaviors, and Not Just Accumulating New Knowledge

Lean repeatedly pushes us to develop new competences (or recover lost know-hows) through kaizen and problem solving. This collection of short articles from seven leading…

by Lean Sensei Women

Article

Cutting Carbon Emissions and Product Costs Through Lean Product and Process Development

As the need to reduce carbon emissions becomes clearer, the need to understand the impact and consciously consider it during the design phase is ever…

by Katrina Appell, PhD

Article

Do You Practice Routine Personal Development?

Once we learn lean we often start seeing it everywhere, even in places we might least expect it. In this instance, Katie Anderson saw a…

by Katie Anderson

Article

5S Is a Way of Thinking and Practice

It would be impossible to find a valid description of lean that does not include the importance of 5S for organization, standardization, and continuous improvement.…

Article

Doing Versus Being – How Mindfulness Supports Better Lean Thinking

Most companies don’t get the expected results from their lean transformations, according to Mike Orzen, lean practitioner and LEI faculty member. The reason is that…

by Mike Orzen

Article

Real Leaders Think and Act Differently

Are your management routines and Gemba Walks suffering from the superficial observations of the day-tripper? Or are your leaders adding real value to your employees,…

by Darren Walsh

Article

Lean for the Long Term

I've now been thinking about lean continuously for thirty years, since the fall of 1979 when my MIT bosses asked me to explore how a…

by James (Jim) Womack, PhD

Article

How to Develop Healthy Habits for Mindful Coaching

Powerful lean coaches help others create productive habits that over time produce a type of "muscle memory" that forms a foundation for long-term growth and…

by Lean Leaper

Case Study

Shifting to Value-Stream Managers:a Shop-Floor Revolution Leads to a Revolution in Plant Organization

Two years into a lean transformation, the low-hanging fruit has been plucked and progress has started to slow. Read how a Thomas & Betts plant…

Article

Why We Believe that Pull Flows Are Too Often Overlooked

In this incisive series of articles on the essential value of pulled flow, the lean sensei women argue, in the words of Catherine Chabiron, that…

by Lean Sensei Women

Article

How Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Teaching Embodies Lean Thinking

What can we learn about lean thinking from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? Christopher D. Chapman explains.

by Christopher D. Chapman