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Putting Lean Principles in the Warehouse
While lean principles and practices have been widely adopted in manufacturing over the last couple of decades, their use in…
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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…
Read article 5S for Information
When a Lean Thinker asked how to apply the principles of 5S to the company server, Dan Markovitz responded with…
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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.
Read article For Athletic Shoe Company, the Soul of Lean Management Is Problem Solving
When it began a lean transformation in 2003, New Balance, the only athletic shoe manufacturer that still makes some products…
View case study Nice Car, Long Journey
2008 marks the 100th anniversary of the introduction of the Model T Ford. This truly is “the machine that changed…
Read article Knife Company Hones Competitiveness by Bucking the Status Quo
Family-owned Buck Knives needed to reduce costs by at least 30% to keep its U.S. operations open. In turning to…
View case study 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…
Read article 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…
Read article 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…
View case study Yokoten Across the World
The trick to yokoten, the term Toyota uses for the horizontal transfer of information and knowledge across an organization, is…
Read article A Journey to Value Streams: Reorganizing Into Five Groups Drives Lean Improvements and Customer Responsiveness
While many plants have used value-stream thinking and practices such as current- and future-state mapping, Parker Hannifin Corporation's New Haven,…
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