Executive Leadership Articles

Leveraging AI to Transform Conference Documentation: An Experiment in AI-Assisted Proceedings Generation

This article is the fifth in a series exploring the key insights and discussions from the recent Future of People…

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…

The Future of Lean: Adapting to Evolving Workplace Models

This article is the fourth in a series exploring the key insights and discussions from the recent Future of People…

The Lean Case for Founder Mode (plus Manager Mode)

Paul Graham's essay on "Founder Mode" vs. "Manager Mode" sparked a debate about how founders should lead their companies. Josh…

Lean Beyond the Workplace: Addressing Societal Challenges*

This article is the fifth in a series exploring the key insights and discussions from the recent Future of People…

Bridging the Education-Industry Gap for Future Lean Leaders*

This article is the third in a series exploring the key insights and discussions from the recent Future of People…

The Future of Lean in the Age of AI and Automation: Insights from Collaborative Discussions*

This article is the second in a series exploring the key insights and discussions from the recent Future of People…

Lean thinkers, doers unite to discuss workplace challenges

Explore how the Future of People at Work Symposium tackled today’s workplace challenges, with leaders urging us to embrace lean…

Understanding Lean Transformation

Prepare to reflect on the Lean Transformation Framework, scrutinize your management, and begin to construct a transformation roadmap.

What Matters When Giving — or Accepting — the Gift of Lean Thinking and Practice

Some “flavors” of lean are better than others. Here’s a description of one of the best — contrasted with examples…

Santa’s Hoshin Objectives: Driving Strategic Alignment at the North Pole

Read Santa's hoshin objectives to improve how North Pole, Inc delivers happiness to children around the globe.

Aligning Goals and Actions: Insights into Hoshin Kanri

Download The Management Brief,  featuring practical insights and case studies on using hoshin kanri to align an organization around a…

Hoshin vs. Chaos

In the latest edition of The Management Brief, Jim Womack reflects on the Toyota hoshin process he observed in 2018 and…

Achieving Unprecedented Safety at Turner Construction: a Conversation with Charlie Murphy 

In this edition of The Management Brief, Josh Howell sits down with Charlie Murphy to discuss how Turner Construction dramatically…

Getting Started with Hoshin Kanri: Answers to Common Questions

Read an excerpt from Managing on Purpose, a practical guide to implementing hoshin kanri. Coming March 2025.

The Management Brief: Access the First Collection

Download the first issue of The Management Brief, the Lean Enterprise Institute's guide to leadership excellence.

Driving Healthcare Innovation: a Conversation with GE Healthcare Executive Jay Hill 

Discover how GE Healthcare innovates with clinicians, leverages AI to transform diagnostics, and integrates cutting-edge technology into healthcare systems. Jay…

Driving Strategic Alignment and Daily Improvement: a Conversation with GE Appliances Executive Marcia Brey

In this edition of The Management Brief, Mark Reich sits down with Marcia Brey to discuss her 30-year career with…

The Long Journey to Lean Management

Jim Womack introduces Daily Management to Execute Strategy, offering insights into building sustainable lean enterprises by bridging top-down goals with…

Hoshin Kanri Ensures Frontline Problem-Solving within Lean Management

In this edition of The Management Brief, Mark Reich explains how hoshin kanri links strategic goals with frontline problem-solving, creating…

Redesigning Patient Pathways: a Conversation with Dr. Carlos Frederico Pinto

In this episode of the WLEI Podcast, we're joined by Dr. Carlos Frederico Pinto (aka Dr. Fred), a medical oncologist…

Introduction to Daily Management to Execute Strategy 

Editor's note: The following is the complete introduction to Daily Management to Execute Strategy.

Solving Loneliness in Hospitals with AI and Robotics: a Conversation with Karen Khachikyan and Mineh Badmagharian

In this episode of the WLEI podcast, LEI speaks with Karen Khachikyan and Mineh Badmagharian, creators of Robin, an AI-powered…

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…

Moving from Agile to Lean: a Conversation with Sandrine Olivencia 

In this episode of the WLEI podcast, LEI speaks with software industry veteran Sandrine Olivencia about her transformational journey from…

The Next Revolution in Software Product Design

Discover how product artisans like Melanie Perkins, Brian Chesky, and Larry Page maintain hands-on leadership to build lasting, influential brands.…

Spreading Lean Thinking to Software and Startups: a Conversation with Regis Medina

In this episode of the WLEI podcast, LEI speaks with software industry veteran Regis Medina about his transformational journey from…

40 Years of Lean Observation: a Conversation with Art Byrne

In this episode of the WLEI podcast, LEI speaks with business leader and author Art Byrne about his decades-long career…

From Product Development to Enterprise Transformation: TechnipFMC’s Obeya Revolution

Be among the first to get the latest insights from LEI’s Lean Product and Process Development (LPPD) thought leaders and practitioners. This…

The History of the Term “Lean”: a Conversation with Jim Womack and John Krafcik

Jim Womack and John Krafcik look back at the history of the term "lean" and look ahead to the future…

AI’s Impact on Healthcare: A Conversation with Dr. Jackie Gerhart and Dr. Christopher Longhurst

In this episode of the WLEI podcast, we speak with two doctors pioneering AI applications in healthcare.

Understanding Lean Transformation

Learn the critical dimensions of transformation with the Lean Transformation Framework, a proven, systematic approach toward achieving a lean transformation…

2024 Lean Summit Keynote — Scaling Agile Through Lean Principles

Watch a keynote from the 2024 Lean Summit examining how lean thinking can scale agile in rapidly growing, complex enterprises.

2024 Lean Summit Panel — The Promise of AI in Healthcare and How Lean Thinking Can Realize Its Potential

Watch a panel discussion from the 2024 Lean Summit on how the combination of AI and lean thinking is revolutionizing…

2024 Lean Summit Recap

LEI's Lean Summit showcased how leaders leverage lean for innovation from AI-powered healthcare to US manufacturing's revival.

Defining Winning: Turning Around Operations Through Clarity and Ownership with Billy Taylor

In this episode of the WLEI podcast, LEI speaks with Billy Taylor, former operations executive at Goodyear Tire & Rubber…

Are You Organized for Leadership?

LEI President Josh Howell reflect on a recent learning tour to Toyota and GE Appliances, sharing insights the group gathered…

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.

Exploring the Intersection of Lean and Agile: Lessons from Theodo

LEI chats with Fabrice Bernhard, co-founder of Theodo Group, and author Catherine Chabiron about how Theodo employs lean thinking to…

Transforming Corporate Culture: Bestbath’s Approach to Scaling Problem-Solving Capability

In this podcast episode, LEI chats with Jay Multanen and Jared Raggozine from Bestbath on how to build a culture…

Sustaining Strategy Deployment: Lessons from 16 Years of Practice at GlobalFoundries

In this podcast episode, LEI chats with Otto Funke and Jospeh Tamayo on how to build and sustain a strategic…

Discover the Lean Leadership Learning Tour: A Preview with Toyota, GE Appliances, and LEI 

Dive into our recent webinar for an exclusive preview of the Lean Leadership Learning Tour. Learn how this unique collaboration…

Navigating Organizational Change: A Conversation with Dr. Lynn Kelley

In this podcast episode, LEI chats with Dr. Lynn Kelley to delve into organizational change: how to design it, execute…

The Case for Good Jobs: Unlocking Productivity and Profits Through Employee Investment

Watch Sarah Kalloch, Executive Director at the Good Jobs Institute, as she presents the compelling business case for good jobs.…

Charting a New Course for US Manufacturing

LEI chats with Miles Arnone and Bonnie Davis about how Re:Build Manufacturing is revitalizing American industry.

How Entrepreneurs Use Lean to Drive Sustainable Growth: A Conversation with Matt May and Pablo Dominguez

LEI chats with authors Matt May and Pablo Dominguez about how startups can scale using lean thinking and practice.

What Will Be the New Social Contract for the 21^st Century?

The current volatility in tech employment portends a shift from the sector’s earlier people-centered visions — and that’s concerning.

Why ‘Framing’ is Crucial to Leadership and Encouraging Team Unity

A personal reflection of a company’s response to challenges brought on by Covid explores the fundamental thinking that drives how…

Two LEI Learning Group Partner Executives Honored with National Award 

GE Appliances, a Haier company, Pella Corporation, and the nonprofit Lean Enterprise Institute celebrate colleagues’ recognition for demonstrating excellence and…

Understanding Lean Thinking and Practice Fundamentals

This overview helps beginner and mid-stage Lean Thinkers gain a more comprehensive understanding of lean thinking and practice — and…

Ask Art: Why Do I Need a Kaizen Promotion Office (KPO)?

A veteran lean leader explains why companies seeking to cultivate a lean culture should establish an internal team to oversee…

Ask Art: What Is the Biggest Cultural Change Barrier to Lean?

Art Byrne tackles the biggest cultural barrier to adopting lean practices in companies: the resistance of CEOs and senior management.

A New Era of Jidoka: How ChatGPT Could Alter the Relationship between Machines, Humans, and their Minds

An exploration of how artificial intelligence will impact how people will work suggests exciting possibilities and challenges for human development.

Transforming Your Organization with Lean Thinking and Practices

This brief animation offers a guide to the five fundamental equations that help lean practitioners understand — and execute —…

In Honor of Dr. Edgar Schein: A Tribute to a Giant in Organizational Theory

Edgar Schein passed away last Thursday, January 26, 2023. Ed, the godfather of organizational development, was a spry 94 years…

How Can Lean Help Manage the Costs and Complications of Satisfying Customers During Rapid Growth?

An entrepreneur shares why and how lean management helps startups innovate and grow.

Ask Art: How Do You Align Incentives for a Lean Turnaround?

A veteran lean leader offers practical strategies for incentivizing employees during a transition to lean management.

Why Lean Remains a Superior Business Model and Way of Thinking

The lean business model offers an alternative to conventional thinking that enables organizations to gain a competitive advantage by being…

Ask Art: Why Should I Focus on My Balance Sheet to Grow Earnings?

Lean practitioners understand that focusing on this financial statement is the best way to achieve higher sales and lower costs.

Putting Customers First

The cofounders of a successful startup share how lean thinking and practices helped ensure they kept their focus on the…

Building a Learning Organization with Kata

Baptist Memorial Hospital uses kata to build an "army of problem solvers." Here's the "meta-routine" they follow and a few…

Ask Art: What is the Best Lean Leadership Development Program?

Leaders learn and adopt lean thinking the same way everyone else does: by practicing it. Here are a few ideas…

How Lean Thinking and Practices Improves Disaster Recovery Efforts

This enhanced presentation explores how a disaster recovery organization uses lean thinking and practices to accelerate rebuilding efforts.

Who, or What, Is Your Company Investing In?

A frontline supervisor's stellar work resolving a significant problem prompts a question for leaders: Will you have technology work for…

Creating a System to Achieve Ambitious Goals: A WLEI Podcast

A lean veteran describes a system that can help leaders take their organizations to the next level.

Ask Art: What’s So Important About Reducing Setup Times?

An overview of the strategic and tactical benefits of eliminating waste from changeovers demonstrates why it should be a focus…

6 Guidelines for Moving Toward a Lean Value Stream

Once you’re ready to use value-stream mapping to continuously improve your value streams, follow this advice from the authors of…

A Postcard — with Leadership Insights — from Nashville

A look back at LEI’s Lean Transformation Summit in 2018 shares a few tips from CEO keynoters on how to…

Ask Art: How Important are Your Suppliers to Implementing Lean Production?

You won't reap the full benefits of lean production without involving your suppliers as an essential part of your value…

Expanding the Purpose of Catchball

Learn how catchball, the process of colleagues tossing ideas back and forth to improve them iteratively, helps get the job…

Embrace Lean for Respect, Learning, and Growth

A new book demonstrates how lean thinking and practices can help organizations manage rapid growth.

Why Coaching is a Core Skill of a Lean Leader

If "learning by doing" at the gemba is the best way to learn lean thinking and practices (and it is),…

Ask Art: Is Lean a Good Cost-Reduction Program?

A point-by-point comparison demonstrates why lean thinking and practice is a business strategy, not merely a cost-cutting strategy.

All Lean Is Local

When I think about the idea of “all lean is local,” I think about the fundamental entry point questions for…

Beyond Six Sigma: How Lean Delivers Deeper and More Enduring Benefits

In this enhanced presentation, former Wiremold Company CEO Art Byrne explores the differences between lean/continuous improvement and six sigma.

Ask Art: How Well Do Companies Follow Toyota’s ‘Respect for People’ Principle?

Comparing traditional command-and-control management shows why this lean management tenet benefits both employees and the organization.

To Successfully Apply Lean Thinking in Distribution, Go to Where the Action Is!

Two years after its first kaizen workshop, Plumbers Supply Company has made significant progress toward a lean business conversion. Starting…

Understanding the Many Facets of ‘the A3’

A review of the many ways lean practitioners refer to this core lean practice reveals its versatility — and why…

Ask Art: How Do You Motivate Managers to Adopt Lean?

Leading an enterprise-wide lean transformation requires everyone at every level to adopt new approaches to their work. Here are some…

What’s the Problem?: Andrew Lingel Discusses Transforming a Family Business through Knowledge, Grit, and Outrage

In this What's the Problem? podcast with Matt Savas, President Andrew Lingel of United Plastic Fabricating shares how he helped…

Ask Art: How Useful is Six Sigma and the Black Belts and Green Belts that Come with It?

Several specific examples demonstrate why lean continuous improvement practices are usually superior to six sigma for solving problems.

How Lean Thinking and Practices Can Help You Prepare for and Rebound from a Crisis

As the world emerges from the depths of the pandemic, the Lean Sensei Women share how lean can help you…

Ukrainian Resilience: How Lean is Helping Companies Cope with War, Part 1

A real-time discussion with the Lean Institute Ukraine President shows how leveraging lean thinking and practices help companies adapt to…

Helping Companies Thrive by Creating Good Jobs

Two case studies and a detailed discussion of The Good Jobs Strategy show how investing in creating good jobs results…

Ask Art: How Does Lean Apply to Every Company?

Lean veteran Art Byrne shares a back-to-basics explanation of why — and how — lean thinking and practices can improve…

How the Toyota Way and Toyota Kata Fit Together

The author of The Toyota Way explains where Toyota Kata fits with Toyota’s broader management principles — and how each…

A Lesson for Enabling Leaders and Systems

An executive's gemba visit reveals the value of engaging value-creating frontline workers in improving their work processes — and how…

Ask Art: Why is a Lean Sensei Necessary?

Lean veteran Art Byrne explains how having a lean sensei helps leaders and organizations succeed in their lean transformation.

6 Things You Can Do to Become a More Effective Lean Leader

This collection of articles from Lean Coach David Verble examines how the way managers and leaders talk to employees (and…

Applying Lean Thinking and Practices in a Digital Environment

The cofounder and CTO of Theodo, a software company, describes how lean management drives growth, increases employee engagement, and delivers…

Steady Work: A Story of Personal and Enterprise Transformation at Starbucks

A former Starbucks regional director demonstrates how lean thinking and practices improve business performance.

The Machine That’s Changing the World … Again

Lean leaders discuss how lean thinking and practices help businesses navigate an environment marked by disruption.

Ask Art: How Do You Create a Lean Culture?

The author of the best-selling books The Lean Turnaround and The Lean Turnaround Action Guide and former CEO of The…

Lean’s Role in Labor Shortages and the Supply Chain

LEI leaders talk about recent blame thrown toward Lean in the supply chain, the rising labor shortage, NFT's, and more.

How to Focus on a People Accelerated Lean Transformation

Business and operational performance improved dramatically when a car dealership's leaders embraced the lean principle of respect for people. Here's…

How a Bakery Uses Lean Thinking to Drive Growth

A lean system that runs like clockwork and constant attention to customer service enables Barcelona-based 365.café to achieve the seemingly…

Ask Art: I Want to Convert My Company to Lean. What Are the First Steps?

The former Wiremold CEO explains the commitment you must make— and the expectations you must set—when you start your continuous-improvement…

Learning More About a Leader Who Helped Build Toyota’s Culture

An LEI coach tells what it was like to work with the man who helped propagate the Toyota Way.

Reaching Your Organization’s Full Potential

A visit to Turner Construction's New York Business Unit reveals how its leaders use the A3 process to build their…

3 Go-To Ways for Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement Anywhere

To reach a state of endless continuous improvement, executives must lead the company in making a critical leap from management-driven…

Becoming – and Developing — More Effective Leaders

Bill MacPherson, managing director of Mercer Celgar, a division of Mercer International, shares how adopting hoshin kanri helps transform how…

Continually Improving the Strategic Planning and Execution Process

Bill MacPherson, managing director of Mercer Celgar, a division of Mercer International, describes how adopting hoshin kanri catalyzes and ensures…

How Toyota Built its Culture Around the World

A new book takes a deep dive into a more effective way for senior leaders to manage talent to consistently…

Breaking the Cycle of Ineffective Strategic Planning and Execution

Bill MacPherson, managing director of Mercer Celgar, a division of Mercer International, describes why hoshin kanri is a better approach…

How Lean Can Help You Go Green

How to use lean thinking and practices to create sustainable business practices.

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.

What is Lean Leadership and How Do You Get it?

Jeff Liker, author of The Toyota Way, describes what organizations need to do to develop their leaders' lean leadership capabilities.

How to Wipe Out IT’s “Technical Debt” with PDCA

Besides bonds, bank loans, and other types of corporate debt, your company also holds "technical debt," the burden of future…

Imagining A World Without Email with Cal Newport

A typical work day is already packed, but is there waste that can be removed? WLEI host Tom Ehrenfeld and…

Why Creating Better Jobs and Improving Work Matters

How improving your work environment is vital to improved business outcomes.

Ensuring Success of Hoshin Kanri – a Better Way to Plan and Execute Your Strategy

Logoplaste's global vice president of lean and strategy shares a few vital lessons, learned through experience, about a proven way…

Addressing a Critical Problem in Strategic Planning and Execution

Logoplaste's global vice president of lean and strategy deployment describes the experience -- and benefits -- six months into its…

Creating Better Jobs and Better Work: A Podcast with Sarah Kalloch and Josh Howell

Josh Howell of LEI and Sarah Kalloch of the Good Jobs Institute want to foster good work, as they discuss…

Ask Art: What Do You Look At in a “Pre-lean” Company?

Art Byrne identifies factors such as excess inventory and floor space, long turnaround times, and numerous other elements to study…

Why You Need to Understand The Purpose of Purposeful Enterprise

Work with your team to articulate your purpose, as this shared statement will align the many aspects of your pragmatic…

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…

Are You Creating the Right Environment?

Turner Construction is working hard to develop the "right environment" in which productive lean inquiry is baked into the working…

Combat the Ninth Waste of Overthinking

Overthinking should be considered yet another form of waste that true lean practice can identify and eliminate, argues Dan Prock,…

Exploring When More is Not Better with Roger Martin

How lean thinking could help address America's wealth and power gap.

A Spotlight on Leaders: What We Can Still Learn from Danaher and Wiremold

Watch Legendary lean pioneer Art Byrne, author of The Lean Turnaround and The Lean Turnaround Action Guide, in a lively…

Lean Roundup: Hoshin Kanri As a Strategic Force

Hoshin kanri can support and vitalize your strategic vision as well as bolster your ongoing work, writes Tom Ehrenfeld in…

Once Again, Here’s Why JIT Matters

Jeffrey Liker argues that recent media snipes fail to understand the crucial role JIT plays in a complete #lean system…

How Lean Thinking and Practice, Grounded in Purpose, Helped Drive Amazon’s Success

Marc Onetto shares his experiences in Amazon, underlining the importance of a customer-driven approach in times of heavy demand and…

Diving Deep to Discover the Value of Lean Companies with Cliff Ransom

The following conversation drills down into the lessons learned from looking at public companies through lean-colored glasses.

How Lean Start-ups Can Avoid Big Company Disease

SATPOS, a lean start-up in Norway specializing in positioning, sensing and monitoring solutions for the ocean is learning to remain…

Lean Roundup: How Hoshin Kanri Creates a “Line of Sight”

Like anything that is essential to lean, one must understand how hoshin kanri works from the very detailed, elemental levels…

Ask Art: How Can I Ensure the Participation of Top Management?

Always keep in mind that to be successful with lean, senior management must drive the change, says lean veteran Art…

Create Constancy of Purpose

Looking back on the admirable work of two lean leaders who established constancy of purpose, Jim Womack asks: what would…

Learning By Doing with Art Byrne

Art Byrne has the expertise of a lean executive and he's sharing more knowledge than ever in this clip from…

10 Principles for Lean Leadership

These ten simple yet powerful leadership principles developed by Isao Yoshino provide wise guidance for any lean practitioner seeking a…

Form A Bold Strategy for Uncertain Times

Jeff Liker shares a competing values model to help you assess your strategy and focus your operational practices on flawless…

Spring Spotlight: Creating the Purposeful Enterprise

Information and insights that explore the many facets of this fundamental lean concept. A compilation of the articles published as…

A Variety of Perspectives is Good For Your Products

The best product development teams attract, promote, and celebrate diversity of thought, asserts Kevin Nolan, president & CEO of GE…

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…

Fight for Your Lean Team

Managers, supervisors and coaches should mindfully support the storming and norming that teams require in order to grow an existing…

Why Hoshin Kanri is a Better Approach to Planning and Execution

Effective hoshin kanri builds on traditional strategy deployment by including key questions that conventional models fail to include, argues Pascal…

Once More: What is Strategy Deployment, and Why Should You Care?

Strategy deployment helps keep lean practitioners focused on the prize—creating value for the customer, says Pascal Dennis in the foreword…

3 Lessons Maersk Learned from Adopting Hoshin Kanri

Deploying hoshin kanri at Maersk was challenging, recounts Agne Nainyte, who shares the details of this work that helped the…

Achieve Your Deeper Goals Through Daily Work With Hoshin Kanri

Hoshin kanri is a living process of planning, testing ideas, adapting, and learning, says Jeff Liker, in which people work…

Bad People or A Bad Process?

Standing in a nightmare of a line at the airport prompted Jim Womack to reflect on this problem, and conclude…

Why Lean Thinkers Should Ground Their Work in Sustainability

There's a solid case for implementing green thinking just as there's one for implementing lean thinking. The challenge, but more…

How Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Teaching Embodies Lean Thinking

What can we learn about lean thinking from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? Christopher D. Chapman explains.

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…

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…

What’s Your Lean Origin Story? And Why Does It Matter?

I’m wondering, as a leader and a coach, how can I help others develop similar routines, propagating, for example, the…

Cooking Up Perfection With a Master Chef

Master chefs often practice elements of lean without any formal recognition of this, says Orry Fiume, citing the words and…

Show Respect by Exploring Problems With Your Workers

I trust that all of us want to show respect for people, writes Jim Womack, adding: The challenge for those…

Two Giants, Two Communities, One Lasting Thing

In this graceful elegy of the impact of two pioneers who recently passed away, John Shook says: "Ezra and Norm…

Lead With Respect Shares Tangible Practices That Develop Others, Says Author Michael Balle

Michael and Freddy Balle's book Lead With Respect portrays on-the-job behaviors of lean leaders which can be learned through practice. Michael explains…

6 Insights on How to Show Respect for People: A Lean Post Roundup

Practicing respect in a lean environment requires both a general mindset committed to the practice and constant daily actions grounded…

Diving Deeper into The Toyota Way with Jeff Liker

Professor Jeffrey Liker’s The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles From the World’s Greatest Manufacturer has proved to be one of…

Diving Deeper into the Toyota Way: A Podcast with Jeff Liker

Professor Jeff Liker discusses the new, second edition of his classic book The Toyota Way on WLEI, the LEI podcast.

Leveraging Strategy Deployment to Effectively Respond to the Unexpected

How Hoshin Kanri Builds Organizational Resilience.

Ask Art: Why Are Leaps of Faith Involved in a Lean Turnaround?

Leaps of faith are not incidental associations with a lean turnaround; they are a basic requirement, argues lean veteran Art…

How the Hoshin Kanri Process Coupled with Coaching Drives Lean Transformation, Part 2

Discover how a coach can help leaders execute a successful organizational transformation using the hoshin kanri process.

Develop Your People Patiently Rather Than Rely on Super Taylorism

Lean starts with quality, argue the authors, who note that by worrying about and improving quality, we are also reducing…

How the Hoshin Kanri Process Coupled with Coaching Drives Lean Transformation, Part 1

A veteran coach shares a few intangible truths you'll need to know to execute an organizational transformation using hoshin kanri.

How Lean is Apple?

Apple may not worship at the altar of lean, but a close look at its operations and strategy show clear…

Taking Time for a Year-End Reflection with the Most Popular Lean Articles, Podcasts, and Videos of 2020

This year's content featured plenty of guests, returns from lean legends, and handfuls of ways that lean has been applicable…

Remembering Norman Bodek, the “Miraculous Life” of an Author, Teacher, and Publisher of Groundbreaking Business Books

Called “Mr. Productivity” and the “Godfather of Lean,” Norman Bodek began 41 years ago translating and publishing groundbreaking books by…

How Can Lean Affect Shareholder Value?

Lean can help challenge assumptions and surface opinions that ultimately improve shareholder value, argues Michael Balle.

Making Lean Stick: A Podcast Conversation with Mark Deluzio, Art Byrne, and Jim Womack

The long-term success of companies like Danaher, Fortive, Herman Miller, Parker Hannifin and many others, have all validated the power…

Why Lean Is the Strategy We Need For Today’s World

In a recent Lean Post article, Peter Ward noted that “lean is not a strategy per se but can be…

What’s Needed to Ensure a Successful Lean Transformation

Learn what works--and what doesn't--in driving your lean transformation. LEI Senior Advisors Jim Womack and Jim Morgan share top-line learning…

Are Lean Thinking and Practice Business Strategies?

Explore the nuances of leadership and strategy with Lean Enterprise Institute Chairman Peter Ward.

Becoming the Change: New Leadership Behavior Strategies for Continuous Improvement in Healthcare

To successfully lead an organizational transformation, you and other leaders must embark on your own personal transformation. The challenge for…

The Digital Storm and the End of Old You with CI&T

A virtual lean learning experience featuring CI&T.

Turn To Lean in Times of Crisis

Lean thinkers need new tools and new mindsets to face today's daunting challenges, argues Jim Womack, who shares examples of…

Applying Lean Thinking and Practice to Systemic Racism, Part 2 of 2

To create anti-racist organizations to fit, value, and respect all people, leaders should step forward with a sound vision framed…

Using the Logic of Lean Thinking to Combat Racism, Part 1 of 2

To create new anti-racist organizations, leaders need to fully embrace the five principles of lean: value vs. waste, value stream,…

Align Your Continuous Improvement Efforts: Practical Tips from 4 CEOs in 4 Major Business Sectors

Four CEOs who are leading lean management voices in the critical economic sectors of manufacturing, supply chain, healthcare, and education,…

Becoming the Change with John Toussaint and Kim Barnas

Lean has always promised great improvements for health care providers, but has there been a personal element that has been…

Becoming the Change: Talking Healthcare Transformation with Kim Barnas and John Toussaint on the WLEI Podcast

In this WLEI podcast, Becoming the Change authors Kim Barnas and John Toussaint discuss the personal challenges facing healthcare leaders…

New Book, Becoming the Change, Shows that Real Organizational Change Is Personal

Learn the cause of and cure for healthcare improvements that relapse to the old ways of working. Kim Barnes, Catalysis…

Lean Thinking’s Past, Present, and Future: A Q&A Roundtable with Jim Womack and Jim Morgan

To close each week of the Lean Enterprise Institute's Virtual Lean Learning Experience 2020 (VLX), we bring together the week's…

Ask Art: What Was Danaher Like In the Early Days of Lean?

In this personal account of launching lean at Danaher, Art Byrne shares a wealth of insights into how to seed…

View Crises as Manageable Challenges Through Steady Lean Leadership

If you are using lean to tackle a series of crises, you may not be using lean in the first…

How Respect for People Animates the Lean Spirit

Practicing respect is an animating force of lean leadership that colors how one coaches and develops people. This roundup of…

Growing from a Tactical Practitioner to a Strategic Thinker

One helpful way to move from being a tactical leader to a strategic one is to suggest that a better…

Changing Routines

In this article exploring ways to help lead positive change, Josh Howell asks: is pursuing understanding and conviction part of…

5 Guiding Principles for Tailoring a Path to Lean Transformation

Learn from top healthcare leaders who are transforming their organizations through lean thinking and practice.

5 Guiding Principles to Accelerate Your Lean Transformation

Chief architects for lean transformation have been seeking effective ways of realizing tangible gains for years, says Senior Coach Alice…

How A Complete Lean Production System Fuels Global Success

In this article prepared for the 2007 relaunch of the seminal book The Machine that Changed the World, co-author Jim…

Being ‘Right’ is Not Enough

All of us have problem-solving experiences to reflect on and learn from. And what better time to draw out that…

How Lean Experts Create a Pipeline for Leadership Talent

Developing a pipeline for diverse leadership talent is a key principle for leading companies--and the topic of a session led…

Lean in Lean Thinkers to Root Out Racial Inequity

A lean leader calls on other lean thinkers to leverage humble inquiry and other problem-solving tools to eradicate the waste…

Lean Roundup: Hoshin Kanri

Hoshin Kanri, described as "a management system that allows the organization to quickly and effectively adjust its priorities while engaging…

Making Pivots Operational

Learn how NewYork-Presbyterian (NYP) hospital (NYP) pivoted to meet crisis-level demands at the epicenter of the Coronavirus pandemic -- thanks…

Why Managing Emotions at Work Matters

True effectiveness in the workplace – innovation, change, enhanced customer experience - requires an acknowledgement of how emotions interface with…

Why a Lean Transformation Requires a New Quoting Process, Part 1

How to ensure your lean transformation leads to improved profitability.

How to Develop and Execute New Strategies for the New Era in Business

These times demand a new way of looking at business strategy because the way we worked before the pandemic probably…

How Lean Helps During Economic Downturns: Lessons from the Past

John retells a quick history lesson about the birth of Toyota’s powerful way of working as it emerged from its…

Searching for a Path Toward Healing

Dr. Kiame Mahaniah, the CEO of Lynn Community Health Center, shares the message he wrote to his staff about finding…

Pivoting Just-In-Time with Hoshin Kanri at Toyota

Learn about the power of hoshin kanri, a systematic approach to defining a strategy and, more importantly, a management system…

Keep Calm and Manage Stably: Akio Toyoda’s Response to Crisis

When we read the Bloomberg article Lockdown Leads Toyota Chief to Question Core Tenet for Carmaker, we were surprised, even a…

Pursuing Dreams, Facing Reality

In this letter shared to his fellow Menloians, Rich Sheridan acknowledges the new reality they all must fact, and commits…

Ask Art: What Do You Focus on When Assessing the Potential Gains From Converting to Lean?

Lean veteran Art Byrne shares the key areas to look at for gains to be realized from lean: focus on…

Building the Mindset and Skillset to Improve from the Board Room to the Classroom

A school district superintendent describes how lean thinking and practice transformed a failing district into a nationally recognized model of…

On the Job with Tom Root, Managing Partner of Zingerman’s Mail Order

Spoiler alert! The food you just ate is not fresh. It was "sourced" longer ago than you'd imagine. And since…

Should I be worried that management is buying software for virtual gemba walks?

Dear Gemba Coach: A consultant is selling us “virtual gemba walks” software to schedule gemba visits with a “leader standardized…

How Well Can Lean Principles Fuel New Ventures Like Tesla and Rivian?

How well do lean principles apply to the grueling challenge of launching a company—let alone launching a brand new automotive…

Ask Art: What Are the Most Important Management Changes Needed to Implement A Lean Turnaround?

Lean thinking requires a totally different mindset than traditional management, argues lean veteran Art Byrne. This is probably the most…

35. Designing the Future: A WLEI Podcast with Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe and former COO Jim Morgan

If you do not yet know the company Rivian you will undoubtedly know it very soon.In 2019 Rivian made waves in the…

Rivian: The Electric-Vehicle Company Taking the Auto Industry by Storm

In this podcast, Rivian Founder and CEO R.J. Scaringe and former COO Jim Morgan discuss the challenges of forming a…

How Working In Oncology Has Reframed Failure and Success

Doctor Carlos "Fred" Pinto and his colleagues at IOV in Brazil have learned that resilience emerges when applying lean thinking…

33. On the Job with Ron Kelner, President and COO of the Deublin Company

Ron describes the Deublin Company's business system built with lean thinking that puts human development at the center.

How Ron Kelner Helped Build A System of Improvement at Deublin

In this podcast, Deublin COO Ron Kelner shares with Josh Howell the long learning journey of his company as it…

31. CEO Transition – an obstacle or an opportunity?

Too often, a change in executive leadership can bring a lean transformation to a grinding halt.  But that has not…

How Lean Can Help Deliver Social Justice While Boosting Quality Health Care

In this podcast, developed from a talk at the 2018 Lean Transformation Summit learn how the Lynn Community Health Center…

Boeing Ex-Executive Alan Mulally Discusses a “Working Together Management System”

In this rare and revealing interview, Alan Mulally discusses lean management principles, including: the role of a CEO during a…

My Personal Turning Point: Reflecting on a Decade as a Lean Coach

Last year I sat in the offices of several "lean champions" at their companies, agents of change who are trying…

29. What’s the problem: A conversation with Pat Greco on transforming education through rapid problem solving

Pat Greco In 2011, Dr. Pat Greco began as the superintendent of the Menomonee Falls School District in Wisconsin. She faced no shortage…

Adopting a system driven mindset for continuous improvement

In this podcast, Dr. Pat Greco discusses how she managed to align students, teachers, administrators, and the board of education…

Can a manufacturer use lean management to advance its environmental and social sustainability strategy?

Dear Gemba Coach: Can a manufacturer use lean to advance its environmental and social sustainability strategy?

How Do Lean CEOs Learn To Improve?

What, and how, do I have to learn? This key question confronts all CEOs who are practicing lean seriously, argues…

27. Dying for a Paycheck? Must work be toxic for employees, and how can a more sustainable approach emerge?

In his new book Dying for A Paycheck, Stanford University Graduate School of Business Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer argues that there…

How Lean Can Make Workplaces Safer and Healthier

The companies that are really going to solve the problem of unsafe work, just as they've done this for physical…

Ask Art: What Do You Mean When You Say “Productivity equals Wealth”?

Productivity is the greatest wealth creator whether you talk about countries or companies, says Art Byrne. If you go about…

26. On the Job: A conversation with Dr. Lynn Kelley about sustaining change at Union Pacific

Dr. Lynn Kelley was hired by Union Pacific to lead the introduction of the “UP Way” company-wide. The UP Way…

Let Joy Power Your Organization’s Flight

Joy is a powerful word in life and, as it turns out, in business too, says Rich Sheridan. A company…

How A3 Presentations Help Us Build Teamwork

CEO Nicolas Chartier shares a huge benefit of regular use of A3 among his team: "You realize as a CEO…

The Power of Inspiration

Lean thinker Paige Henry shares a call to action: let’s get our leaders and people to realize “it’s about the…

19. Building A Fearless Organization: An interview with Harvard Business School Professor Amy Edmondson

How can one create a safe workplace where all employees are encouraged and expected to take ownership of their work?…

How Hoshin Kanri Aligns Your Key Organizational Systems

To build the culture and develop the complementary systems that connect your company's strategic and operational plans, consider how they…

17. On the Job Podcast: One Pathologist’s Path an interview with Dr. Lisa Yerian of Cleveland Clinic

Dr. Lisa Yerian of the Cleveland Clinic sits down with Josh Howell, LEI President & Executive Team Leader, to talk…

Ask Art: What Foundational Items Must I Be A Zealot About?

Be a zealot on the foundational items such as 5S, visual management, and setup reduction, says Art Byrne, and your…

What Is Your Leadership Model?

In this reflection based on his work as CEO Lean is a leadership model: for more than 60 years now…

Towards A More Lean Statement of Purpose

Reflecting on a recent Business Roundtable statement pledging a commitment to all of its stakeholders (and not simply maximizing shareholder…

A Revelation at the Gemba

During my travels this summer, both personal and for LEI, I’ve been reflecting a lot on the Institute’s 20+ year…

Ask Art: What Do You Mean When You Say Run Your Company On Your Operational Excellence Goals?

The Lean company competes on its operational excellence goals, says Art Byrne. These stretch goals must be aggressive in nature…

How Are You Supporting Your Own Lean Transformation?

When someone in our organization complains about something we hand them a Kaizen card, shares Lisa Yerian of the Cleveland…

Can lean be used to turn around a company?

Dear Gemba Coach: Can lean be used in a turnaround situation? Does a burning platform make it easier or harder?

Feeling the Gemba Magic

After months of work at the gemba with his factory manager helping line workers grapple with problems, CEO Nicolas Chartier…

Ask Art: Where Will the Biggest Resistance to Lean Come From?

Resistance to Lean will come from every part of your organization, senior management included, says Lean veteran Art Byrne. Knowing…

Tales Of Lean, Chapter One: Facing the Problem

What is the best way for a lean coach to support and guide her team? In this fictional tale of…

Ask Art: How Can I Engage All Our Leaders to Learn and Teach Lean?

What's the best way to teach lean to your internal leaders? By forming teams who will learn by doing, shares…

Go and See: Where The Magic Is

To reconnect with the reality of your business, go to the gemba, advises CEO Nicolas Chartier of Aramisauto. But to…

Reflections from LEI’s New President, Josh Howell

Josh Howell, an experienced manager and lean management coach, is LEI’s new president and executive team leader. Read his note…

Stop Asking Your Leaders to “Support” Your Lean Transformation

Helping others with shared work tied to broad improvement goals can be challenging for lean leaders. Continuous Improvement Director Lisa…

What should I look for so I don’t get burned taking a lean director’s job?

Dear Gemba Coach,I’ve been offered the job of a lean director in an industrial group. The offer sounds very attractive,…

Show Respect, Psychological Safety, and Social Neuroscience

Mike Orzen and David Verble examine the meaning and lean relevance of showing respect, creating psychological safety, and the links…

Ask Art: Why Focus on Why When Doing A Lean Turnaround?

In switching to lean, understanding the WHY is the most important thing, argues Art Byrne. It helps people overcome their…

“But TPS Doesn’t Apply to Us….”

Yes, cars are not weaving looms. Patients are not cars, either. Airplanes are not cars. Electric vehicles are not the…

Going Beyond Low-Cost Obsession with “Women Go Beyond”

Hear the chairman and co-founder of an apparel manufacturer with global operations explain how and why it invests in its…

No Mani Pedi, But Keepers Improve Elephant Foot Washing

Supporting process owners includes stepping in for zoo keepers when their better idea for washing an elephant’s foot gets rejected…

Lean Without Limits

We come up with many different types of answers that sort Lean conveniently into categories for easy understanding and storage,…

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…

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…

Why Meaningful Improvement Requires a “Growth Mindset”

Today is Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, part of Engineering Week, Feb. 18 to 23. To mark Girl Day,…

Good Night Sweethearts

On this Valentine's Day, GBMP President Bruce Hamilton laments this year's lack of Sweetheart Candies, reflecting that, "NECCO, like General…

Building a Lean Culture at Turner Construction: A Talk with SVP Charlie Murphy

"Whether it’s safety, quality, production system, to me it just makes sense for us to contribute to the improvement of…

People First Leadership: A Conversation by Jim Morgan with Alan Mulally

Alan Mulally is a brilliant engineer who led historic transformations as CEO of Boeing Commercial and then Ford Motor Company.…

Alan Mulally, former Ford and Boeing CEO sits down with Jim Morgan to discuss Leadership, Designing the Future Special Ep. 2

“It seemed nothing short of a miracle could save Ford Motor Company in the mid 2000s.  Ford didn’t receive a…

Ask Art: How is Lean A Time-Based Strategy?

Operating lean is the best way to compete on time, says Art Byrne, who notes that every time you remove…

I’m all in on our lean effort but how do I get my managers to be more supportive?

Dear Gemba Coach: As a business unit director, I am fully on board with lean, do gemba walks and support…

3 Steps We Took to Change the Company Culture

The Lean Digital Transformation webinar with Bruno Guicardi, co-founder and president of technology services company CI&T, drew a global audience…

Are You Building High-Performing Teams?

Building high-performance teams enhances organizational success and creates a fulfilling experience for members. This article highlights key traits of successful…

What do you do when your advice is wrong?

Dear Gemba Coach: How do you handle it when you find out you’ve been wrong; when you’ve advised people to…

Ask Art: How Do I Get the Senior Management Team On Board with Lean?

Lean requires teamwork, and so getting your senior management team on board requires a great deal of work, including new…

Lean Gratitude

As Thanksgiving approaches, Tom Richert notes that powering the TPS scientific mindset is a great deal of emotional energy. At…

Can Lean Succeed in a Strong Labor Environment?

Lean is all about people, says Art Byrne, regarding the question of making lean succeed in a union environment. He…

Season 2 Ep. 1 Leadership at the Gemba with Scott Heydon and John Shook

Former Starbucks Executive and Senior Coach at LEI Scott Heydon, joined author and LEI Chairman John Shook for a last…

Can Lean Know-How Come Home?

When you decide to stop making things, you lose the ability to make things, argues Eric Buehrens: not just the…

Ask Art: Why Does Boosting Inventory Turns Matter So Much?

If you want to deliver more value to our customers such that you can grow and gain market share then…

A Great Company Culture Takes Purpose

If you’re determined to move your culture from good to great, listen to CEO Tyler Schilling as he describes two…

How to Lead with Values

A former health system CEO says it’s “strategically sound” for leaders to define a set of values that they and…

Real Leaders Think and Act Differently

Are your management routines and Gemba Walks suffering from the superficial observations of the day-tripper? Or are your leaders adding…

What’s your definition of lean?

Dear Gemba Coach: My company is adopting lean, which has so many definitions that I find it confusing. What's your…

The Cascade of Hoshin

A recent gemba walk at a Toyota plant reveals how the company operationalizes its hoshin plan — in this case,…

Ugly Babies, Silent Enemies and Other Short Stories from a Continuous Improvement Conference

Besides the lessons, challenges, and results that belong to a company’s lean transformation, there are personal journeys as well. Here’s…

Leadership and Having an Effective Plan

You wouldn’t want to be known as a source of “fake news” but are you practicing

Lessons from Japan: Day Four

On day four of the Lean Learning tour in Japan, the participants share their lessons, which are tied to this…

Sometimes Smaller is Better – and Better is Lean

LEI CEO Eric Buehrens reflects on how lean relates to the deeply hopeful story of renewal, reconstruction, and citizen engagement…

Value Stream Walk, Management Walk or….Just Walking Around?

Gemba Walks can raise consciousness about problems and the possibilities for dramatic improvements, says Jim Womack. Or they can serve…

Surviving CEO Change, Evolving Through Culture and Being a Humble Leader

Dr. Mahaniah was kind enough to sit down with LEI’s Chairman, John Shook to talk about growing up in different…

Ep. 9 Leadership, Building Consensus, and Embracing Culture with Dr. Kiame Mahaniah and John Shook

Two things to think about. Challenges and Culture.Challenges shape who we are. I think we can all look at who…

Can I change a company’s attitude that people can’t be trusted to do their jobs unless they are scared into complying?

Dear Gemba Coach: A major assumption in lean thinking is that people genuinely want to do a good job, and…

Stability Before Innovation

Given its foundational strengths of stable and robust product development, production, supplier development, and general management system, Toyota is well…

Why ‘Yes Chef!’ Is No Longer the Answer

In order to meet the changing demands of today's restaurants, chefs must learn to evolve from old-school methods of the…

Finding a Lean Cure that Respects the Health of Healthcare Workers

In his prognosis of the health care system, LEI CEO Eric Buehrens says we need to improve the work to…

Out of Fertile “Pre-Lean” Soil Bloom Lean Leaders

A new generation of leaders varies in individual styles but shares common beliefs that create a foundation for successful lean…

As CEO, how do I get my management team to support the lean effort?

Dear Gemba Coach: As a CEO, lean has enabled me to renew our company’s profitable growth, so I love it.…

“People who can’t change their minds can’t change anything else”

Many people argue that if lean management really was a powerful strategy, rather than an operational tactic, then more companies…

Jim Womack’s Keynote Address from the 2018 Lean Summit

Catch the presentation of Jim Womack on the topic of how to develop better employees by becoming a better employer.

Ask Art: Why Should I Set Stretch Goals?

Art Byrne urges you to take the lean leap and set stretch goals. Setting ambitious goals shows respect for your…

Ep. 1: Lean and Tesla with John Shook and Jim Womack

Lean thought leaders Jim Womack and John Shook discuss Tesla.Related Articles:Tesla vs. TPS: Seeking the Soul in the New Machine While…

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…

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…

Your Consultant Doesn’t Have the Answers

Inspired by a true story from his tenure at the Toyota Production System Support Center, LEI Senior Coach Mark in…

A Reflection on Competition

A meta-analysis of research shows that among the three main ways of achieving business goals, collaboration beats competition and individualism…

Ask Art: Why do you say the CEO needs to become a lean expert?

A key first step for any CEO leading a lean conversion is to call 1-800-lean-consultant to find an expert to…

3 Therapies to Purge the Healthcare “Tapeworm”

LEI CEO Eric Buehrens, former COO and interim CEO of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, has three suggestions for…

Fixing Lean’s “Sales” Problem

When companies begin lean transformations, IT systems too often are viewed as obstacles. So, some lean thinkers may view Jacob…

Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn

Hear how a personal lean transformation supported a crucial organizational transformation following a financial crisis at a large medical center.…

Thank you, Tatsuro Toyoda

John Shook remembers the late Tatsuro Toyoda, former president of Toyota.

Want Better Employees? Be a Better Employer.

Every nation in the world is on a quest to create more jobs. As they should be. But, we don’t…

Ask Art: Can Lean and “Make-the-Month” Co-exist?

"Make-the-month" programs are not unusual in manufacturing organizations. But, many people have asked Art Byrne, are such programs compatible with…

How do we ensure sustainability of a successful lean effort?

Dear Gemba Coach: We used training and workshops to roll out a lean program with good early results – what…

It Starts Within: The Lean Journey of CI&T

The lean transformation of Brazilian tech company CI&T was unique in that it began with an implementation of hoshin kanri.…

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…

Can a Lean Mentality Help You in a Crisis?

We all know lean's power when problem solving. But what power does it have in resolving crises, which are more…

How big should my lean promotion office be?

Dear Gemba Coach: How large should my lean promotion office be if I want to achieve quickly a lean culture…

Back to Basics: Jim Womack on Why Managers Need a “Lean State of Mind”

In this classic eletter from 2009, Jim Womack explains the crucial importance of a "lean state of mind" if a…

Why You Should Think of Lean Tools as Frames

Michael Ballé, co-author of the recent book "The Lean Strategy" with Dan Jones, Orry Fiume, and Jacques Chaize; discusses why…

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…

Yes, Lean is a Strategy!!!

Is lean a strategy? Absolutely YES, says lean author and thinker Orry Fiume. Replying to feedback on his new book,…

Follow-up Webinar Q&A with Jim Lancaster, Lantech CEO and author of the Work of Management

"The Real Work of Management" webinar drew an engaged audience that wanted to know more about the daily management system…

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…

Our hoshin plan failed. What do we do now?

Dear Gemba Coach: How do we deal with hoshin kanri when things don’t work out as planned?

You can do a lot by doing a few things

"Developing a good strategy and actually executing it is really hard," writes Leslie Barker. "What I didn’t fully realize was…

“Do I have to be a team leader for the rest of my life?”

In this reprint of his latest e-letter, LEI Chairman and CEO John Shook reflects on the powerful lessons in the…

Do I have to be team leader for the rest of my life

At his talk at the Lean Transformation Summit earlier this year, and at conferences since then, including Industry Week and…

Daily Management, Daily Sustainment: The Remarkable Story of Lean Transformation at Lantech

Jim Lancaster attended the 2017 Lean Transformation Summit in Carlsbad, California to speak about Lantech's journey to create a daily…

Ask Art: Does lean compromise innovation?

To some, lean and innovation seem counterproductive. But Art Byrne is not one of them. Find out why he says…

Advice from the Gemba: Top Mistakes Lean Leaders Make II

Everybody makes mistakes, lean leaders included. Our previous list of mistakes made by lean leaders was the highest-performing installment in…

Painting the Vision for Your Organization

To successfully deploy a new initiative, leaders "need to paint a vision to engage employees at every level, from executives…

When Do You Stop Learning?

Lean is about learning continuously and asking the right questions, not just providing answers. But, Orry Fiume wonders, does the…

Job 1?

Ford CEO Mark Fields just decided he needed to cut costs. Then he suddenly realized he had 1400 people he…

Webinar: The Real Work of Management

The Real Work of Management webinar featuring Jim Lancaster, author of The Work Management.

“Too Busy to Walk the Gemba”

Chris Weisbrod of Catalysis explains why healthcare leaders often claim they're too busy to walk the gemba and shares a…

Want to Respect Your People? Share the Profits!

People and profit are key in any company, not just a lean one. But too often, an organization's drive for…

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…

Faster than a Speeding Kanban…

"All of us living in Leanworld are well-trained to look for problems, identify gaps, and cure root causes," writes Brent…

Is there a lean way of delegating?

Dear Gemba Coach: I’m an entrepreneur and I used to micromanage everything, quite successfully. Now the firm has grown and…

Does lean change how you think about business?

Dear Gemba Coach: I can see that lean changes how one thinks about business, but can’t quite put my finger…

Lean Leadership at Legal Sea Foods: An Interview with Roger Berkowitz

Watch the video to hear Legal Sea Foods CEO Roger Berkowitz explain the effects lean has has on his own…

Lean and Agile: Finding a Role for Your Leadership in Your Transformation Model

"Lean and Agile are two of the most commonly discussed (and hotly debated) principles for managing a business, particularly when…

What are your three most important problems?

Dear Gemba Coacg: What should I look for during a gemba walk?

Ask Art: Why Is Something As Simple As Lean So Difficult to Do?

"Recently my good friend Paul Akers of FastCap and lean blogging fame asked me why lean, which appears to be…

Does a Lean Company Need Explicit or Implicit Leadership?

Dear Gemba Coach: Explicit leadership or implicit leadership? Does an explicit style sustain a lean organization?

Lean Expansion: Spreading Lean from One Store to a Region at Starbucks

Scaling up is a challenge often talked about in lean circles. How can we best leverage our individual or small-scale…

Focus Your Operating System To Bring Your Strategy to Life

A strategy can just turn into wallpaper if you don't have the right systems in place to support it. Jim…

Lessons Learned from Sunpower’s (C)Lean Transformation

Sustainability is a key part of any lean transformation - but Sunpower of San Jose, Cali. took that word a…

Lean Thinking at 20: A Q&A with Jim Womack and Dan Jones

Twenty years ago Jim Womack and Dan Jones helped launch the lean movement as we know it today with their…

Lean Thinking: A Roundup

In honor of the 20th anniversary of the publishing of Lean Thinking, by Jim Womack and Dan Jones, Lean Post…

Does a lean transformation boost a company’s stock price?

Dear Gemba Coach: You’ve worked with a lot of different companies in the public and private sectors. How have the…

How do we pass the baton from one lean leader to the next?

Dear Gemba Coach: What are your thoughts about ensuring that a lean transformation persists past a leader’s tenure at an…

Succeeding by Failing

People often wonder what exactly constitutes "success" in a lean journey - it's a longstanding question. Cam Ford has a…

Ask Art: How Are Lean Teams Different?

"Teamwork in lean is a much bigger deal than the way most people think about it, and it's crucial to…

The Tesla Way vs. The Toyota Way

Does Tesla offer a Way of working that can challenge TPS? Perhaps a bit more time, and the development of…

Is Lean Getting “Fat?”

"Yes, lean has successfully spread around the world and gone from manufacturing to nearly every other type of value stream,"…

Executive Egress: Why Many Healthcare CEOs Distance Themselves from Lean Transformations. An Interview with Jack Bowhan

A troubling issue in lean healthcare that Jack Bowhan has seen too many times is a lack of CEO engagement…

Focus: Process or Results?

"We cannot improve results “directly," writes LEI faculty member Orry Fiume. "It can only be achieved by improving those processes…

The Problems Inherent in Change – and What You Can Do about Them

Anyone who's been involved in an organizational transformation knows that its challenges go well beyond resistance. Katrina Appell sheds some…

What are the pitfalls of implementing hoshin kanri?

Dear Gemba Coach: I’ve heard of hoshin kanri, and I’d really like to try it in my company – what…

Ask Art: What to Look for in a Lean Team Leader

One of Art Byrne's most-asked questions is, "What are the key traits for a lean team leader?" His recommendation might…

Carrington on Kata

This video explains how practicing the Improvement and Coaching Kata creates a culture where everyone feels part of a team…

Problem? What Problem?

"Whether using A3s, the 5 Whys, DMAIC, Value Stream Mapping, or any other problem-solving methodology, many organizations don’t spend the…

Watch John Shook’s Keynote at Lean Construction Institute’s 17th Annual Congress!

This past October, LEI Chairman and CEO John Shook delivered a keynote at Lean Construction Institute's 17th Annual Congress in…

What is your opinion about transformation process steps?

Dear Gemba Coach: What is your opinion about transformation process steps? First we choose a problem and start problem-solving processes…

The Lean Management System: The Key to Sustainability and CI, an Interview with Joe Murli

Achieving wins is only half the battle in a lean transformation - you also need a way to sustain those…

Why Your Lean Journey Needs a Self-Evaluation

Every company on a lean journey needs to occasionally step back and evaluate where they are, where they have gaps…

Is There No Other Lean Exemplar Than Toyota?

"I believe that while Toyota isn’t the only lean exemplar out there," writes Michael Ballé, "it still gives us a…

Just a Fish Stick: The Perils of Forcing Your Change Agenda onto Others

Change agendas may look good on paper, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're foolproof. Brent Wahba shares his thoughts on…

Are You Responsible for Two Key Fobs?

In her first Lean Post article, Syngenta Continuous Improvement Lead Kelly Moore muses on a recent experience at a rental…

Governance Matters

"The very term “governance” seems somewhat antithetical to lean," writes Mark Hamel. "Yet...over my 20-plus years of lean learning, I’ve…

Why are there so many different opinions about what lean management is and isn’t?

Dear Gemba Coach: I have attended several lean conferences and am deeply interested in the topic, but puzzled about the…

How to Lead with Respect

Showing respect to employees falls far short of leading with respect. Discover the seven core practices that true lean leaders…

Leading with Respect is Not a Soft Skill: An interview with Mike Orzen

By definition, a hard skill is a skill that can be defined, measured, and taught. Does that sound like it…

What the Best Lean Leaders All Have in Common

What characterizes a truly exceptional lean leader? With years of first-hand observations behind him, Tom Ehrenfeld weighs in with his…

Avoiding the Pitfalls of Leader Standard Work

What are some problems a lean practitioner might run into when implementing leader standard work? Ken Abbs and Scott Ullman…

What Type of a Leader Do You Choose to Be?

Plenty of people want to become better leaders. Few people want to change. Michael Bremer shares his advice for more…

Is a lean CEO’s job different from a traditional CEO?

Dear Gemba Coach: How does the role of CEO in lean management differ from that in traditional management?

Rethinking Disaster Recovery on the 10th Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina

As the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches on August 23rd-29th, read about how lean thinking is changing how New…

Lean, Agile, Joy

Rich Sheridan, CEO of Menlo Innovations, shares his thoughts on why the lean software and lean manufacturing communities need each…

What “Co-Learning” Across Industries Looks Like in Practice

"In April, as part of a 2-day capstone learning event for Cardinal Health, we brought the newest wave of Lean…

Could hoshin kanri be too bureaucratic for my small tech company?

Dear Gemba Coach: I get frustrated with being the only one seriously concerned with experimenting and learning new systems, so…

Tried and True Strategies for Leading Lean Practice

"In my 30 plus years of leading Lean in a wide range of companies, I’ve learned common practices that work…

Leadership Q&A: Lisa Yerian, MD, Medical Director of Continuous Improvement, Cleveland Clinic Foundation

From the LEI senior executive series on lean leadership: Lisa Yerian, MD, director of Hepatobiliary Pathology and medical director of…

John Toussaint on What a Complete System Transformation Looks Like In Healthcare

John Toussaint, CEO emeritus of ThedaCare and CEO of the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value, shared his guiding principles for…

How is leadership engaged and trained in lean?

Dear Gemba Coach: How is leadership engaged and trained in lean?

How do you protect jobs while reducing lines and shifts?

Dear Gemba Coach: How do you protect jobs while reducing lines and shifts?

Are You Serving “Internal Customers” or Your Real Customer?

Are teams in your organization working in silos? Do processes feel fractured? Do upstream or downstream steps occurring in different…

Latondra Newton on the Toyota Production System and Social Innovation

The success of Toyota’s lean management principles in manufacturing, healthcare, product development, and other areas is well known and well…

Why Leadership Needs to Drive the Bus

"Lean change can start from the bottom-up, I won’t say that it can’t, but the situation needs to flip quickly…

Three Types of Lean

"We’ve all heard 'Lean is great for 'that' company, but not for the business I lead,'" says Chris Vogel. Learn…

Sharks & Tortoises

"A small number of firms have grown spectacularly in revenue, employees, and stock price by using [lean] to execute crisply…

After improving processes with help from a consultant, how do I sustain kaizen in my department? My teams are hard to motivate.

Dear Gemba Coach: How do I sustain kaizen in my department? We’ve had a consultant help us with workshops, and…

Lean Principles Are Changing How the U.S. Recovers from Tornadoes & Floods

When the flood waters of Hurricane Katrina receded, they uncovered tens of thousands of homes in devastated areas such as…

Experimenting with LEI’s Transformation Model

Josh Howell, senior coach at LEI, reflects on LEI's Lean Transformation Model. "We set out to better understand the model,…

Hoshin at LEI: Connecting More Closely with Our Customer

Whether you’re deploying hoshin in a small nonprofit or a huge organization, the struggles are the same," writes LEI Senior…

Rich Sheridan on How to Succeed by Building a Strong Learning Culture

Rich Sheridan, CEO of the software company Menlo Innovations, talks with LEI's Chet Marchwinski about Menlo's unique learning culture, taking…

New Year’s Reflection

Happy New Year! Even if you are not one of those who makes New Year’s resolutions the new year is…

How do I set up an obeya room?

Dear Gemba Coach: I’d like to set up an obeya room – where should I start? What’s the simplest way…

Make Broccoli (Or Lean) Taste Better Through Experiments

"Whether it’s eating healthy, saving for retirement, or pursuing Lean, we are all biased towards maximizing the here and now…

Public Service: Lean’s Next Frontier?

John O'Donnell and Lex Schroeder share the thinking behind LEI's new Public Service Value Network and invite you to contribute…

Lean Practitioners Gather to Share Ideas that Grow the Bottom Line by Growing People’s Knowledge

We were among the nearly 2,000 lean thinkers attending the 2014 AME conference, organized around six value streams: Engaged People,…

HOW KATA FITS IN

With this month's SlideShare Mike and Jeff address a common question in the Lean community: "How do the Improvement Kata…

Grasping the Real Situation

Emmanuel Jallas visits a well-respected company that is vocal about its lean transformation. Upon further investigation he finds that like…

The Five Poisons of Big Company Disease

What's "big company disease"? The tendency of any large company to worry about clearly defined territories, rules and procedures, and…

What Should Lean Mean to Us?

Brent Wahba offers lean beginners a few tips for how to be most impactful. "If you are working on how…

Want Your Organization to Survive Over the Long Haul? Value Process Over Results

"There are two ways to run your business," writes Doc Hall. "Focus on value, or focus on results... Interestingly, when…

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…

Leader Standard Work: Where to Start

Striving to be an effective lean leader or manager is well and good, but without the discipline of leader standard…

Are You Managing People or Making Way for Their Creativity to Shine?

"The role of the [lean manager] entails three main parts: clear definition of goals; provision of significant and consistent feedback;…

John Shook on Where Lean Thinking and Practice is Headed Today

LEI's John Shook shares his view of how and where lean thinking can be used most effectively today. Insights on…

Why Leadership and “Respect” Are Fundamentally Entwined

Hear the word "respect" and most of us can think of a time we've wanted our boss, team member, or…

The Biggest Waste of All

"We can fix [problem symptoms] with basic lean thinking and tools, but unless our strategy is good, we will still…

A Lean Management System Starts with Senior Leaders

"From events, projects, and A3s to focusing on a lean management system, we’re discovering a new way to run and…

How Lean Tools Support the Principle of Respect (Part 2)

We first met Andy Ward when he was struggling to save his plant from closure in The Lean Manager. Since…

Gemba Walks: Are You Going To See or To Be Seen?

"Supervisors talked about the significant improvements they were making as a result of kaizen events," writes Dave LaHote, "But all…

I fail to see the difference between hoshin kanri and the strategic planning we used to do. What am I missing?

Dear Gemba Cocah: My boss has hired a consultant to take us through the Hoshin Kanri process. So far, I…

8 Tips for “Passing the Baton” with Suppliers and Customers

In a relay, the winning team isnít the one that runs the fastest leg, but the one that runs fastest…

Ask Art: What Does a Lean Manager Do Differently?

"The lean leader has a vision for growth just like the traditional manager, but he sees the source of growth…

What’s new in your new novel “Lead With Respect”?

Dear Gemba Coach: I see that you have a new lean management novel out called “Lead With Respect.” What's new…

Too Much Information Can Destroy Effective Management

"A lean organization minimizes the amount of unnecessary 'junk' information and increases the amount of 'gold' (value-producing) information that is…

Are We “Doing Lean” All Wrong?

"Somewhere in Ohio is a small healthcare management company that is the best Lean company, EVER," says Brent Wahba. Why?…

Put Your Strategy on a Diet

"When it comes to goal setting in most organizations, 'Just one more…' seems to be the compulsion," writes Pascal Dennis.…

Leadership Then and Now

John Shook and the Leaper look toward the future of leadership.

THE JEFF LIKER KATA INTERVIEW

This month's post is an inspiring 20-minute video that anyone involved in Lean will find beneficial. On the 10th anniversary…

Looking Back and Ahead at The Lean Transformation Summit

Read the highlights from the 2014 Lean Transformation Summit in Orlando (featuring transformation stories from companies like GE, Cardinal Health,…

Lean Change Is Organizational and Personal

"Lean management is less about providing the right answers than asking the right questions and exploring those questions by engaging…

We found your visit rather challenging … does “real” lean have to be such a struggle?

Dear Gemba Coach: The question I’m facing internally is whether “real” lean needs to be that challenging or is there…

If You Want to Lead, Make Your Vision Actionable

An organizational vision that makes clear a compelling future, one that brings all levels of the organization together, one that…

Beyond Lean: Towards Compression Thinking

"Lean thinkers make things better by framing issues as Problems," writes Doc Hall. "Yet today our great challenges transcend corporate…

Lean Alone is Never Enough

Lean can help any organization become more efficient and effective, but there is much more to being successful than just…

How Teaming Produces Execution-as-Learning

Amy C. Edmonson, Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School, shares a concept she calls "teaming", a…

Which Side Are You On?

Lean is based on developing every person’s kaizen mind, writes Michael Ballé, "not asking them to thoughtlessly apply a best…

Bringing Respect for People to the World’s Sweatshops

Jim Womack weighs in on how we might use lean thinking and practice to tackle the ongoing, systemic problem of…

Do CEOs Matter?

Journalist Jacob Stoller sits down with LEI's own John Shook to discuss just how important the role and support of…

Why do you lean guys always focus on shop floor processes? The lack of clarity and focus at headquarters is far worse!

Dear Gemba Coach: Why do you lean guys always focus on shop floor processes? The lack of clarity and focus…

Ask Art: How Do We Prevent Backsliding?

Backsliding is inevitable. "The key is to anticipate the backslide and take early, aggressive, organized steps to prevent it from…

Are You Making Enough Mistakes?

How comfortable are you making mistakes? Do you make it safe for your team members to make mistakes? Boaz Tamir,…

Transforming Healthcare is Complex, Start with a Model Cell

John Toussaint from the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value explains what he's learned about how meaningful organizational change happens from…

Japanese Cult Invades Saskatchewan Government

Lean has become a political football in the normally congenial province of Saskatchewan. Read what John Shook has to say…

Lead Lean by Being Lean

Lean just doesn't work if leaders don't actively, consistently demonstrate lean thinking themselves. In his first piece for the Post,…

I don’t find much about lean strategy in the literature. Where should I look?

Dear Gemba Coach: I’ve been tasked to come up with a presentation on what is a “lean” strategy to our…

Customers Should Determine the Businesses of the Future, Not the 1%

"We set up entrepreneurs to fail when we put all the emphasis on pitch day and the amount of money…

Kaizen Power

In his latest piece for the Post, Michael Ballé explains why "humble 100x1% is better than 1x100% kaizen." This kind…

Leadership Q&A: Gary Peterson, executive vice president, supply chain and operations, O.C. Tanner

From the LEI senior executive series on lean leadership:Gary Peterson, executive vice president, supply chain and production at O.C. Tanner, describes…

Foolish Consistency or Meaningful Standard Work?

How do organizations develop system-wide standard work and also create the conditions for local problem solving within departments? Dr. Grant…

The Lean Transformation Model

John Shook, CEO of the Lean Enterprise Institutes explains the Lean Transformation Model and how it can transform your organization.

Thinking Outside the Pyramid

Machiavelli said it's better to be feared than loved. Lean practitioner Daniel Fisher rejects this idea and argues it’s better…

What’s Your Company’s Bottleneck?

"A bottleneck is the weak link in the system, the one constraint that prevents us from manufacturing that next toaster…

What To Do When Executives Think Continuous Improvement Smells Fishy

Top executives are smart, but they don't always see the value of continuous improvement efforts. And continuous improvement professionals don't…

Manufacturing’s Next Chapter

Using the experience of GE Appliance and other manufacturers, LEI CEO John Shook reminds lean thinkers that much remains to…

The Best of The Lean Post 2013: Top Posts

It's time to look back on the best posts of 2013 (as determined by you, Lean Post readers). Which articles…

Lean Startups Should Be Lean Cultures, From the Start

Mark Graban reflects on John Shook's talk, "Lean Startup--From Toyota City to Fremont to You," at this week's Lean Startup…

Bridging Two Lean Communities

Two very different lean communities came together when Eric Ries and LEI's John Shook participated in the Lean Startup pre-conference…

Standard Work for Lean Leaders: One of the Keys to Sustaining Performance Gains

Not every successful business follows a lean approach to management. In fact, the vast majority of Fortune 500 companies aren’t…

Get On Your Sneakers and Start Conversations, Learning How to Create End-to-End Excellence

Take a (gemba) walk on the sustainable improvement side with Ingersoll Rand.

Lean Healthcare Lessons and Preparing for Change

Develop capabilities by asking the right questions

My CEO would like to install a lean culture and has asked me to specify a few basic lean values we need to implement. Where should I start?

Dear Gemba Coach: My CEO would like to install a lean culture in our company and has asked me to…

Managing to Reboot Leadership

"Despite sweeping changes to the business environment and real threats to organizational sustainability, too many managers remain stuck in traditional…

Top misconceptions of the Lean movement, according to founder Jim Womack

The fall of 2013 marks the 25th anniversary of the movement, noted managaement expert Jim Womack during the annual AME…

“Lean Production” Turns 25

Author and management expert James Womack talks with The Leaning Edge about the state of lean management and what’s new…

How You Can Influence a Lean Transformation

A Lean Enterprise Institute faculty member and co-author of Toyota Culture, Mike Hoseus explains how you can positively influence senior…

Why Lean Gets Business Backwards (and why that’s a good thing)

Michael Balle explains why lean is a completely different approach to business than the traditional one.

A Lean Leap of Faith

Michael Ballé reflects on a core assumption of Lean that is often disregarded and explains why it is worth taking…

Do you use Japanese terms in your lean transformation or purposely avoid them? Why?

Recently we asked our community "Do you use Japanese terms in your lean transformation or purposely avoid them? Why?" Below…

Why Social Entrepreneurship is Dead

Despite all the hype, entrepreneur Nathan Rothstein (of Project Repat) believes social entrepreneurship is dead. Read what he recommends for…

Why is it still so hard to convince executives to adopt the lean spirit?

Dear Gemba Coach: Why, in your experience, after all these years of preaching lean, is it still so hard to…

A Learning Partnership to Support A New Era in American Manufacturing

As policymakers and business leaders work to rebuild and reimagine a struggling U.S. economy, GE is not only at the…

Standardized Vacation

Mark Donovan, co-founder of the women's knitwear company Wooden Ships, proposes that we all consider vacation as a standardized method…

The Silent Killer of Health Care Transformation: Being Overburdened by Too Many Choices

Writing on the Huffington Post, Beau Keyte discusses a major problem that exists in our current system of healthcare transformation…

No Really, Go to the Gemba

LEI coach Danielle Blais explains why it's so important for lean coaches, leaders, and all managers to regularly visit the…

An Interview with Executive and Lean Practitioner Gary Berndt

Gary Berndt, who has led lean transformations in a variety of companies, answers questions about connecting lean efforts to strategy…

Lean Leadership: a continuing series of interviews with senior executives on how they lead in a lean culture

The Lean Enterprise Institute interviews executives from manufacturing, service, and healthcare organizations on what they had to do differently to manage and…

The Innovation Interview with John Shook

Culture matters but don’t use it as an excuse for failing to engage people, says LEI CEO John Shook in…

Losing Patients: What Healthcare Organizations Have to Do to Survive Inevitable Changes

Writing on the Huffington Post, Beau Keyte discusses the effect that the full implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable…

Public-Private Partnerships Lead To More Effective Government in WA

Since 2012, Washington state government has received more than 2,000 hours of volunteer advice, training, coaching, and/or facility tours from…

Ask Art: Doesn’t Lean Entail Headcount Reductions?

Many people think Lean is about reducing headcount. Art Byrne responds to this common misconception and explains what to do…

What do effective leaders actually do every day? GTS⁴

So many of us know the value of lean thinking and practice, but what do lean leaders actually do every…

Long Live Process Improvement?

For many beginner practitioners, Lean seems like just another "flavor of the month" program. If it isn't communicated and taught…

Your Product Isn’t Everything, It’s the Only Thing

Jim Morgan, former product/process development executive at Ford (and co-author of The Toyota Product Development System), reflects on what should…

Improving Continuous Improvement in Healthcare Through Collaborative Learning: The Leaning Edge interviews Perfecting Patient Journeys co-author Beau Keyte

Perfecting Patient Journeys co-author Beau Keyte talks with The Leaning Edge host Debra Levantrosser about the central role of collaborative learning…

Why Are There So Many Points of View About What Lean Is?

Dear Gemba Coach: I’ve been interested in lean for over two years now, and can’t quite understand why after 20…

Using Lean Thinking to Help Schools Get the Resources They Need at DonorsChoose.org

A fantastic example of how lean thinking and practice has moved into the nonprofit sector, DonorsChoose.org began its lean journey…

How GE is making things better through lean

Bill McDonogh, HR Lean Transformation Leader at GE Appliance tells us how GE is making things better through lean thinking…

When a Passion for Caring Becomes a Commitment to Process Improvement: Judy Worth and Karl Ohaus on Lean Thinking for Healthcare Organizations

LEI interviews lean practitioners and co-authors of Perfecting Patient Journeys Judy Worth and Karl Ohaus about the potential for lean…

Lean Case Study Interview: Q&A with Chad Vander Wilt, Manager of Transportation and Logistics

Chad Vander Wilt, manager of transportation and logistics at Vermeer, participated in one of the company's first kaizen events as…

Lean management case study series: Lean Partnership with Dealer Network Helps Vermeer Reduce End-to-End Inventory on Top Sellers

A lean transformation had taken heavy-equipment manufacturer Vermeer away from batch manufacturing, but batch ordering by dealers was delaying how…

Selling Lean

Thousands of people have spent decades trying to disseminate lean management concepts. Many lean proponents can point to results showing…

Same Foundation, New Message: LEI Aims to Make Things Better

Same Foundation, New Message: LEI Aims to Make Things Better At the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI), our mission for 15…

Lean Leadership Lesson: First Thing, Grasp the Situation; Last Thing, Grasp the Situation

In this appendix to his eletter on lean leadership, LEI CEO Joh Shook explains how leading in a lean management…

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…

How Lean Changes You as a Leader

Few business leaders in the world have applied lean strategy as successfully as has Art Byrne, former CEO of The…

Developing a Problem-Solving Culture at Herman Miller: An Interview with Lean Practitioners George Mason and Dan Bos

In this interview from the Lean Coaching Summit in December 2012, George Mason, a Herman Miller Performance System (HMPS) manager,…

Current and Future Challenges: A Reflection on 15 Years of the Lean Enterprise Institute

LEI CEO John Shook and Founder Jim Womack discuss the state of lean thinking past, present, and a possible future.…

How do I convince senior management to visit the shop floor?

Dear Gemba Coach: How do I convince my senior management to get interested in our kaizen projects? In fact, how…

Jim Womack on Lean Tools As Tools for Creativity

In this video, LEI founder and senior advisor Jim Womack answers the question: "What challenge do you think the lean…

Businesses Sharing Processes Face a “Prisoner’s Dilemma”

Managers and executives today face a “prisoner’s dilemma” in which they have to “betray” other departments or companies along a…

Leadership Q&A: Michael Hoseus, a former general manager at Toyota

From the LEI senior executive series on lean leadership: In this interview from LEI's Executive Series on Lean Leadership, Michael Hoseus, who…

Where Lean Leadership Begins

As with all lean practice, leadership begins with grasping the current state. For lean leaders that means understanding the external…

How do we mid-level managers convince the CEO and senior management that adopting lean practices is worthwhile?

Dear Gemba Coach: The recent webinar on the business case for lean was particularly useful for us because it raised…

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…

Lean for Healthcare Organizations in South Africa: An Interview with Lean4NGO Founders Steve Bell and Karen Whitley Bell

In this interview, LEI speaks with Steve Bell and Karen Whitley Bell about a Lean4NGO workshop they offered with Norman…

From Isolation to Community: Jim Womack on the Future of Work

Anatomy of a Lean Leader (Introduction)

For 30 years, Jerry Bussell studied leadership while bringing lean practices to companies such as Medtronic and becoming a passionate,…

Do lean-minded finance professionals make a difference in appraising lean initiatives?

Dear Gemba Coach: I would like to ask lean-minded fellow finance professionals if they make a difference in appraising lean…

Leveraging Lean to Get the Oil Out

Aera Energy LLC, a California oil and gas company, relies on lean principles to improve key processes, including drilling new…

What Are the Lean Enterprise Institute and the Lean Global Network

John Shook, CEO of the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI), describes LEI and the Lean Global Network, a group of 18…

LEI Partners Program Drives Lean Thought Leadership Forward

The Lean Enterprise Institute’s Partners Program—longstanding, collaborative learning relationships between LEI and six organizations leading their own lean transformations—is one…

Lean & ACOs at ThedaCare with Dr. Dean Gruner

Dean Gruner, M.D., president and CEO of ThedaCare, tells the LeanBlog podcaster Mark Graban how the Wisconsin healthcare system is…

Lessons From LEI Partners on How Change Happens: An Interview with John Shook

An interview with Lean Enterprise Institute Chairman and CEO John Shook on the LEI Partners Program, collaborative learning, and what's…

Summit Highlights: Healthcare Value Network and Bahri Dental Group Bring Lean Into Healthcare

A recap of two talks at the 2012 Lean Transformation Summit: Dr. John Toussaint's talk on the work of the…

The Birth of Lean: How Practices, Principles, and Tools Came Together as a System

Toyota was struggling to survive when Taiichi Ohno and a handful of innovators began experimenting with methods that ultimately became…

Denver Health Becomes Profitable After Using Toyota as a Template

In a story about the lean healthcare success at Denver Health, Governing  cites five lean principles championed by the Lean…

An interview with Gary Convis on A3 thinking and lean leadership

Lean veteran Gary Convis explains how the A3 report serves as a flexible tool that develops leaders and aligns important…

Leadership Q&A: An Interview with Jerry Bussell, co-founder, Jacksonville Lean Consortium

From the LEI senior executive series on lean leadership:As vice president of Global Operations at Medtronic Surgical Technologies in Jacksonville,…

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…

So, what are you going to do about it?

What a year for global supply chains! It started quietly, with a few leading firms taking the lead in reintegrating…

How to Change a Culture: Lessons From NUMMI

The editors of MIT Sloan Management Review honored LEI CEO John Shook with the 2011 Beckhard Memorial Award for the…

Should we have our own TPS “house”?

Dear Gemba Coach: My management wants to build our own version of the TPS (Toyota Production System) house in order…

Getting Over Gemba-phobia

“I work in a company where leaders think gemba walks are scheduled visits to the factory to look at performance…

Performance versus costs, part 2

Dear Gemba Coach: I’ve read your recent column on performance versus cost with great interest, as I believe we’re currently having…

Leadership Q&A: Robert Chapman, chairman and CEO of Barry-Wehmiller Companies, Inc: “Guiding Principles of Leadership”

Barry-Wehmiller Companies, Inc. CEO Robert Chapman describes how the company's Guiding Principles of Leadership merge with lean thinking at this…

The Gemba Walks Webinar Follow-Up Q&A Video

On June 23, 2011 LEI presented the webinar "Sustaining Lean Gains by Taking a Gemba Walk", featuring Jim Womack, author…

Lean Management Benefits Delayed at Airlines and Aerospace Companies by Traditional Management Practices

Lean manufacturing tools such as 5S, kaizen, and kanban are common in aerospace shops and offices, but their effect is…

Who’s Responsible

In reviewing my calendar, I find that I have taken eight gemba walks in the last five weeks. These ranged…

Leadership Q&A: Bill Hopkins, Akron Children’s Hospital board member and former vice president, technology/strategic initiatives, at Goodyear

From the LEI senior executive series on lean leadership:Hopkins on why Akron Children’s Hospital leadership decided to implement lean process…

From Recalls to Redemption: Toyota Did NOT Lose its “Way”

Jeffrey Liker, author of The Toyota Way and coauthor of Toyota Under Fire, sums up the automaker's response to its…

The spirit of challenge

Culture will drive Toyota’s recovery from recalls and recession, according to this excerpt from Toyota Under Fire.

‘Lean’ Manufacturing Takes Root in U.S.

In an overview of lean, Fox News notes that General Electric estimates it has saved up to four direct labor…

Any Color You Want Except Tuxedo Black

Henry Ford could get the customer any type of Model T as long as it was black. But the Ford…

Teaching a ‘Lean Startup’ Strategy

A new MBA elective course at Harvard, called Launching Technology Ventures, uses a lot of concepts from the "lean startup" methodology, which…

The Gemba Walk, from the 2011 Lean Transformation Summit

Jim Womack, LEI founder and author, talks about his experience with Gemba Walks and his book Gemba Walks.

Lean Continuous Improvement as Culture

Author David Verble shares three fundamental ways that a lean culture bases its practice of continuous improvement on the principle…

Lean Thinking is Horizontal Thinking

In the first of a two-part interview,  Jim Womack, founder and senior advisor of LEI, talks with LeanBlog podcaster Mark…

Podcast #116 – Jim Womack, His New Book “Gemba Walks”

Jim Womack, LEI founder and saenior advisor, sat down wit Mark Graban at the Lean Blog for a 2-part interview,…

Follow-up Q & A to the Webinar “Big Company Disease: What is it? and Why Should I Care?”

The following questions represent the most-asked ones that we couldn't get to during the webinar “Big Company Disease” with presenter Pascal Dennis.

Lean Product Development and Engineering at Ford

James Morgan, director, Global Body Exterior and Stamping Business Unit Engineering, Ford Motor Company, explains how he got skeptical engineers…

Follow-up Q & A to the Webinar “Integrating Leader Standard Work with Visual Management Tools”

This webinar was one of our most popular and highly rated. From among the hundreds of questions that we received…

Lean IT as a Factory?

Lean IT authors Steve Bell and Mike Orzen comment on a study by McKinsey & Company that 64% of executives are currently…

How Do I Lead An Existing Lean Initiative as a Newcomer?

Dear Gemba Coach: The head of the lean initiative in our company has left and they gave me the job. I’ve…

Frontiers and Fundamentals

Thank you to the over 350 of you who replied to my letter of last month by sending in suggestions…

Follow-up Q&A to the Webinar: On the Mend – Changing a healthcare organizational culture to continuous improvement

The lean healthcare webinar “On the Mend: Changing a healthcare organizational culture to continuous improvement” drew an engaged audience that…

The Joys of a Brownfield

“Lean experience teaches us to enjoy and make the most of going to see. Go to the gemba, go there…

Passing the Baton

Jim Womack and John Shook reflect on passing the baton of leadership at the Lean Enterprise Institute

Lean Leap by Auto Supplier Gets Boost from Leaping Figure Skaters

As part of its lean transformation, a Nexteer Automotive plant in Saginaw, MI, is using video and motion analysis software…

An Open and Honest Culture at Thedacare, a Lean Story

In this video, John Toussaint, a co-author of the LEI publication On the Mend: Revolutionizing Healthcare to Save Lives and…

Lean Drives Improved Patient Care at Park Nicollet Frauenshuh Cancer Center

Instead of requiring patients to move from department to department to receive their care, a process typical in most cancer…

Homicide by Example?

My LEI colleague Dave LaHote is fond of saying that managers - and especially senior managers - overestimate their effectiveness,…

Lean Transformational Leadership Webinar – Follow-up Q & A and Reading List

During the Transformational Leadership webinar, many of you asked for the list of related books and articles that presenter Jim…

NUMMI Closes and is Crushed by N.Y. Times Columnist Bob Herbert

New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. closes its doors for the final time this Thursday, April Fools' Day. It is a…

The End Of The Line For GM-Toyota Joint Venture

LEI Founder and Chairman Jim Womack and Senior Advisor John Shook are among the key experts interviewed for this look at the…

Toyota Troubles: Fighting the Demons of Complexity

An interview with Professor Takahiro Fujimoto, Manufacturing Management Research Center, University of Tokyo

Lean for the Long Term

I've now been thinking about lean continuously for thirty years, since the fall of 1979 when my MIT bosses asked…

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…

Back to Work

Only a month ago I wrote about going beyond Toyota. And in light of the last month's events, I suppose…

It’s Not the Crisis; It’s How You Respond to It

He probably didn't ask for a problem of quite this magnitude, but like it or not, Akio Toyoda has his…

Shook Says Toyota Recall Could Cost Customer Trust: Video

John Shook, LEI author, faculty member, and senior advisor, in an interview with Bloomberg News about Toyota's recall of vehicles with sticking accelerators…

Rapid Growth Has Its Perils, Toyota Learns

Toyota's rapid growth from 2002 to 2010 garnered it 15% of the global auto industry, surpassing General Motors as the world’s largest…

Can Great Lean Companies Develop Great Lean Managers?

Dear Gemba Coach: I know that not everyone can fulfill the lean ideal—but shouldn’t the system of managing folks who…

Beyond Toyota

Weíve won the battle of ideas on how to operate and improve processes. But creating management systems and organizations that…

So Long 2009 – Hello 2010!

Whew, what a year! Most everyone I know is eager to escort the hard times of 2009 out the door…

How NUMMI Changed Its Culture

I received a lot of questions on-line and off about last week’s column on the pending closing of NUMMI. One…

A Lean “Teachable Moment”: Starbucks in The Wall Street Journal

John Shook discusses recent news about Starbucks and lean.

The Mind of the Lean Manager

Moving beyond lean tools to embrace lean management techniques requires a shift in mindset—one that prioritizes problem-solving, experimentation, and continuous…

Leadership Q&A: Karl Wadensten, president, VIBCO

From the LEI senior executive series on lean leadership:In the first couple years of its lean transformation VIBCO, Inc. saved over…

GM Is Bankrupt: Does That Mean GM Managers Are Bad Managers?

John Shook discusses GM's bankruptcy and management

Sailing a Straight Course in a Time of Variances

Recently I spent a day as a lean anthropologist, sitting in the back of the room and observing the behavior…

New Sloan must define new GM

James Womack, founder and chairman of the Lean Enterprise Institute, writes in Automotive News that the genius of Alfred Sloan…

Strategy Deployment In Action: One Executive’s Perspective – Follow up Q & A

Webinar presenters David Brule and Pascal Dennis answer questions from their webinar about strategy deployment on March 12, 2009.

The End of an Era

When General Motors filed for bankruptcy yesterday it marked the end of an era. The first truly modern, manage-by-the-numbers corporation,…

Following The Toyota Way, For Better Or Worse

The article and audio present an overview of how Toyota is dealing with its worst year since the 1930s. The…

Forward to Fundamentals Webinar with Jim Womack and John Shook

In recent years, most discussions around lean transformation have understandably evolved toward more managerial and strategic matters. Yet there remains…

Repurpose Before You Restructure

One of my favorite questions when meeting with senior leaders of enterprises is, "What is your organization's purpose?"

Forward to Fundamentals Webinar with John Shook and Jim Womack, Written Transcript

In recent years, most discussions around lean transformation have understandably evolved toward more managerial and strategic matters. Yet there remains…

Taking the Wheel as Toyota Skids

As he assumes the presidency of Toyota Motor Corporation after a 25 year apprenticeship, Akio Toyoda embodies the company's Toyota Way…

Constancy of Purpose

The first of Dr. W. Edwards Deming’s 14 Points is "create constancy of purpose for continual improvement of products and…

Gemba-Based Leadership – Not Just for Chief Engineers

John Shook on gemba-based leadership

Learning to Manage

My colleague John Shook has recently written a wonderful book for LEI about "managing to learn". By this he means…

14 Principles

John Shook on 14 Principles (not just Deming's and Liker's, either!)

Leadership Q&A: Dan Ariens, CEO of Ariens Co.

From the LEI senior executive series on lean leadership:In the late 1990s, Ariens Co.faced a blizzard of problems. The iconic…

Podcast with John S. Toussaint, MD, about Lean at ThedaCare

Mark Graban welcomes John Toussaint, MD, CEO emeritus of ThedaCare, and CEO of the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value, to…

What’s your challenge?

Toyota can’t exist -- Toyota can’t be Toyota -- without a challenge. That’s true for each individual or work group…

Making Lean Leaders — Ariens Internship Program Develops Lean Management and Leadership Skills in Everyone

Besides making snow-blowers, mowers, and string trimmers, Ariens Co., of Brillion, WI, makes lean leaders. An internal lean internship program…

A Lean Dream…

…wouldn’t it be great to see some lean Practical Problem Solving brought to the Detroit 3 “bailout” debate in Washington?…

Leaning Your Boss

What do top managers need to learn to be able to lead a lean transformation? I get asked this question…

Eiji Toyoda and Management Muda

Enthusiasts know how tremendously influential Eiji Toyoda has been to the development of Toyota and its revolutionary management system. Perhaps…

Mega Mura Bubble Trouble

I started writing my monthly e-letter in October of 2001 to speak to the worries of the Lean Community as…

A Recession Action Plan

A recession is a good time for lean. Organizations can either postpone lean and resort to traditional cost cutting, or…

Lean Landscapers

HighGrove Partners, an Atlanta landscaping company, needed some time to figure out how to apply lean management principles. After all,…

The Worst Form of Muda

One of the souvenirs I collect on my visits to different countries is special reasons why lean is impossible in…

From Staffs Conducting Programs to Line Managers Solving Problems

Jim Womack, founder and senior advisor of LEI, introduces the concept of 'touzen'—kaizen that should not have been necessary.

Nice Car, Long Journey

2008 marks the 100th anniversary of the introduction of the Model T Ford. This truly is “the machine that changed…

Creating Value or Shifting Wealth?

How do we judge the progress of the Lean Movement? One critical indicator is our success in extending lean thinking…

Using Lean Thinking to Reinvent City Government

In many cities, stagnant tax revenues from a slowing economy coupled with rising healthcare and energy costs are causing budget…

Yokoten Across the World

The trick to yokoten, the term Toyota uses for the horizontal transfer of information and knowledge across an organization, is…

Respect for People

For years I've visited companies where "respect for people" is a core element of the corporate philosophy. So I've asked…

Ten Years and Counting

What do we at LEI -- and in the whole lean movement -- need to do now? This is the…

The Problem of Sustainability

I recently got a call from an old friend who led one of the first lean implementation efforts in healthcare…

Why Toyota Won and How Toyota Can Lose

Simon & Schuster has just re-issued The Machine That Changed the World, which Dan Jones, Dan Roos, and I co-authored…

More Thinking About Lean Transformation

Recently we at the Lean Enterprise Institute have started a new research project trying to answer a simple question: “What…

What I’ve Learned About Planning and Execution

By the time I founded the Lean Enterprise Institute in mid-1997, I had been thinking for years about how organizations…

From Lean Tools to Lean Management

James P. Womack reflects on the evolution of lean thinking over 27 years, emphasizing the shift from focusing on individual…

The Lean Way Forward at Ford

I’ve been reflecting on today’s remarkable headlines about the latest retreat by the Ford Motor Company as part of its…

Thinking End to End

Every value stream runs from raw materials all the way to the end customer. And value for the customer is…

Purpose, Process, People

When evaluating your lean efforts, Jim Womack suggests that you examine your purpose first of all, and then your process…

Fewer Heroes, More Farmers

I recently met with the chief executive of a very large American corporation organized by business units, each self-contained with…

Why Toyota Won

In an op-ed opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal, James P. Womack, founder and chairman of the Lean Enterprise…

Mr. Ford’s Wrong Turn

In an op-ed piece in The Washington Post, James P. Womack, founder and chairman of the Lean Enterprise Institute, responds…

Necessary But Not Sufficient

One of the hardest things in my line of work is seeing a company make enormous strides in getting lean…

The Health Factory

This quote from the article applies to the ideas in Managing to Learn: What sets the non-health care leaders apart…

Frontiers of Lean

It is eighteen years since the first western firm, Danaher in the USA, began its lean journey guided by disciples…

Lean Beyond Production

Read how Lean Thinkers, using the same lean tools that worked in production, now are making improvements and benefits off…

Why We Are a Nonprofit (And How You Can Benefit)

Every month I get calls and emails from folks thinking the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI) is a consulting business and…

The Prospects for Lean

As we all return to work in the New Year, I wanted to provide a few thoughts on the prospects…

Is Lean Mean?

I was recently asked a question that demanded an answer: “How can you advocate ideas that improve efficiency but destroy…

The Beginner’s Guide To Lean

Toyota has just overtaken Ford as number two in the global motor industry, and at the Tokyo motor show confirmed…

We Have Been (Lean) Thinking

In the many years since we launched Lean Thinking, events amply confirm our long-held view that managers will try anything…

Here’s to Toyota

More than twenty years ago Dan Jones and I made an important discovery. On a trip to Japan we concluded…

Substituting Money for Value Stream Management

I've been traveling again since I last wrote, this time to visit a household-name American company trying to pursue perfection…

What do you need from LEI?

August 1 marks the fifth anniversary of the Lean Enterprise Institute. In our first five years we've conducted Lean Summits…

A Great Time for Lean Thinking

I’ve just been reading the financial news and realizing that this is a great time to be a lean thinker.…

Getting Back to Basics

I recently had a request from a Detroit newspaper to write a brief piece for the Motor Show on how…

Shopping for a Sensei

We at LEI have been getting a lot of requests recently to help companies find lean expertise for harder times.…

The Human Side of Hard Times

Harder times call for leaner thinking and presented an action plan, but what about the human side? Lean thinking requires…

Action Plan for Hard Times

Last week I pointed out that the big leaps in applying lean thinking have all been made in hard times.…

Leaner Thinking for Harder Times

So now we have the recession of 2001. Its time for all of us to marshal our energies, focus our…

The Five Steps of Lean Implementation

Step 1: Specify ValueDefine value from the perspective of the final customer. Express value in terms of a specific product, which…

Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System

Steven Spear and H. Kent Bowen explain in the Harvard Business Review how the Toyota Production System can be tightly choreographed and supple. The key…

Craftsmanship – the Lost Art in Product Development

In his first job as an engine designer, Steve Shoemaker could visit 90 percent of final product value streams within…

How an Established Company Disrupted an Industry

TechnipFMC confronted a crisis and redesigned its business model using Lean Product and Process Development.

Lead from the Front, Lead from Behind

In my last letter I alluded to a common view in the Lean Community – shared by the broader business…

More Crisis Control at Boeing and the FAA – Some Lessons on Building in Quality from NUMMI

As Boeing grapples with recurring quality issues, this Design Brief article from John Shook explores how the NUMMI joint venture…

Quality Leadership at the Forefront of Innovation: A Conversation with Jeri Ford of Lucid Motors 

Lucid Motors’ Vice President of Quality, Jeri Ford, shares lessons from the automotive industry on how to build a culture…

Developing Products Customers Love: Discussing Lean Product and Process Development with Two Retired Honda Leaders

LEI talks with Frank Paluch and Lara Harrington about developing the Honda Passport, the role of the chief engineer, and…

Strategies for Tackling Complex Problems: a Conversation with Paolo Savaget

LEI chats with author Paolo Savaget about how clever workarounds can aid companies solving challenging problems.

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.

Learning to Solve Problems By… Wait for It… Solving Problems

A team learns what matters when it comes to problem-solving using lean thinking and practices.

Serving Up Lean with a Southern-Fried Kick

Haven Hot Chicken used lean thinking and practices to launch a successful restaurant during a pandemic.

How Purpose Shapes Culture

The author of Joy, Inc. reflects on the struggles and rewards of building a leadership culture that elevates human energy.

Building in Learning and Knowledge Reuse

LEI's lean product and process development coaches share the third of several guiding principles that will help you improve the…

Embracing Regret for Better Living: A WLEI Podcast with author Dan Pink

LEI chats with author Dan Pink about his new book and how it relates to retrospective outlooks and continuous improvement.

2021’s Top Posts: Insights that Will Enhance Your Lean Thinking and Practice

This year's most popular Lean Posts feature thought leadership and guidance on several issues that are challenging for even the…

How to Respond to the ‘Great Resignation’

A trip to the gemba reveals an overlooked management strategy that could be the most effective way to keep your…

Designing the Future: A WLEI Podcast with Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe and former COO Jim Morgan

LEI explores the early days and product development strategies of electrical-vehicle startup Rivian.

Seeking Radical Quality in the Tech Industry

The CTO of a website design firm explains how a recent book on radical quality improvement in manufacturing inspired him…

People-First Leadership: A Conversation Between Jim Morgan and Alan Mulally

Leading through challenging times means enhancing your work process and always looking to improve people's lives. Putting people first is…

Videos from WLEI: Deep Dives on the Factory Floor with Cliff Ransom

Cliff Ransom walks through a factory with us, emphasizing how lean thinking improves the quality and efficiency of the work…

LEI In the News: Leading Trade Journal Asks How Lean Principles Performed During the Pandemic

Lean management principles didn’t fail during the pandemic; some companies failed to execute them correctly, especially the practice of just-in-time…

Lean at Amazon.com: Reconciling Lean and High-Tech

Contrary to what some people think, adopting lean in a high-technology environment isn’t just possible; it’s essential. Just ask Marc…

Steady Work Shares Practical Ways to Create Quality Enterprise For All

Karen Gaudet's Steady Work is the story of a leader helping teams develop steady work to help them get through…

Ask Art: What is the Walk of Shame, and Why Is It Effective?

Take your team on a walk of shame, urges lean veteran Art Byrne. He suggests that you have some fun…

Art of Lean on Situational Leadership, Part 5: Being an Expert and the D4-S4 Quadrant

To wrap up, Art Smalley gives some lasting impressions and key takeaways from his segmented takes on Situational Leadership. From…

Art of Lean on Situational Leadership, Part 4: Supportive Style, from Basketball to Toyota

Part four continues the series' trajectory of further contextualizing situational leadership and lean thinking. By picking personal examples from his…

Art of Lean on Situational Leadership, Part 2: Toyota, Taiichi, and TWI Job Instruction

After the introduction to what situational leadership actually is, Art Smalley returns to run through some examples as to how…

Are You Deploying Lean Mechanistically–or Organically?

Toyota operates on a complete system based on organic rather than mechanistic principles, argues Jeff Liker, who delineates the advantages…

Avoiding Lean ‘Flatlining’: A Podcast with Mark Deluzio, Art Byrne, and Jim Womack

Mark Deluzio, lean consultant, practitioner, and author of Flatlined, discusses enduring challenges with Art Byrne and Jim Womack on this…

Practical Approaches for Making Innovation an Enterprise-Wide Activity

Jim Morgan tells an interviewer how to make innovation an enterprise-wide endeavor, based on his years of experience as a…

Avoid the Costly Work of Rework

Customers care only for the product or service they receive, says Rose Heathcote. They're not interested in how much effort…

Changing the Way New Value is Created with Lean Product and Process Development

Learn the six guiding principles of LPPD and why they are critical to successful new product, process, and service development.

The Power of Yokoten

I’ve written a lot about yokoten in recent years – the practice of spreading good (lean) ideas horizontally between and…

Jim Womack Shares a Future-Focused Reflection on ‘Machine’

Jim Womack shares a future-focused, humble reflection of the groundbreaking book he co-authored with Daniel T. Jones and Daniel Roos,…

How Menlo’s Virtual Teams Are Lighting the Way Forward

While Menlo Software continues to adjust to the never-ending changes caused by COVID-19, founder Rich Sheridan takes solace that they…

Tapping Technology to Boost the Power of Lean: A Talk with Jeff Liker and Jim Morgan

What principles should guide lean thinkers as they introduce digital tools into their work? How about people, processes, and purpose,…

Why You Should Link Your Hoshin Kanri and A3 Management Processes

An organization that integrates a robust long-term-oriented strategy deployment process with a daily management process achieves greater performance gains than…

How to Develop Healthy Habits for Mindful Coaching

Powerful lean coaches help others create productive habits that over time produce a type of "muscle memory" that forms a…

How the A3 Process Developed to Help Build Better Managers, Part Two

In this second of two articles, Isao Yoshino and John Shook explore how A3 emerged as powerful practice at Toyota…

What You Will Learn by Reflecting on Your Organization’s Work-at-Home Experience

Reflecting on your work-from-home experience promises to provide needed insights about knowledge work and the routine work that accompanies it—both…

Building the Enabling Bureaucracy

A conversation with RJ Scaringe about creating the "Rivian Way."

Why You Should Link Hoshin Kanri with A3 Problem-Solving

With A3 tightly linked to hoshin, an organization will not only solve problems but also will have the opportunity to…

Why We Believe Tough Times and Opportunity Go Hand in Hand

In this detailed set of suggestions for managing the current challenges posed by Covid-19, Rose Heathcote and the Lean Sensei…

Book Review: Learning to Scale, a “Practical Field Guide” to Lean Growth

In his new book Learning to Scale, author Regis Medina has "successfully translated each concept of the TPS and lean…

How to Show Respect During a Pandemic

Lean Coach Katrina Appell shares how to use Maslow's hierarchy of needs to clarify how to show respect for people…

Five Revolutions Into the Lean Journey: What’s Next?

The current pandemic serves as an opportunity for us to rethink the world of enterprise (and more), says Dan Jones.…

Combat Isolation with Productivity by Using PDCA for Effective Meetings, part two of two

How to run a productive meeting, the Toyota Way

Reimagining restaurants after Covid-19

The future has never looked more uncertain for restaurants and cafes. The authors share a set of practical lean tips…

How Hospitals are Leveraging Visual Management in the Battle Against Covid-19

A Lean Global Network team of lean practitioners and coaches shares a set of lean healthcare tips hospitals can use…

Single Week Exchange of Business

You’ve no doubt heard of a single-minute exchange of dies in manufacturing, but what happens when you need to changeover…

Designing the Patient Flow to Fight Covid-19

A Lean Global Network team of lean practitioners and coaches shares a set of lean healthcare tips hospitals can use…

Developing Awareness On the Gemba (part 2)

In this followup to her article on ways to develop awareness on the gemba, Lean Coach Sandrine Olivencia argues that…

Developing Awareness on the Gemba

Lean Sensei Sandrine Olivencia shares practical advice on ways to be present and to coach in the moment at the…

Lean and “emotional heijunka” in a Time of Pandemic

In this timely reflection, Jim Womack calls for "emotional heijunka": taking a deep breath, identifying the most important problems that…

Maintaining Emotional Heijunka During a Pandemic

In this timely reflection, Jim Womack calls for "emotional heijunka": taking a deep breath, identifying the most important problems that…

How One Company is Using Lean Fundamentals When Facing Disruption

Companies that have been built using lean principles are turning to these core ideals when confronting the unique challenges caused…

Ask Art: How Does Lean Bring the Customer Directly Onto the Shop Floor?

The lean approach reduces setup times, creates flow, improves quality, lowers cost and drastically shortens lead times, says Art Byrne,…

Why You Need a Product Focus for an Enterprise Transformation: A Talk By Jim Morgan

In this talk from the 2018 Designing the Future summit, former Rivian COO and LEI Senior Advisor Jim Morgan discusses…

Delivering Quality Foods with Zingerman’s Mail Order

Listen to this podcast between Tom Root, Zingerman Mail Order's Managing Director, and Josh Howell for a wide-ranging conversation about…

The Value of A Visual Schedule is Developing Shared Understanding

People closest to the work should understand it best, so they are in the best position to share what the…

Working Hard…For One Minute

Anyone who doubts the ability of their people to work hard in enacting change--or who blames problems on their "people"…

Time To Make Time

When the people in a lean system don't value time, everyone is cheated, says John Shook, in this fascinating reflection…

Are These Two Non-learning Trends Hurting Your Company Culture?

The beating heart of continuous improvement is learning, concludes author and product development executive Jim Morgan, who has done pioneering…

What Ever Happened to Mura?

If we really want to dig down into the root causes of waste, we need to bring the two lost…

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…

Overcoming a Fear Of Failure Culture

Managers and teams can overcome the elements of a fear of failure culture, argues Andrew Quibell. His piece illustrates steps…

Why Doesn’t Lean Have a Seat at the Table?

Why hasn’t Lean spread more widely, asks Steven Spear, suggesting that it has not been framed in a way that…

Ask Art: At What Pace Should A Lean Turnaround Be Implemented?”

Changing from a traditional batch, make-the-month culture to a lean value driven culture takes a lot of time and effort,…

Believe in One Thing All the Way

Who is a “superhero” in our companies, asks Darril Wilburn in this inspiring piece: Is it the person that can…

Lean Thinkers Are Systems Thinkers

Lean thinkers are systems thinkers, argues Rich Sheridan: "Intentional cultures thrive when the simple systems put in place reinforce every…

Thoughts on the Birth of Lean

There is much to be learned from the history of Lean that applies powerfully today in every aspect of the…

Profit and Cost At Toyota

Fresh off a tour of Japan where she observed how Toyota talks about costs and profit on the shop floor,…

What are the key factors within an obeya room?

Dear Gemba Coach: On YouTube and in books there is a lot about A3 storyboards. Did you ever see them…

What Do Sensei Actually Do?

What do lean sensei do? Take you to the gemba, discuss what the real challenges are, prescribe exercises, teach PDCA,…

As head of a lean office, what must I do to really walk the talk?

Dear Gemba Coach: I am the head of a lean office. I’d like to lead by example, but it occurs…

How to Scale Up Positive Social Change

Far more households globally have access to a mobile phone than a toilet, notes Ann Mei Chang, a tech executive…

Join the Conversation and Stop the Rework

In the spring of 1997, as I was starting the nonprofit Lean Enterprise Institute, I visited a company that I…

Ask Art: What Incentives and Bonus Programs Best Support Lean?

Bonus and incentive plans work best when they serve an underlying purpose, says Art Byrne, who advises that management design…

Cutting Carbon Emissions and Product Costs Through Lean Product and Process Development

As the need to reduce carbon emissions becomes clearer, the need to understand the impact and consciously consider it during…

As someone who is new to lean, is there something I’m not being told?

Dear Gemba Coach: I’m new to lean, and I find it fascinating. Is there something I’m not being told? Is…

What Do Managers Do?

After walking the gemba with sensei Hideshi Yokoi, Matt Savas learned three basic agreements between workers and management, and shared…

Lean Is A Product-Driven Strategy

What is at the core of lean? Michael Balle argues, in terms of our best known example: "Toyota is not…

How Standardized Work Integrates People with Process

In this three-part series, John Shook argues that "the Toyota Way is a socio-technical system on steroids" that brings together…

How Accounting “Squirrels” Can Ferret Out Waste

While other functions are busy as beavers looking for waste during a lean transformation, your accounting staff is like a…

Should we seek professional help for our sensei who talks to parts?

Dear Gemba Coach: My sensei has gone crazy; he’s talking to parts. Everyone is looking at him funny on the…

Ask Art: How Should I Re-invest the Gains from Kaizen?

Becoming lean through using kaizen activity allows you to remove a great deal of waste and deliver value to your…

What If Elon Musk Took Manufacturing Cars Seriously?

Jeff Liker asks of Tesla: What if it took Toyota’s help seriously in learning basic manufacturing before undertaking disruptive technology…

Can you implement TPS if management doesn’t accept the fundamental values of the Toyota Way?

Dear Gemba Coach: How can we implement the principles of  TPS if our management doesn’t accept the fundamental values of…

And Now For Something Completely…Lean

Lean practice is no joke, argues Brent Wahba. And yet he draws lessons from great comedy to help address this…

Lean Production Begins with LPPD

To create a "turbo-charged product-creating machine, start by designing clear processes with useful tools and a “people first” culture--which form…

Transformative Steering

After three years of working with learning partner companies, LEI’s Lean Product and Process Development group observed that the companies…

Seafood Restaurant Fishes for Problems Customers Really Care About

The executive chef at Legal Sea Foods explains how the restaurants are cutting lead times from fishing boat to your…

Lean Digital Transformation

Discover how the application of lean principles can improve entire corporate ecosystems to deliver digital services and products that customers…

Designing the Future Jim Morgan Talks Passion with Dave Pericak – A WLEI Special

In this special edition series, Designing the Future. Jim Morgan talks with Dave Pericak, the Chief Engineer of the 2015…

Ask Art: Does Lean Really Work in A Non-manufacturing Company?

All companies and organizations, whether manufacturing or not, are nothing more than a group of people and a bunch of…

Jishuken, Part Two: The Power of Self-Learning

Consider Jishuken to be an intensive effort to drive individuals and the organization to a higher level, says Mark Reich,…

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…

Does it matter if we call lean “lean”?

Dear Gemba Coach: If it works, why worry if it’s called lean, operational excellence, or the company’s excellence system? As…

The Escalator of Issues

A daily management system with daily performance metrics gives caregivers the sense that managers are really paying attention, that problems…

Avoiding Dashboard Wallpaper

Build a system of dashboards up and down the organization, says Leslie Barker. Connect them so ideas flow upward and…

Fresh Eyes Bring Lean Problems into Clarity

“Fresh eyes” reviews are an indispensible part of developing new value. It’s amazing what you can learn from the input…

As Toast Kaizen Turns 20, Bruce Hamilton Shares How This Famous Video Came About

Watch this "director's cut" video by Bruce Hamilton sharing the backstory behind what has become a classic lean resource: Toast…

Thinking About Waste Helps Build A Learning Culture Everywhere

Developing people to reduce waste in everything from using toilets to saving one second of work is key to creating…

I’m thinking about outsourcing some administrative activities to be more flexible, but what does lean say about outsourcing?

Dear Gemba Coach: Financial results do not allow me to have excess people. After two years of struggling, I'm thinking…

Ep. 10 Port to Plate, Lean Changes the Restaurant Industry with Legal Sea Foods’ Executive Chef Rich Vellante

Can the restaurant industry change they way they've worked for decades? Legal Sea Foods has been on their lean journey…

Ask Art: Why Should I Be Able to Make Every Product Every Day?

Working on the goal of "every product every day" helps all companies realize the benefits of lean as a strategy,…

As a business unit manager who is new to lean, what is the one thing I must know to get it right?

Dear Gemba Coach: I’m a business unit manager new to lean, and our CEO has decided to embark us on…

Thoughts on Coaching from John Shook and Edgar Schein

Excerpts from an in-depth conversation between John Shook and Ed Schein on the nature of coaching, humble inquiry, and the…

Do I have the right attitude during gemba walks?

Dear Gemba Coach: How do I know if I have the right attitude during gemba walks? We’ve started doing those…

Ask Art: Why Do People Reject Proof that Lean Works?

Despite compelling proof, most people will find a way to doubt the power of lean to improve their particular work,…

What is your psychology of change?

Dear Gemba Coach: Do you have a psychology of change? And if so, what is it? Where should we start?

The Formula for a Successful Management System: LB * OS = MS

In order to reap the benefits of an effective management system it is important that the operating system and leadership…

Learning to Teach the Soft Side of Lean

If there’s one common theme among virtually any failed effort, it boils to a failure to engage people in the purpose,…

Rethinking the Model Line

The model line, once seen as the key to helping organizations learn and share lean thinking, has served a critical…

Ep. 5: The Lean Farm and Sharing Your Gift Live from the 2018 Lean Transformation Summit

Live from the 2018 Lean Transformation Summit in Nashville, Jim Womack interviews Ben Hartman, author of the Lean Farm, Joel…

Eric Buehrens Keynote at the 2018 Lean Transformation Summit

LEI CEO Eric Buehrens looks at ways that lean thinkers can help contribute to the future of work.

Tips for Proving the Financial Value of Lean to Leadership

Of the many aspects of lean accounting, one that has proven especially useful is the principle of “cost avoidance.” Today…

Is there a crack in the model of continuous improvement?

Is this a case of déjà vu all over again? The Wall Street Journal says the sterling reputation of “Japanese…

How Do I Tell Good Obeya Rooms From Bad?

Dear Gemba Coach: Obeyas are popping up everywhere in our organization, and I don’t know what to look for to…

Shook Addresses Current State of Lean Thinking After U.S-Turkey Tiff Compels Keynote Countermeasure

Indefatigable presenter John Shook quickly made this video as a countermeasure to being denied entry to Turkey, where he was…

The Time for Healthcare Leaders to Implement Lean Is Now – Stat!

Pioneering healthcare leaders have demonstrated that lean applied to healthcare can help solve the problems of quality, delivery of care,…

It’s Not All About the Cash: How to Help Leadership Understand Lean’s Financial Benefits

Lean's cost savings might not show up immediately on the income statement -- but that doesn't mean there were no…

Lean Was a Lot Simpler Back in the Day…

Lean transformations aren't easy. But, according to Brent Wahba, they weren't always that way. In his newest Post, Brent discusses…

Advice from the Gemba: Top Mistakes Lean Leaders Make III

Mistakes are just a part of lean, even for leaders. Luckily they're also a great opportunity for improvement. Today three…

Follow-up Q&A for Jim Lancaster’s Work of Management Webinar

“The Real Work of Management” webinar drew very engaged attendees who submitted hundreds of questions. We now present some of…

It’s All About the Mindset on Gemba Walks

Darren Walsh believes that there are few things more critical to a successful gemba walk than the right mindset. Do…

Why Visualize?

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

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…

Why do lean management experts differ on how to apply lean principles?

Dear Gemba Coach: I’ve worked with several managers who worked at Toyota or Toyota suppliers who were considered experts in…

Want to Be a Better Leader and Coach? Listen to Yourself

Conduct this simple two-step analysis to learn whether you’re practicing the communication behavior that encourages a culture of engagement and…

Leaders’ Actions Speak, but Their Talk Matters Too

How leaders talk to employees can either help or hurt efforts to create and sustain a culture of engagement and…

How can I tell good lean consultants from bad?

If lean’s not a scam – but there are scammers -- how can I distinguish good lean consultants from bad?

I’ll Follow You into the Dark…

We all know that lean transformations can happen in any industry or environment. But have you ever thought about a…

Managing to Win: The Remarkable Lean Transformation of Phase 2

Revisit the enlightening case study of Phase 2's lean transformation in the face of losing its biggest customer, plus insider…

Ask Art: Is Lean a Strategy?

The debate over whether lean should be considered a strategy, philosophy, methodology, etc. is a long one. Merriam-Webster defines a…

A Tool That Every High-Mix, Low-Volume Leader Needs to See

"High mix, low volume operations are a difficult concept to grasp," writes Greg Lane. But it doesn't have to be…

Ask Art: Why do so few companies that implement lean do it successfully?

We've all heard the stories of failed lean implementations, as well as the hotly debated question of "Why did it…

Changing High School Culture with Lean Coaching

Nearly eight years ago, headteacher Tony Lamberton of Christleton High School was struggling with poor reviews of his school. After…

What Too Many Lean Leaders Forget about Gemba Walks

Lean Coach Darren Walsh of the UK's Lean Enterprise Academy has seen many lean leaders make a troubling, yet highly…

What do you think are the pros and cons of merging lean and TOC?

Dear Gemba Coach: In the DevOps movement, the amalgamation of agile, lean, and IT service management practices, there is a…

Working on the Management

Effective daily management is still hard to achieve for most organizations, says Jim Womack. But until line managers start tackling…

A Thriving Community of Practice – Book Report

I am often asked why the “lean movement” has outlasted so many business improvement movements that have come and gone.…

Planning Meetings Around A3s

"How many times have you sat in a meeting to discuss solving a pressing, urgent or serious problem – and…

Managing to Create Problem-Solvers: A Lean Transformation Summit Roundup

Countless people have asked us over the years, "My organization can't be lean without a problem-solving culture. So how do…

What kind of conversation should I expect during a gemba walk?

Dear Gemba Coach: What kind of conversation should I expect during a gemba walk?

Does implementing lean mean creating a lean management system?

Dear Gemba Coach: My understanding is that implementing lean means setting up a lean management system. You seem to disagree.…

What the Books Don’t Tell: Explaining the Financial Benefits of Lean

It's a curious fact that very few books about lean address the topic of finance. Questions about lean's financial benefits…

Green from the Start

LEI faculty member Jim Morgan shares his insights with Kelly Singer, managing editor of the Lean Green Institute, on how…

3 Common Problems in Government that A3 Thinking Can Help Solve

I’m always surprised at how little the public sector uses A3 thinking to tackle their toughest challenges. It’s the same…

Does respect for humanity mean the same as respect for people?

Dear Gemba Coach: Does respect for humanity mean the same as respect for people? I hear that the literal translation…

You Can’t Know If You Don’t Know

Recently LEI Chairman and CEO John Shook found an interesting blog by Dr. Helen Kales of the University of Michigan,…

What Do I Tell My Leaders When Experiments Fail?

When experiments fail, it's natural for a leadership team to get nervous. But in the context of lean, they shouldn't…

Ask Art: People are Nervous about Too Much Change, Can I Lead Lean Incrementally?

Resistance to change is a classic part of lean transformation, and it's not uncommon to see efforts to skirt around…

What is leader standard work?

Dear Gemba Coach: Is there such thing as a leader standard work, and, if so, what is it?

How the A3 Came to Be Toyota’s Go-To Management Process for Knowledge Work (intro by John Shook)

A3 thinking is synonymous with Toyota. Yet many often wonder how exactly this happened. Even if we know A3 thinking…

Do we need more research to understand what works and what doesn’t when implementing lean healthcare?

Dear Gemba Coach: There are controversies over whether lean/TPS works in healthcare or not. Authorities in lean practice suggest conducting…

You Need More Smoke Detectors: Countering Firefighting with Leader Standard Work

Excessive firefighting is a major threat to lean transformations - it may seem easier to time-strapped managers, but it does…

Lean Transformation: Have You Hit the “Lean Plateau?”

After realizing that that their five-year track record of continuous improvement was leveling out, Craig Stritar and his team knew…

Establishing Lean Healthcare Believers When Professional Society Allegiance Impedes Engagement

When implementing lean in a healthcare organization, it's not uncommon to encounter resistance from medical professionals set in their traditional…

Generating Multiple Alternatives is Not Necessarily Waste

I was once asked: 'How is set-based design lean? Isnít designing multiple alternatives creating waste and the opposite of lean?'î…

Reflections on Hansei

For many of us, Japanese lingo has become synonymous with lean. But according to Dan Markowitz, this just makes things…

Any step forward in a lean transformation is a good step — right?

Dear Gemba Coach: Surely a step forward in a lean transformation is a good thing, even if it’s not completely…

Ask Art: What Lean Books Should I Start With?

Art Byrne shares with us his book recommendations to newcomers on insights into the philosophy and general approach behind lean.

Creating New Value and a Lesson in Fundamentals

After a recent trip to Toyota's headquarters in Japan, Jim Morgan made an epiphany about the Toyota Production System and…

Accountability: Not What You Think it is…

"When managers and associates hear the term [accountability], they often flinch!" writes Mike Orzen. "This is a major problem for…

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…

A Principles-Based Approach to Changing Healthcare Management

"This year alone over 250,000 Americans will die due to medical error," writes Dr. John Toussaint. "How can so many…

Put Your People at The Center of Your Development System

"It is your people that provide the skills, energy and creativity," writes Jim Morgan. "They are the single most important…

Why you can’t convince your boss to support lean activities, unless …

Dear Gemba  Coach: I work as a deployment champion in a manufacturing company, but I don’t have the support of…

Gemba Walking on Mars

Lean is all around us in our daily lives - including at the movies, as Lean Institute Brasil president Jose…

Bad Data: The Elephant in the Room

"The goal of IT is to enable people to perform their jobs well by providing access to complete and accurate…

LEI’s Lean Transformation Model Animated

Need a simple way of explaining lean thinking to your team? LEI has released a new animated video of how…

Leadership Stories From One of Lean’s Fastest Growing Communities of Practice

On the heels of the Lean Healthcare Summit earlier this month in Dallas, Texas, we've gathered three stories in which…

Redefining Work

We need to think about redefining work. Until we – anyone who wishes to bring about organizational change – redefine…

Lean is About Building Organizations that Learn to Learn

In April, LEI's John Shook spoke at the LeanUX NYC conference about how the lean movement has changed (and not…

My management team feels tense and pressured about going to the gemba. Is this normal?

Dear Gemba Coach: I’ve decided to take my management team to the gemba to get them to solve real problems…

Transforming Healthcare: What Matters Most? How the Cleveland Clinic Is Cultivating a Problem-Solving Mindset and Building a Culture of Improvement

Imagine if you could create a culture of excellence and improvement in a large healthcare organization. That’s the challenge that…

Continuous Improvement is Good, But Is It Lean?

Take a look at your organization. Is Lean clearly directed and connected to strategy? Are senior leaders directly involved in…

Strategy Deployment at The Lean Enterprise Institute

Is your organization “chasing too many rabbits?” It’s a tendency too many companies have of annually setting more strategic objectives…

Leadership Without Giving Solutions (from a Fire Fighter’s Perspective)

LEI faculty member Greg Lane shares a lean coaching story from his own life, in which he finds himself advising…

We’re Ernie and Tracey Richardson: Ask Us Anything

It's our second "Ask Me Anything" post, this time with lean coaches Tracey and Ernie Richardson. With a combined 54…

Making a Football is a Contact Sport

With football on the brain after the Superbowl, Lesa Nichols reflects on the football manufacturing process. "There's a concept called…

How Do You Spread a Lean Transformation from One Site to Many?

Dear Gemba Coach: My CEO has asked me to spread lean to 30 other sites. How should I go about…

What Strategy Is and What It’s Not

"In my career, I was always more interested in what it would take to create and sustain competitive advantage than…

Lessons Learned from My Lean Sensei about “Customer Service”

"To 'get' Lean we have to change our specs, and no longer see processes as sequences of dependent tasks, but…

The Cure for Bad Meeting Syndrome

"Anyone who leads a group needs the ability to design and plan a meeting," writes Alice Lee. "This isn’t just…

“Learning from Manufacturing” Versus Learning To Think Differently

Beau Keyte talks lean thinking and practice in non-manufacturing settings. "The big challenge now isn’t to learn lean thinking the…

10 RULES FOR FAILING WITH TOYOTA KATA

Looking for tips to successfully practice the Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata in your organization? In this month's Kata SlideShare…

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

"What the leader demonstrates as important is what the team will focus on," writes Erin Urban. "If we are to…

How to Lead with Respect — Follow-Up Q&A to the Webinar

At the end of the lean management webinar “How to Lead with Respect,” we had a couple of hundred questions…

Lean Product Development is About Thinking Horizontally in a Vertical World

Check out the blog from Day 2 of the Lean Product and Process Development Exchange (North America) conference in Durham,…

Remembering Jim Harbour

"We in the Lean Community stand on a lot of shoulders. One broad pair belonged to Jim Harbour, who passed…

Say Goodbye to the Report Out

"If we want to improve coaching, let’s build the requirement for it into the daily management process," writes Dave LaHote.…

How Lean Tools Support the Principle of Respect (Part 1)

We first met Andy Ward when he was struggling to save his plant from closure in The Lean Manager. Since…

KATA CASE EXAMPLE – GKN SINTER METALS

This month's video is a case example of deploying the Improvement Kata & Coaching Kata. Wayne Meyer illustrates GKN's application,…

A Body Needs Skeleton and Muscle to Work

How do you create alignment across the organization when you have separate departments, value streams, and executives with conflicting priorities?…

“How ThedaCare Created Its Own Management System”, Follow-Up Q&A

Kim Barnas, author of Beyond Heroes: A Lean Management System for Healthcare, answers questions that we couldn't get to during…

Ask Art: How Much Lean Training Should We Be Doing?

Why aren't more companies successful at Lean? Art Byrne says it has to do with an over-focus on planning and…

Opportunity Lost?

President of Lean Institute Brasil, José Ferro, gives us the background situation on the World Cup and tells us about…

Long-term Organizational Health or Sugar High?

"We know 'flavor-of-the-month' initiatives can't be the focus of a lean leader," writes Bob Miller of the Shingo Institute. So…

Real Concurrent Engineering: Developing Engineers and Products Simultaneously

Jim Morgan and Durward Sobek compare and contrast Lean with traditional product and process development.

What is the worst mistake you’ve made on the gemba?

Dear Gemba Coach: What is the worst mistake you’ve made on the gemba?

Monozukuri Through Hitozukuri

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

How to Handle Fire Fighting, Process Averse Cultures, Naysayers, and More

Summit attendees hosted their own conversations on lean thinking and practice last week, identifying challenges and opportunities for Lean within…

Starting Up, Growing Up, and Starting Over

In an essay first published in Gemba Walks (2nd Ed) and adapted for the Post, LEI founder and thought leader…

Effective Leaders Tackle Challenges Systematically

"It's not enough to simply set a challenge," writes Dario Spinola. "We need effective ways of working toward challenges." Read…

Transforming Transformation

We are all trying to transform. That's what lean thinking and practice are all about: challenging us to reflect deeply…

The Question All Healthcare Leaders Should be Asking Themselves

Lean healthcare expert Mark Graban takes a common problem he sees again and again in hospitals (errors with hourly rounds…

How does lean fit together with Lean Startup concepts?

Dear Gemba Coach: I work in IT and discovered lean through the Lean Startup movement. Now, as I read more…

On Lean Production’s 25th Anniversary: Candid Reflections

At the 2013 AME (Association for Manufacturing Excellence) conference three management thought leaders (Jim Womack, Dan Jones, and John Shook)…

Catchball Helps Us Get Past We Versus They

When employees dread going to work every day, your company loses. Read what Tracey Richardson has to say about boosting…

Fighting fires vs. problem solving: what’s the difference?

Dear Gemba Coach: I hear that lean is about less fighting fires and more problem solving but I am unsure…

Where Lean Meets Innovation

"Many people see Lean purely as an improvement method, not a total enterprise solution or a new way of doing…

Ask Art: Does Lean Really Work Everywhere?

There's a common misconception that Lean is "just some manufacturing thing." Read why Art Byrne believes Lean can be applied…

Lean Starts With the Need to Achieve

"The first step in a lean implementation is to identify employees with an intense desire to achieve," writes lean practitioner…

Create Your Fantasy Island Organizational Culture

What would your dream organizational culture look like? What about your fantasy lean transformation? Tracey Richardson shares her advice for…

Alice Lee on the Challenges and Rewards of Applying Lean to Healthcare

Alice Lee, VP of Business Transformation at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, discusses BIDMC's unique application of lean…

Should I use an A3 report to kick off a problem-solving effort?

Dear Gemba Coach: Should I use an A3 report to kick off a problem? I encourage my managers to tell…

Waste-Free Capitalism

In his first piece for The Lean Post, lean thought leader and LEI author Michael Ballé shares Toyota's lessons for…

How is lean strategic?

Dear Gemba Coach: I’ve been told by my senior management that there is no strategic vision in lean and they…

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…

How can we reconcile the lean principle of respect for people with our disrespectful atmosphere?

Dear Gemba Coach: My company's lean program stigmatizes competent people as “concrete heads” for disagreeing with the lean coaches, even…

Asking Effective Questions: The Foundation of Coaching with Margie Hagene

Lean Enterprise Institute faculty member Margie Hagene offers tips for using the four types of questions -- humble, diagnostic, prompting,…

What Is Your Purpose? Who Is Your Audience?

In this article, the third in a series of starting your A3, sensei David Verble suggest that you reflect more…

Management has a bad case of investment loss aversion. What can I do?

Dear Gemba Coach: I’ve been asked to take over the corporate lean program but the company’s investment plan favors large…

Was Steve Lean?

I don’t know that much about Apple. The only gemba I've visited are lots of Apple stores (I don't know…

Fulfillment-Stream Measurement Systems: Driving Action in Real Time

Derek Browning, a lean supply chain executive at LeanCor, takes time out from a lean logistics conference to answer questions…

What Are the Different Types of A3s?

What are the different types of A3s and what are they used for?

Problems First and Positive Thinking

Dear Gemba Coach: Isn’t always focusing on problems discouraging? My people feel that they’d like to be recognized for their successes…

A Fundamental Question

As I continue to visit your gemba and receive emails (over 500 and counting since I started in September), I…

How Can One Be A Better Sensei?

Dear Gemba Coach,Our operations VP is disappointed with our lean program. Despite his close personal involvement with the program, it…

The Tipping Point?

Early efforts to apply lean principles to healthcare faltered and for many years the challenge seemed to be too great.…

When should I push and when should I praise?

Dear Gemba Coach: I am in charge of a service activity and have started a lean approach with a sensei. In…

Toyota the Bad Guy

Recently I am cornered frequently by beleaguered lean change agents eager to show me their scars inflicted by re-energized resistors.…

Lean Transformation: Thinking, Learning, & Experimenting For Today’s Complicated Operating System

Matt Zayko, an LEI faculty member, notes that many organizations that have tried to implement lean in the past 20 years have…

The End of the Beginning

NUMMI closes today. The GM-Toyota joint venture assembling motor vehicles in California lasted 25 years - a very long time…

Toyota Trouble: A Dialogue with Jeff Liker (AKA the Coffee Shop Talks)

With the appearance of Toyota's various quality and recall problems, Jeff Liker and I have been meeting in coffee shops…

Don’t Gloat Too Quickly – If This Could Happen to Toyota, It Could Happen to You …

Okay, so how do you respond to a "crisis"?  My recent encouragement to Toyota President Akio Toyoda that "It isn't the…

Developing a Kaizen Consciousness with Shingo Prize winner Michael Balle

Michael Ballé, co-author of The Lean Manager, published by the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI), cautioned in a podcast interview with Business…

Making Everyone Whole

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

A Trip to the Dentist That You’ll Enjoy

At AME's annual conference in Covington, KY, two weeks ago, Sami Bahri used his book, Follow the Learner, to base…

How Can I Address the Conflict that Lean Creates?

Dear Gemba Coach, I have just finished reading The Lean Manager, and I was very taken by the chapter on…

Herman Miller’s Experiment in Excellence

With initial support from the Toyota Supplier Support Center, Herman Miller cultivates experimental thinkers who make process improvements every day.…

Signs of Progress

Dear Gemba Coach: We've been doing lean for several years now, and the program has had its ups and downs.…

How Much Control Do I Need (and Need to Give Up) to Lead?

Dear Gemba Coach: I am interested in setting up a team for implementing lean. So far I have been trying…

Forward to Fundamentals

John Shook talks about the importance of lean fundamentals

GM Veteran Lou Farinola Responds to, “Why hasn’t GM learned from NUMMI?”

John Shook discusses how GM learned from NUMMI with a former GM executive

The Remarkable Chief Engineer

Last week I shared this principle quoted from an unexpected source, the U.S. Marine Leadership Manual: "An individual's responsibility for…

2008 in Summary: A Large Enough Wave Swamps All Boats

We all know the phrase, "a rising tide lifts all boats", and this was true during the world economic bubble…

Survive to Make Money or Make Money to Survive?

With GM’s demise becoming more real every day, many people have been asking me, “Why didn’t GM learn from Toyota…

The Most Frustrated Person in Your Company

No, it’s not you. Earlier in my career I spent most of my time down in the front lines of…

What is Lean Management?

If lean thinking means a different approach to business, then it must also imply a different approach to managing by…

Manage the Contract or Improve the Value Stream?

As much as I would like to, I can't walk frequently along every type of value stream. As a result,…

The Big Mura and Mean Leanness

How can we have dramatic short-term gyrations in an economy whose business is to supply what a relatively constant number…

From Supply Chains to Value Streams

Fifteen years ago I first began to study lean supply chains, by observing Toyota’s inbound parts supply chain and later…

Gross Domestic Product Verses Gross Domestic Waste

I’ve always been fascinated by how humans count, especially the way we always seem to count the wrong things. Recently…

Change in Implementation Approach Opens the Door at EMCO to Greater Gains in Less Time

Many lean thinkers ask how they can accelerate the pace of a transformation or spread it to other facilities. EMCO…

The Big Opportunity

I started studying manufacturing performance††26 years ago this fall. We set out at MIT to perform the most exhaustive and…

Competing with China

There are two sea changes going on in the world economy. The first is the rise of the “low cost”…

Lean Consumption, Lean Provision, and Lean Solutions

Here’s some good news for the Lean Community. I was recently in Spain where I toured a facility belonging to…

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…

Lean Consumption

"Lean Consumption" is the lead article in the March 2005 issue of the Harvard Business Review. It previews the breakthrough…

Lean Leadership

On my gemba walks I often get comments and questions about leadership. “We can’t seem to get anywhere because we…

Standardized Worrying

Years ago when Dan Jones and I first visited Toyota in Japan, we were struck by something that seemed out…

Dueling Sensei and the Need for a Standard Operating System

Recently I witnessed a sight I’ve seen too many times before.  I was visiting a company when a new sensei…

Beach Reading

The second edition of Lean Thinking has been out two months now and at least a few members of the Lean Community…

Lean Thinking for Air Travel

Recently I got a call from an aide to Don Carty at American Airlines (their Chairman who resigned this past…

Taking a Value Stream Walk at Firm A

I was out walking through a company this past week, something I often do. The firm I visited had asked…

Move Your Operations to China? Do some lean math first.

I recently got a phone call from a reporter for The Wall Street Journal with a simple but provocative question:…

Inventory Turns Charts

How can you tell if your firm is really getting lean — count the future state maps on the walls,…

10 Lean Steps for Surviving the Recession

Jim provides an action play for lean thinkers to think leaner to get through the recession and secure a strong…

Lean WX – An Rx for Making Things Better

As someone whose understanding of lean/TPS grew exponentially by working on the line, Josh Howell encourages every would-be lean enterprise…

Tap the Power of Flow to Develop Lean Thinkers

Flow is personal--a moment of enrichment, and a mental state. It´s stretching oneself just that little bit extra, not because…

Why Product Focus is Customer Focus

How can you know your entire organization is aligned around delivering best in class value to your customer? Your product…

Why Good Lean Detectives Visit the Crime Scene

You can't solve a problem with data alone, says Dan Markovitz. He urges you to go to the "crime scene,"…

What the Covid-Virus Can Teach Us About the Toyota Way

This is a time where people are coming together with a passion and common focus, says Jeff Liker. He shares…

Active Caring

Caring about others, caring about quality, caring about professionalism. When you care, continuous improvement and action come naturally. Turner Construction…

Be More Innovative with These Resources and Ideas for Exploiting World-Shaping Trends

Great products and services begin with great ideas and great ideas are informed by the big trends that are shaping…

What should I expect as a lean manager?

Dear Gemba Coach: I’m currently a team leader, and I’ve been offered a job as a lean manager – what…

How Can Lean Help Respond to Crises?

Although lean might seem fragile to crises, because of low inventories, it’s quite the opposite, says Michael Balle: Lean thinking…

Is it really necessary for a sensei to act obnoxiously?

Dear Gemba Coach: Is it really necessary for a sensei to act obnoxiously?

Respect for People Means Taking Care with Your Questions

Asking effective questions is an art in and of itself, says Karen Gaudet, in this excerpt from her new book,…

Why We Believe that Pull Flows Are Too Often Overlooked

In this incisive series of articles on the essential value of pulled flow, the lean sensei women argue, in the…

Learning from Toyota Way Principles versus Copying Toyota Practices

Toyota is an exceptional company, says Jeff Liker, who argues that the way of thinking is a model to learn…

Grit, PDCA, Lean and other four-letter words

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the nature of what author Angela Duckworth calls Grit. She defines grit as a…

Why Lean is a Time-based Strategy

Lean is a time-based strategy: it uses time to gain competitive advantage, says Orry Fiume. "Once I understood this I started…

Ask Art: Why is Takt Time So Important in a Lean Turnaround?

Takt time represents the beat of the customer, or, the rate of demand, says Art Byrne: "As the primary focus…

22. What’s the Problem: An interview with medical oncologist and CEO of Instituto de Oncologia do Vale (IOV), Dr. Fred, on reducing the cancer burden

Dr. Carlos Frederico Pinto (aka ‘Dr. Fred’) is a medical oncologist and CEO of Instituto de Oncologia do Vale (IOV),…

21. On the Job: Discovering Strategy by Doing the WORK, a conversation with Dave Brunt, CEO of the Lean Enterprise Academy in the UK

In a conversation across the Atlantic LEI’s president, Josh Howell, talks to the Lean Enterprise Academy’s CEO, Dave Brunt, about…

Want Better Relations and Results from Suppliers? Hear Two Execs Explain the Benefits of “Matched Pair” Leadership

New products and service development does not stop at the exterior walls of your company. Outside suppliers play critical roles,…

Talking About Lean: How Leaders Support Improvement With Words and Actions

In this comprehensive series of reflections, Lean Coach David Verble examines how the way managers and leaders talk to employees…

How can I help middle managers handle contradictory instructions from top management?

Dear Gemba Coach: As a lean coach, how can I help middle-managers who are faced with contradictory instructions from top…

Can Smart Manufacturing Replace the Art of Go and See?

Continuous improvement in a manufacturing environment has to happen at the spot where the work took place, shares Dave Westphal,…

4 Actions that Solved My Lean Management Identity Crisis

Mike Orzen had lean management down cold – or so he thought. After all, he makes a living teaching it…

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…

Review: Designing the Future

In his review of the new book Designing The Future, Michael Ballé points out that it “makes clear the central…

Don’t Retire Your Knowledge–Reuse It

Companies can tackle the problem of the surge of retiring baby boomers by adopting the lean principle of knowledge reuse,…

Not Every Problem Is a “Nail” But Companies Typically Reach for the Same Old “Hammer”

Learn how you can avoid the frustrating, ineffective, but widespread “hammer-and-nail” problem-solving pitfall by recognizing four main problem types so…

Getting Out of the Habit of Telling

In this engaging talk at the Lean Transformation Summit in Nashville, Katie Anderson talked about learning how to keep from…

We mapped a process, improved it, but six months later, performance is as bad as it was before – what are we missing?

Dear Gemba Coach: We’ve drawn the value-stream map of one of our complex production processes (17 steps), identified the key…

Practical, Actionable Tips for Re-Engaging People with a Suggestion System, Part 2

Companies, responding to surveys showing that a troubling number of people are disengaged at work, respond with perks like nap…

Practical Tips for Re-Engaging People with a Suggestion System

Companies, responding to surveys showing that a troubling number of people are disengaged at work, respond with perks like nap…

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…

Lean Roundup: Respect for People

Respect for People is one of the most abstract and yet most concrete tenets of lean, a guiding principle that…

Expanding Our Perspective on Lean Management, Part 2: Lean has its Roots in Spirituality

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

Ask Art: Am I Showing Respect for People by Asking for Fast Action?

Lean is a “learn by doing” exercise not a classroom training approach. The best method I know to achieve this…

The Road to Production Hell is Paved with Lack of LPPD

The real work of companies like Tesla who face stupendous challenges in launching a product should have happened long before…

The Quiet Factory

Could noise be considered another waste to be reduced in the system? Matt Savas ponders the implications of a Toyota…

Why do you keep referring to Toyota; does it still matter?

Dear Gemba Coach:  I’m very interested in lean, but fail to see why you guys keep referring to Toyota. What does…

HR Strategies for Successful and Sustainable Lean Transformations

The interest in strengthening employee engagement is sometimes considered a separate topic from lean transformations. Cheryl Jekiel, who has over…

The “Playbook” of Sustaining Change

In a world where most lean transformations fail, what can we do to learn from others' mistakes and help our…

Is the digital revolution a more important business development than lean?

Dear Gemba Coach, Isn’t the digital revolution, especially in services, a more important business development than lean?

Ask Art: “Do lean conversions actually go smoothly, like in the books?”

Art Byrne receives many inquiries from people wondering whether lean transformations really are as smooth as they seem in books,…

Shouldn’t lean focus on solutions, rather than problems?

Dear Gemba Coach: Why is lean so focused on problem solving? Isn’t seeing everything as a problem negative? Shouldn’t we…

Advice from the Gemba: How Do People Accidentally Make Change Unsustainable?

The only thing tougher than change is SUSTAINING change, we often hear. But does sustaining change need to be SO…

Enabling Fast and Innovative Product Development at Bose

Bringing products to market as quickly as possible is a key cornerstone of lean product and process development. With this…

Developing Better Habits Using A3 Thinking

Think A3 thinking is only for solving organizational problems? Think again! LEI faculty Katie Anderson shares her secrets for using…

What are the key traits I should look for in a potential Chief Engineer? A Q&A with Katrina Appell

The Chief Engineer is a key cornerstone of lean product and process development. Katrina Appell has been asked many times…

Ask Art: How high is up with lean?

Art Byrne explains that continuous improvement really is continuous and that there is no limit to the “up” in lean.

An A3 Antidote to the Opiate Epidemic

Opiate use in America has been spiking at an alarming rate. Many healthcare organizations, such as the University of Michigan…

Innovative Companies Continue to Learn from Each Other: Fall 2016 LPPD Learning Group Event

Find out what learnings took place at the Fall 2016 LPPD Partners' Meeting in Davis, California.

You Can’t Manage a Secret

How did the obeya management system come to be at Toyota? How has it been refined since its beginning as…

Advice from the Gemba: The Most Frustrating Types of Waste (and How to Eliminate Them!)

If you've ever lost sleep over a particularly frustrating source of waste in your organization, you're not alone. Some forms…

Lean Roundup: Jidoka

"Jidoka captures the principle of building quality into the production process—of designing work so that the people making the product…

Lean Thinking at 20, Part 2: A Q&A with Jim Womack and Dan Jones

Twenty years ago Jim Womack and Dan Jones helped launch the lean movement as we know it today with their…

What are the elements of knowledge-based product development?

Dear Gemba Coach, What would be a knowledge-based approach to product development?

Ask Art: Is Lean Inward-Focused?

Art Byrne has been asked over and over if lean is inward-focused or customer-focused. There are aspects of lean that…

The Crucible of Innovation

Innovation is key to a successful successful development project, we always read. But innovation is a fickle term that gets…

Raised by Toyota: A Question and Answer with Tracey and Ernie Richardson

In this extended interview, Toyota veterans Tracey and Ernie Richardson share how they learned at the source, explain how they…

You Are Not Different: Make universal lean principles work locally

Lean principles are universal, argues Orry Fiume, but the application of them is always local. Don't use this challenge as…

I’m struggling to understand exactly what people mean by a “lean system”?

Dear Gemba Coach: I’m struggling to understand exactly what people mean by a “lean system”?

No Shortcuts: Creating a Lean Environment the Right Way

As much as we may wish there was a way to pull off a lean transformation with only a basic…

Key Traits and Behaviors of Great Lean Consultants

"If you want to accelerate your lean practice I highly recommend reaching out to a good lean consultant to serve…

Lean Fitness: The Individual vs. the Organization

"For both the individual and the organization, the problem is the same," writes Dan Markovitz. "There may be a stated…

Is there a way to define standard work for senseis?

Dear Gemba Coach, I’ve been working on lean projects for years and my CEO has now asked me to act as…

My CEO, who supported lean, has left and been replaced by a pure finance guy. It doesn’t look good for the lean effort. What should I do?

Dear Gemba Coach: My CEO, who supported lean, has left and been replaced by a pure finance guy. It doesn’t…

Using Cynefin to Solve Problems While Navigating Uncertainty

Kim Ballestrin, an agile coach, explains how her team at Telstra (an Australian telecommunications and IT company) uses a problem…

Lean Startup: The Most Revolutionary Idea Since SMED?

"From my view, Lean Startup is quite simply the most revolutionary idea to advance the way business is practiced since…

The Hidden Benefit to A3 Thinking

"A3 thinking helps us think, solve problems, and strategize," writes José Ferro. "But it also helps us calm down, concentrate,…

Training Within Industry for the 21st Century

"How about a program that does for senior leaders today what Training Within Industry did for Japanese management in the…

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.…

From Victim to Partner: The Evolution of a Manufacturing Development System

"Excellence in product development is not 'an engineering thing'; it is an enterprise thing," writes Jim Morgan. And it's helpful…

Why do we hear less and less about lean in manufacturing?

Dear Gemba Coach: Why do we hear less and less about lean in manufacturing? Is it that most companies have…

GTS⁶ + E³ = DNA (Break the Code for Standardization, Sustainability, and Kaizen)

There's no "formula" for doing Lean well, but there are principles and practices that keep you on track. Read Tracey…

Innovation at Smartphone Speed

Ever wonder what it takes to make those smartphone chips? Learn how IBM continuously improves smartphone technology using lean thinking…

The Leader’s Dilemma: Becoming a Learner

We build leaders up to be all-knowing, but leaders who act as 'knowers' (as opposed to learners) actually limit their…

Lean Government

"We in the Lean Community have no standing on whether a government should regulate any activity or provide any service,"…

It’s About Best Practicing

"Just like practicing to learn to play an instrument, practicing the Improvement Kata helps us learn to view uncertainty more…

Challenge: Understand and Adapt for Sales Pace Growth

It's our first Lean Challenge post! Come up with a plan to help a machining business deal with the technical…

Why One Startup Will Never “Change the World”

Nathan Rothstein, co-founder of Project Repat, calls for founders to stop pitching their companies as "world-changing" charitable organizations. Businesses should…

Think Like Judoka

"Resistance in an organization can be a daunting foe to even the most highly skilled Lean practitioners," writes Joel Gross.…

How a Problem-Solving Culture Takes Root

Changing one's own leadership behaviors is no easy task, but it can be done. Leaders can shift away from giving…

Managing By Not Wandering Around

“We’re still very early in our journey,” says Dan McDonnell, VP of Operational Excellence at Ingersoll Rand. “But we’re following…

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…

Lean Transformation Starts with a Learning Culture

After attending a Lean Applied to Sales seminar, Tina Roach and Pete Mangan of ProMed Molded Products knew they needed…

What happens after the lean coach leaves?

As a lean coach, after you move to a new management assignment, finish a training course, or run several kaizen…

What’s Your Lean Elevator Pitch?

How do you describe Lean to others? To beginners, your team members, your boss? What's your quick definition or elevator…

Adding Flavor to the Gemba Using SALT

Dr. Grant Greenberg, Associate Medical Director for Quality for the University of Michigan Faculty Group Practice, has come up with…

Product Focus = Customer Focus

"Customer-defined value creation is the first principle of lean thinking... But how do you know your hard work will deliver…

Talking Lean with a Neuroscientist

How do we turn large, complicated, risky projects into catalysts for learning and innovation? Lean IT expert Steve Bell reflects…

Continuously Improving Lean IT at Toyota

Pierre Masai, Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Toyota Motor Europe, weighs in on the changing face of Lean…

Reason #27 Why Your CEO Is Just Not That Into Lean

You know the value of Lean, but maybe your boss or a key member of the senior leadership team doesn't.…

Starting Points for Different Value Streams

No lean transformation story is the same. Read Dan Jones's take on gaining traction for lean learning within your organization…

Ask Art: How Do I Get Senior Leadership On Board with Lean?

Lean transformations are rarely successful without the support and participation of senior leadership. Art Byrne, former CEO of Wiremold, shares…

Managing to Connect the Macro with the Micro

LEI Chairman and CEO John Shook explains management PDCA: improving the way we align people with process to achieve purpose,…

Part 2: What is the best lean way to understand VALUE (in terms of what our customers want)?

Dear Gemba Coach,   What is the best lean way to understand VALUE (in terms of what our customers want)

Why isn’t there more emphasis on lean engineering?

Dear Gemba Coach: Why isn’t there more emphasis on lean engineering?

The Insourcing Boom

 From industrial monument to memorial and then back again, the improving fortunes of GE’s huge Appliance Park plant illustrate the…

Don’t Call It…Anything

Would lean be easier to teach and learn if it weren't called lean? If in fact it weren't labeled at…

How Can Our Back Office Sustain Lean?

Dear Gemba Coach: The improvement program at the back office of the bank where I am a lean facilitator is…

Visual Management – the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Visualization is a good thing. We all know that. And many of us in the Lean Community practice it, to…

Kaizen and Innovation

Dear Gemba Coach: Can kaizen stifle breakthrough innovation?

It seems that lean these days is all about learning and coaching. What about the good ol’-fashioned just-in-time stuff of the earlier days?

Dear Gemba Coach: It seems that lean these days is all about learning and coaching. What about the good ol'-fashioned…

How Do We Sustain A3 Thinking in our Organization?

Dear Gemba Coach: My firm has been investing a lot of time and energy this year in teaching A3 thinking…

Are lean principles universal?

Dear Gemba Coach: Can we really consider Lean principles as Universal? I am currently working on a case study about…

The Lean IT Challenge

View slides from the Lean IT workshop showing the roles IT can play in a successful lean transformation.

Takt Time Thinking for a Low-Volume High-Mix Company

Dear Gemba Coach: Our company produces custom products that cannot be easily forecast in terms of when they will be…

Standards at workstations

Dear Gemba Coach: Our corporate production system asks us to post standard work at workstations, but we feel that the paperwork…

Should I pursue waste elimination or lead-time reduction?

Dear Gemba Coach: We’re having a heated debate in our company over whether to pursue cost reduction through waste elimination by…

The Business Case for Kaizen

Dear Gemba Coach: I can see the benefits kaizen has brought our company, but find it hard to formulate the…

How can firing people be part of developing people?

Dear Gemba Coach: Can you explain how you reconcile the principles of "developing people" and "firing people," especially in light…

How Do We Reduce Costs with Lean?

Dear Gemba Coach: I have been asked to reduce the cost of a product by a significant amount. I believe…

Managing To Learn in Sloan Management Review

John Shook discusses Managing to Learn in two Sloan Management Review articles

Toyota, Too, Is Looking to Cut Costs

Toyota employees meet in a large "war room" at a plant in Woodstock, Ontario -- called an obeya in Japanese -- to find nearly $100…

Forward to Fundamentals Redux – Kaizen Express

Thanks to those of you who joined last week’s webinar. We had some great questions, only a few of which…

Michikazu Tanaka of Daihatsu on “What I Learned from Taiichi Ohno”

This week (and in some future columns as well, no doubt) I’ll indulge my deep interest in the history of…

Back to Basics at the Lean Transformation Summit

John Shook reflects on the 2009 Lean Transformation Summit

Back to Basics

I often take advantage of relaxing holiday time to go over old things, take care of less pressing matters that…

Jumping to Solutions

We are all guilty of one of the greatest sins with lean – not having the patience to really understand…

Asking Questions

It is always refreshing going to the gemba – actually walking a value stream all the way through an organisation.…

Lean Thinking: A Look Back and a Look Forward

The meaning of lean thinking, how lean got its name, and an example of how it improved a grinding process…

What Lean Thinkers Think About The Gold Mine

Questions and comments†from readers to co-author Michael BallÈ about his book The Gold Mine.

Developing Problem Solvers

We traditionally see an organisation as a collection of departments or activities, each managed separately and each separated from the…

Adding Cost or Creating Value?

I was out on tour this past week, listening to companies' stories as they try to achieve a "lean" transformation.…

Overcoming Challenges with Lean Thinking Leads to Record-breaking Performance 

Despite obstacles, a new CEO transformed a manufacturing business from plant floor production to design engineering — and created a…