Article
Why and How to Engage Finance in a Lean Transformation. An Interview with Jean Cunningham
There's often a disconnect between an organization's lean and finance departments, especially when a lean transformation is underway. In her newest piece for the Lean…
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Video
Lessons from a Chief Engineer on Starting and Sustaining Lean Product and Process Development
A Caterpillar executive shares his insights on applying LPPD principles.
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Video
Smitten Engineers or Love at First Sight of a Solution?
Entrepreneur Tyler Schilling has felt the pain of engineering heartbreak – falling in love early with a solution only to realize later in the project…
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Article
Why Starting With a Model Area is Key to Lean Transformation
Lean coach Danielle Blais explains why starting small, with one team in one area, is so important to leading an effective lean transformation.
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Article
Questions and Coaching on A3 Thinking
In this Q&A, LEI's Deborah McGee shares insights into A3 thinking and problem-solving: "The A3 Management process is really a way of thinking and a…
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Article
Advice from the Gemba: Getting More Suggestions without Incentivizing Employees
Improving the work is difficult, if not impossible, without suggestions from those who actually do the work. But in many companies, getting the workers to…
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Article
Why Lean Isn't Successful in Healthcare
How often do you choose to improve processes that may not provide any financial benefit whatsoever? Read why lean practitioner Janice Brathwaite thinks we can…
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Article
Boatloads of Muda
Ken Eakin saw his fair share of waste during his 13 years in the ocean-shipping industry, especially in the transportation process. Now a lean coach,…
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Article
No Change is Easy: The Starbucks Siren Steps into Dunkin Donuts’ World of Orange and Pink
Lean is about a willingness to experiment and if necessary, change our approach to our work and our daily routine. Lisa Adams, a lean coach…
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Article
CI Sustainment: A Hiding Place for Complexity
"How many times has your continuous improvement solution wound up being more complex than the original problem?" muses Lynn Kelley. In her first piece for…
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Article
JoePa and Other Biases to Avoid
A recent viewing of the biographical film Paterno led LEI Senior Coach Mark Reich to reflect on the way many of us let biases filter…
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Article
Show Me the Money!
In his latest piece for the Post, Michael Ballé writes, "If we don’t get better at showing explicitly where the gains of lean thinking and…
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Article
How We Improved Our Tiered Daily Huddles
At Cleveland Clinic, where he leads a continuous improvement team, Nate Hurle and others have discovered ways to build on success with their tiered daily…
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Article
Closer Collaboration for a Leaner Planet
Roberto Priolo, editor of Planet Lean, makes the case for lean learning and collaboration across the globe.
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Article
Cowabunga! Implementing Lean at a Surfing School
Lean is difficult for many companies to grasp at first, often due to the cultural shift. If the organization's people are used to a more…
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Article
Glad That I Asked You
About 400 of you responded with excellent suggestions for the final "Learning Session" for the upcoming LEI Lean Transformation Summit. As you will recall, every…
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How do you protect jobs while reducing lines and shifts?
Dear Gemba Coach: How do you protect jobs while reducing lines and shifts?
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How Do I Change the Culture?
Dear Gemba Coach: I come from a company quite advanced in lean and I’ve joined a new firm as technical director. I’d like to apply lean…
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What's different about implementing lean in a low-volume, high-variety environment?
Dear Gemba Coach: I manage a plant that makes highly engineered, low-volume products. What do I have to do differently from the high-volume guys to…
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Why don't people learn from experience?
Dear Gemba Coach: On the gemba, we have many problems to manage every day. People don’t seem to learn from their experience. Is there any…
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