Article

What Does Problem-Solving Look Like? Part 2 of 2

Dear Gemba Coach: Thank you for explaining the different types of problem-solving that distinguishes lean. But how can I tell that we really are learning…

by Michael Ballé

Video

Lean Principles Are the Bread & Butter of this Retail Transformation

Entrepreneurs explain how their chain of bakeries and retail stores used lean continuous improvement to profitably expand, engage employees, and meet growing customer demand for…

by Lean Enterprise Institute

Article

Solutions from Afar

A leader's job isn't to provide solutions to problems; it's to teach and coach their staff to solve problems themselves--at the gemba.

by Josh Howell

Article

Advice from the Gemba: Top Mistakes Lean Leaders Make I

Making mistakes is a natural part of lean thinking and practice. Here, three LEI faculty members share some common, yet easily avoidable mistakes made by…

by Alice Lee, Jim Luckman and Sammy Obara

Article

How to Improve Your Product Development Process

Members of LEI's Lean Product and Process Development Learning Group share their successful strategies.

by Matthew Savas

Article

Lessons Learned from the Cleveland Indians’ Historic 22-Game Winning Streak

In the wake of the Cleveland Indians' record-shattering 22-game winning streak, George Taninecz reflects on some important business lessons that we can learn from this…

by George Taninecz

Article

It Takes 2 (or more) to A3

No one can create a useful A3 in isolation. It takes at least two individuals and often many more. Developing an A3 involves an organizational…

by James (Jim) Womack, PhD

Article

Gemba Walk Checklist

Jim responds to this question from his Gemba Walks webinar: “Do you find it easier to complete your Gemba Walk if you have a pre-defined…

by James (Jim) Womack, PhD

Article

Lean Enterprise Institute Calls for Ending the “Madness” in Supply Chain Strategies

Shook made his recommendations on lean supply chains to authorities on Japan, leading investors, economists, policymakers, and business executives at Bloomberg’s Rebuilding Japan Conference.

Article

Board Responsibilities and the Lean Management System

"A board needs to go far beyond checking performance measurements and actually hold senior leaders accountable for management systems and behaviors," writes Steve Leuschel. "As…

Article

Ask Art: What sets lean accounting apart from traditional accounting?

"You can’t really become a lean enterprise without making the shift from traditional standard-cost accounting to lean (i.e. plain English) accounting," writes Art Byrne. Read…

by Art Byrne

Article

Translating Collaborative Learning Into Practice

What does collaborative learning mean for lean thinkers in practice, on a day-to-day basis? In his final talk at the 2012 Lean Transformation Summit, John…

by Lex Schroeder

Article

Developing Students, Improving Universities

"Today, lean thinking in higher education is uncommon," writes Theresa Coleman-Kaiser of Michigan Tech University. "As a rule, institutions that teach lean continuous improvement in…

Article

Lean Roundup: Lean in the News

"While few business leaders seem to be discussing lean explicitly these days, there are certainly a great deal of tangentially lean conversations happening wherever you…

by Tom Ehrenfeld

Article

Is agile project management simply lean thinking applied to software development?

Dear Gemba Coach: You seem to distinguish between agile and lean, but to my understanding, agile is simply lean thinking applied to software development. Am…

by Michael Ballé

Article

The Dramatic Spread of Lean Thinking

Without question, lean thinking was born in the factory. Then lean thinking spread to logistics, to tie supplier production tightly to assembler needs and to…

by James (Jim) Womack, PhD

Article

Who Owns Your A3? (Part Two)

In this second of two columns, Mark Reich explains why people must own their A3 reports as a means of developing their ability to properly…

Article

Policy Deployment: aka Strategy Alignment, aka Hoshin Kanri (Appendix 2 to the Eletter “Lead from the Front, Lead from Behind”)

As a way of illustrating the most common misconception about hoshin kanri, namely, that it’s a top-down deployment process, LEI CEO John Shook explains in…

Article

As Your Customer’s Definition of Value Evolves, So Must Yours

If you don’t realize that your customer’s definition of value has expanded to include social responsibility and racial equity, you may learn so at a…

by Christopher D. Chapman

Article

The Story of an Error

As a followup to his popular article from earlier this summer about lean profit-sharing plans, Orry Fiume delves deeper. He shares a booklet that McKesson…

by Orest (Orry) Fiume