Our picks for the best recent articles from our sister publication, Planet Lean.
1. What is lean’s innovation? More than just effective processes, say Michael Ballé, Dan Jones, and Jacques Chaize
“We believe that Toyota’s success in the face of stiff adversity is due to its invention of a new management system better adapted to the current evolution of developed societies.
Indeed, if companies are selected by competition for their ability to better fit-to-market, Toyota has shown us the way to design a new kind of organization for a new hypercompetitive, global and turbulent business environment where rapid market swings and technological tsunamis keep shaking up the game.”
2. Jim Womack discusses Uber and Airbnb and wonders if sharing is indeed lean
“In recent years things have changed: The world economy – now including China – has slowed down and shows no signs of regaining high growth. This leaves many people owning more assets than they can afford or unable to obtain the assets they need and with little expectation that things will change. At the same time the information cost of finding others wanting to share assets has plummeted because of the web. Suddenly we have the “sharing economy” involving many people who would never have considered the option before.
Said another way, for many people, some with a lot of assets and some with few assets, the definition of value has changed…I think a lot about how the definition of value changes over time, but this doesn’t affect my definition of lean, which doesn’t change at all: Creating more value (however defined by the consumer of the value) with fewer resources.”
3. Malika Mir talks to PL about her use of the obeya at pharmaceutical company Ipsen ahead of her presentation at this year’s Lean IT Summit
“The obeya was a critical part of our plan from the beginning. We introduced it right away to implement a new way of tracking activities, but also to make the new, alternative standards of work visible for the whole team. The 10-minute daily meeting in the obeya, during which people are aligned and focused on the same subject and can share their issues and challenges with others, has been particularly useful.
The department’s workload is now under control, and that’s the greatest benefit we are enjoying. The obeya is a versatile tool and I use it in a variety of ways: to work with business units, for the overall digital transformation of the company, and to coach front-line managers. Its strength lies in the fact that it provides a simple, common language that is understood by everybody inside and outside the IT department.”
