Podcast

Exploring the Continued Relevance of Lean with Womack, Jones, Gaudet, and Others in a Best-of Podcast

The global pandemic coupled with profound structural economic shifts are two daunting challenges reinforcing  the need for a powerful method of framing and facing crucial…

by Lean Enterprise Institute

Podcast

Exploring the Continued Relevance of Lean, A Best of Podcast

Lean offers a powerful and productive approach to today's problems, both large and small. This "best-of" podcast featuring talks with leading thinkers offers advice and…

by Lean Leaper

Article

Refreshing Lean: Attracting the Next Generation of Practitioners

This article is the fifth in a series exploring the key insights and discussions from the recent Future of People at Work Symposium, a groundbreaking…

Article

The Road to Becoming a Lean Leadership Team Has Potholes

Lean veteran Orry Fiume shares the story how the leadership team at The Wiremold Company took on the challenging work of transitioning from being traditional,…

by Orest (Orry) Fiume

Article

Orchestrating Your Product Development Process with Milestones

"Effective milestones are an important part of a company’s development process, especially in today’s era of team-based sprints and stand-ups," writes Jim Morgan. "Yet many…

by James Morgan, PhD

eBook

The Birth of Lean: Conversations with the Founders of TPS

Fascinating interviews with the founders of lean. Learn about the origins of the Toyota Production System from the people responsible for its creation. As its pioneers…

by Takahiro Fujimoto and Koichi Shimokawa

Article

From Port to Plate: How Legal Sea Foods Is Improving Through Lean

Legal Sea Foods is working with LEI to help launch a movement to change everything about the way traditional restaurants work. Legal, a family business…

by Lean Leaper

Article

PD C+ A+ In the Classroom

Looking back on her time as a teacher through a lean lens, the author suggests how the process of education might be improved by examining…

by Allison O'Neill

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…

by Deborah McGee

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

How Do You Know If You’ve Created a Meaningful Challenge?

"Have you ever issued what you thought was an inspiring challenge for your team, only to discover they were underwhelmed and far from motivated?" asks…

by Mike Orzen

Article

Making Everyone Whole

While observing lean value streams across three continents, I encountered common resistance to process improvements, often attributed to "bad people." However, a deeper look reveals…

by James (Jim) Womack, PhD

Article

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…

by Michael Ballé

Article

How do I know people are displaying the right visual information in an office?

Dear Gemba Coach: We’ve been quite successful with lean in our operations, and I’ve been tasked to bring it to headquarters. We’ve set up obeyas…

by Michael Ballé

Article

If lean is all about people, why are the discussions impersonally cold and rational?

Dear Gemba Coach: Lean thinkers say it’s all about people, but the debates are then all so cold and rational. Where are the emotions and the…

by Michael Ballé

Article

Expanding Our Perspective on Lean, Part 3: Lean is a Practice in Search of a Language

To explore the idea that there may be other angles for understanding lean management than business or analytical perspectives, a group of lean management practitioners…

by Joanna McGuffey and Thomas Richert

Article

Why We Believe that Lean is More Than A Manufacturing Approach

Is Lean thinking a thing of the past from glorious manufacturing times in the late twentieth century? Or, on the other hand, is it possible…

by Lean Sensei Women

Article

Just-In-Time Roundup: Great Lean Reads from Across the Web (Vol. 2)

Check out our editors' picks for great lean reads you may have missed, featuring stories from The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Harvard Business Review, and…

by Lean Leaper

Article

Foreword to Daily Management to Execute Strategy

Read John Shook's full foreword to Daily Management to Execute Strategy, where he explores the essential principles of lean thinking and how this book equips…

by John Shook

Article

Why Visualize?

Dear Gemba Coach: Why do you insist so much on visualizing information?

by Michael Ballé