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The Lean Service Machine
The Harvard Business Review details how Jefferson Pilot Financial applied lean principles to its insurance business, not only to cut…
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The Power of a Precise Process
When I first started to study the Toyota Production System many years ago, I was struck by something very simple:…
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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…
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Beach Reading
The second edition of Lean Thinking has been out two months now and at least a few members of the Lean Community…
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Jim Womack on how lean compares with Six Sigma, Re-engineering, TOC, TPM, etc., etc.
It amazes me, but I still get lots of questions about how “lean” compares with Six Sigma, Total Productive Maintenance,…
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Creating the Course and Tools for a Lean Accounting System
A unit of Parker Hannifin used a financial kaizen and other lean accounting techniques to bridge the gaps between shop-floor…
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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…
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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…
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LSG Sky Chefs Caters to New Market Realities
Business at airline caterer LSG Sky Chefs dropped 30% when airlines cut flights after the terrorist attacks on September 11,…
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Here’s to Toyota
More than twenty years ago Dan Jones and I made an important discovery. On a trip to Japan we concluded…
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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…
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LEI looks for success stories to share
I routinely end my talks by offering to give anyone 15 minutes of fame in my and Dan Jones’s next…
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