Article

Visual Replenishment Delivers for Zingerman’s

How an online grocery business meets pandemic-related demand increases while maintaining a safe work environment.

by Karen Gaudet

Article

How Stalwart Lean Leadership and Classic Lean Practices Yield Operational and Clinical Excellence

Organizations can achieve the seemingly impossible when they have steadfast lean leadership, a sharp focus on purpose, and experience applying "classic" lean thinking and practice.…

by Alice Lee

Article

How the Study Phase Helps You Create More Value for Your Customers and Less Drama for Your Development Teams

A product development team volunteered to pilot applying lean product and process development principles -- and discovered how critical "understanding before you execute" is to…

by John Drogosz, PhD

Article

Real Respect Feels Like Knowing You’re Being Heard

To establish or strengthen a culture of engagement and continuous improvement, leaders must understand that genuinely listening to employees is as critical as what you…

by David Verble

Article

Why should I manage as if I had no power when power is the most effective way of getting things done?

Dear Gemba Coach: I’m tired of hearing I should manage as if I had no power. Surely power is the most effective way of getting…

by Michael Ballé

Article

Cultivating Intuition at the Gemba

Our trainers conditioned us to water the seed of experience and use it not just to fire-fight but rather be more predictive and value add…

by Ernie Richardson and Tracey Richardson

Podcast

32. Coachable: A Model Story, Coaching Work Improvement

An excellent study in masterful coaching on the floor where the work happens.

by Bryant Sanders

Article

When Is The Best Time To Implement Profit Sharing?

Orry Fiume argues that when businesses reopens, there are many things that will be different; and that when they do it will be time to…

by Orest (Orry) Fiume

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Video

Art of Lean on Situational Leadership, Part 3: D2-S2 and Coaching

Part two saw Art Smalley discussing Toyota, Taiichi Ohno, and more examples of situational leadership being exemplified in real-time. This time, he returns to provide…

by Art Smalley

Article

Back to Basics

I often take advantage of relaxing holiday time to go over old things, take care of less pressing matters that I often don't have time…

by John Shook

Article

TWI Job Instruction As a Way of Sharing High Value Knowledge

"Before we try to create value, we first need to study the jobs — looking for those parts of the job that require time and…

by Patrick Graupp

Article

When should we do an A3 or use a different problem-solving tool?

Dear Gemba Coach: I would really appreciate your perspective on the following: (1) When should we do an A3 for something vs. when would it…

by Michael Ballé

Podcast

Empowering Frontline Operators with Human-Centric Technology: a Conversation with Natan Linder

LEI chats with author and entrepreneur Natan Linder about the potential of software to enable improvement among frontline workers.

by Tom Ehrenfeld

Article

5S Again and Again and Again

Dear Gemba Coach,†I've just inherited responsibility for our 5S efforts in our company. Any suggestions for how I can get the program back on track?

by Michael Ballé

Article

Monozukuri Through Hitozukuri

Michael Ballé reflects on what it really means to "make people before parts" and introduces two more lean terms that just so happen to be…

by Michael Ballé

Article

Why Fundamental Shifts in Thinking Take Longer Than You Think

Think learning the fundamentals of lean thinking and practice is easy? Think again. Deep shifts in thinking will take some time.

by Mark Donovan

Article

Robert Cole's Observations on the Liker-Shook Dialogue regarding Toyota's Quality Crisis

I have previously introduced readers of this column to Robert Cole, Professor Emeritus at Berkeley, former long-time professor at the University of Michigan, and currently…

by John Shook

Article

Ask Art: Aren’t You a Little “Old School” in Your Kaizen Approach To Implementing Lean Thinking?

When you say “kaizen is old school” you may be seriously off track, argues Art Byrne. Focusing on tools like A3 might be popular and…

by Art Byrne