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What’s different about implementing lean in a low-volume, high-variety environment?
Dear Gemba Coach: I manage a plant that makes highly engineered, low-volume products. What do I have to do differently…
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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…
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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…
Read article If lean is valid in all situations doesn’t that make it an ideology?
Dear Gemba Coach: Is lean really valid in all situations? That sounds like ideology to me!
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“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…
Read article How do I practice lean when I don’t feel a strong attachment to my knowledge worker team?
Dear Gemba Coach: How do I practice lean consistently when I don't feel a strong attachment to my team? We…
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Kanban As A Learning Strategy
Toyota’s Kanban legacy—and its underlying ideas—have far more direct lineage with today’s digital economy than most folks realize; and capture…
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Designed In Quality
Extraordinary quality is not only designed into the product, it is designed into the development process itself, says Jim Morgan,…
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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,…
Read article Why do lean practitioners use so many Japanese terms?
Dear Gemba Coach: Why do we use so many Japanese terms? I guess experts really want employees and students to think…
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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…
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Ask Art: Aren’t You a Little “Old School” in Your Kaizen Approach To Implementing Lean Thinking?
When you say “kaizen is old school” you may be seriously off track, argues Art Byrne. Focusing on tools like…
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