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Students Take the Lead in JPW Fund Internship
A hands-on, gemba-based “lean internship” gives participants broad-based lean management experience backed by professional and academic coaches.
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Ask Art: What's Wrong with Organizing By Function?
While you might be able to survive and be profitable using a traditional functional structure the fact is that you will be leaving a lot…
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Emerging Stronger
Learn how GE Appliances and Herman Miller leverage lean practice to design new standardized work for assembly to ensure a safe working environment for employees.
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Five Missing Pieces in Your Standardized Work (Part 2 of 3)
John Shook delves more deeply into two of the five most often neglected elements, demonstrating the importance of practice and the role of the leader,…
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How Does Lean Apply In a Job Shop?
Dear Gemba Coach: In our job shop we make high precision modules and tools, work that involves a great deal of variety and very little…
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Heijunka: Mastering the Peaks and Valleys
Struggling to run different types of products down one line? Lean coach Jeff Smith explains the lean manufacturing concept of Heijunka (or production leveling) by…
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How Do I Plan for the Long Term?
Dear Gemba Coach: I don’t know how to plan for two or five years out. As a plant manager, my requirement is to be able…
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Don’t Just Do Lean; Be Lean
A lean transformation cannot be just one of 10 elements of your strategy, according to former Wiremold Company CEO Art Byrne, who has led more…
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Ask Art: How Much Time Does It Take to Complete a Lean Transformation?
Though you can never be "finished" with the essential work of creating a continuous improvement culture, here are a few ways to determine whether you're…
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Leveling to Build Capacity and Flexibility
Dear Gemba Coach: We manufacture a seasonal product and are working on leveling, but are having a tough time. Our peak sales occur in a four-month…
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The Second P in LPPD: Why the Future is About Lean Product and Process Development
Jim Womack, speaking at the Designing the Future summit in 2019, describes the thinking behind lean product and process development -- and why it's the…
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Launching a Lean Transformation: An Aerospace Manufacturer’s Journey with Purpose, Process, and People
Lean transformation at Re:Build Cutting Dynamics demonstrates the effectiveness of purpose, process, people and foreshadows a revival of U.S. manufacturing.
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Ask Art: What Targets Should We Set When Launching a Lean Turnaround?
Here's why setting results-oriented targets instead of process-oriented targets will doom your lean improvement efforts, says Art Byrne.
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Jay Johnson, president, Plumbers Supply Company
As part of a continuing series on leading lean transformations, the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI) interviews executives from a variety of companies to explore the challenges that…
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Learning From The Sensei Way at Work
Seek perfection by cultivating a daily discipline of mindfulness, whether in lean practice or Buddhist training, writes John Shook in his foreword to a new…
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What do I do when key logistics employees are afraid to come to work?
Dear Gemba Coach: What do I do when key logistics employees are afraid to come to work?
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Art of Lean on Problem-Solving, Part 3: Lessons From Martial Arts
In part three of his problem-solving series, Art takes on the techniques (kata) and ways (waza) behind martial arts, revealing necessary coaching practices in the…
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Why implement lean when it fails so often?
Dear Gemba Coach: Is it true that lean often fails? What’s the point then?
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Ask Art: Is there a balance between lean and full automation?
As a followup to his piece last month dealing with another aspect of lean and automation, Art Byrne now explores the oft-misunderstood balance between the…
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Tesla vs. TPS: Seeking the Soul in the New Machine
While Tesla has excited customers and drawn praise for innovative design and bold thinking, author Jeff Liker believes that it faces tough challenges in its…
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