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Background: What Is the Lean Enterprise Institute?
A summary of lean managment and the Lean Enterprise Institute's background and mission
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Background: What Is Lean Thinking?
Lean Thinking is the title of a landmark book by James Womack and Daniel Jones that explains the set of ideas known as lean thinking or lean production. The book explains the thought process underpinning a complete lean system, gives examples of successful lean transformations, and provides an Action Plan for implementation.
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Background: Capsule Definitions of Key Lean Concepts
Succinct summaries of some critical lean concepts.
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What’s The Formula For A Successful Management System?
Designing the Future co-author and former product development executive Jim Morgan says the winning equation is the product of two elements.
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Here’s the Skinny: For Lean Production Processes to Work, a Company Needs to Be All In
James Womack, PhD, founding CEO of the nonprofit Lean Enterprise Institute, tells The New York Times that the term "lean production" always referred to a complete business system. Since the term was coined in the 1980s by an MIT research team led by Womack to describe Toyota's business system, lean management has moved from automotive to other manufacturing and service industries, Womack noted.
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Are Monsters Lurking in Your Obeya Space?
IndustryWeek picks up Jim Morgan's Lean Post on "Traveling Hopefully."
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Target Online Newsletter
AME's newsletter picks up Lean Posts "Space to Think" video interview and "Traveling Hopefully."
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Daily Walking Is a Healthy Activity in Lean Plants
Art Smalley, Dave Logozzo, Drew Locher, and Sammy Obara, all Lean Enterprise Institute faculty members, are among the lean practitioners quoted in this Assembly story about the dos, don'ts, and maybes of how to conduct effective gemba walks. Read their other articles in the Knowledge Center at www.lean.org
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Cardboard, Duct Tape, String and Toyota: The Do-First Lean Mindset
IndustryWeek picks up for its homepage a blog post by Mark Reich, senior coach at the Lean Enterprise Institute. He describes from personal experience why coaching advice isn’t enough if the workplace doesn’t change for the better. True lean practitioners know how to make physical changes quickly with the people who do the actual work.
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Tesla Reaches Production Goal for Making 5,000 Model 3s
Lean Enterprise Institute founder and management expert Jim Womack tells The Wall Street Journal that Tesla was "a pioneer in temporary assembly, charting a course no one else will want or need to follow,” after the automaker built an assembly line outside under a tent to meet a 5,000-a-week car production goal.
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Rivian Reveals 'Skateboard' Chassis At Michigan Conference
The electric vehicle startup Rivian emerged from its “extreme stealth” mode, revealing its “skateboard” chassis and a timeline for when its first truck will be available for pre-order at the Designing the Future Summit in Michigan, according to NPR radio at Illinois State University.
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Tesla’s future hinges on this gigantic tent
Jim Womack, founder of the nonprofit Lean Enterprise Institute, talks to Bloomberg News about Tesla's attempt to hit Model 3 production goals by building an assembly line in a huge tent next to its car factory.
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Toyota Signs Amazon, Pizza Hut as Driverless-Delivery Partners
Jim Womack, senior advisor to the Lean Enterprise Institute, comments in this Bloomberg story on Toyota's announcement that it is developing driverless delivery vehicles with Amazon and Pizza Hut.
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Shaping Workflow Competencies with Human Capital
Leading IT firms gradually are shifting focus from acquiring the right talent to developing talent and focusing on how to grow people's capabilities, says John Shook, executive chairman at the nonprofit Lean Enterprise Institute, on pages 34-35 in this special workflow section of CIO Review.
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Musk's plant makeover even more of a long shot as Model 3 lags
Lean Enterprise Institute Founding CEO Jim Womack comments on Tesla Founder Elon Musk's attempts "to launch a new product, a new manufacturing system, and a new company" all at once
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“The Work of Management” by Jim Lancaster Receives Shingo Publication Award
"Work of Management” by Lantech CEO Jim Lancaster, has received the Publication Award from the Shingo Institute, part of the Jon Huntsman Business School.
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The Secret Ingredient of American Manufacturing: Some Japanese Flavor
James Womack, PhD, founding CEO of the Lean Enterprise Institute, describes for Chief Executive the impact of Japanese continuous improvement methods in the U.S.
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Toyota, Mazda to Spend $1.6 Billion on Joint U.S. Auto Plant
Bloomberg article cites LEI CEO John Shook on cooperation between Toyota and Mazda, following announcement to jointly build a $1.6 billion U.S. factory.
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Beating the 'Silent Enemy' of Continuous Improvement
IndustryWeek reports on how CEO Jim Lancaster revitalized the continuous improvement effort at lean management pioneer Lantech.
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Why All Your Manufacturing Processes Are “Sandcastles”
Deterioration in process performance is inevitable unless management goes to WAR to support the frontlines
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"We're Different!" Overcoming the Challenges of Applying Lean Principles to Knowledge Work
In the GxP life sciences blog, faculty member Drew Locher explains 3 critical factors for successfully getting knowledge workers to adopt lean management principles.
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Fueling the farm-to-table movement, with lessons from Toyota
A Boston Globe story examines how lean principles apply to farming with insights by Jim Womack, founding CEO of the Lean Enterprise Institute.
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MVD improvements attract international attention
A delegation from the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) and a representative from the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI) visited MVD recently.
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By the Book - Lead With Respect: A Novel of Lean Practice
AME's Target magazine gives a positive review to Lead With Respect, a lean management novel by Michael Ballé.
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Turner Chief Innovation Officer to Address Annual Lean Enterprise Institute Transformation Summit
Jim Barrett, chief innovation officer for Turner Construction Company, will discuss how the company adapts and develops lean principles, methods, and tools for the construction industry.
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Campus lean management research center to investigate streamlining hospital care
LEI Communications Director Chet Marchwinski talks to the Daily Californian about lean management following the announcement that LEI would co-sponsor CLEAR, the Center for Lean Engagement and Research at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health to improve hospital care.
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Managing Workflow—the Lean Way
The main responsibility of CIOs and other information technology managers is to create an environment for work to flow, according to John Shook, CEO, Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI) and Alice Lee, LEI executive director, writing in CIO magazine.
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Lean for Social Innovation: People Are Our Most Valuable Resource
Students in Lean for Social Innovation, a learn-by-doing class at Babson College, will read Managing to Learn by LEI CEO John Shook to help them apply the lessons working at The Greater Boston Food Bank.
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How One-Piece-Flow Supports Quality
Manufacturing Engineering,published by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, picks up a Lean Post article by Art Byrne, who as CEO led the lean transformation at Wiremold.
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Businesses Learn The Art of ‘LEAN’ Management
Lean begins with quality, LEI CEO John Shook tells Mississippi TV after keynoting the 2016 Applied Lean Leadership Conference.
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New book shares how Goodyear pioneered ‘lean’ processes to transform
John Shook, LEI CEO, talks to the Akron Business Journal about Lean Driven Innovation, a new book by Goodyear engineer Norbert Majerus about lean product development.
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Everett aerospace supplier Korry Electronics goes lean
LEI founding CEO Jim Womack comments on what he saw at an aerospace supplier on a lean transformation.
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Personal PDCA and How I Learned It
On his first day working at Toyota in Japan, LEI COO Mark Reich recalls being assigned a mentor and a problem to solve.
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Go to the Gemba
Why is going to the gemba (Japanese for where value is added) such an important part of lean management? What do you look for? What do you learn when you are there? Listen to Michael Ballé answer these questions and others in this ASQ-led webinar.
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Physicians get “Lean” for Efficient Services
Dr. Darlene Dumont, DBA, director of learning at the nonprofit Lean Enterprise Institute, tells the Ambulatory M&A Advisor that lean healthcare puts the patient at the center of everything
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Problem Solving on a Single Sheet of Paper
Training magazine featured an excerpt from Lean With Respect, the latest business novel by lean management practitioners Michael Ballé and Freddy Ballé, who also wrote The Gold Mine and The Lean Manager on how to start and sustain lean business systems.
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State of Washington Embraces Lean
Lean Enterprise Institute CEO John Shook is quoted in a Target magazine story about Washington State’s efforts to move beyond lean techniques to culture change. (Subscription)
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Problem Solving on a Single Sheet of Paper
Training magazine publishes an excerpt from Lead With Respect: A Novel of Lean Practice by Freddy Ballé and Michael Ballé (Lean Enterprise Institute, Inc., August 2014).
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Lean Enterprise Institute Manager Explains Why Retail and Service Companies Implement Lean Management
Retail and service companies are implementing lean management principles not only to create more value for customers at less cost -- just like manufacturers that adopted the principles -- but for reasons unique to their workforces and demand patterns, according to Joshua Howell, a senior coach at the nonprofit Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI). Unlike many manufacturers, retail and service companies must manage thousands of people, scattered among thousands of locations, and contend with unpredictable demand, Howell said in a recent podcast interview with Gemba Academy.
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Bringing Respect for People to the World’s Sweatshops
Jim Womack, a senior advisor and founder of the Lean Enterprise Institute, tells the Stanford Social Innovation Review, that it is no longer good enough for contractors to stop using child labor and provide a safe working environment. Multinationals need to assist their contractors in applying lean management practices and demand that they use them.
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7 Steps for Leading Lean with Respect for People
Writing in IndustryWeek, LEI author and columnist Michael Balle describes the seven foundational behavioral skills that leaders need to get results from their lean management efforts.
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Forbes Carries Jim Womack's Reflection on James Harbour's Research
Author and management expert Jim Womack remembers how important the research of James Harbour was to the early lean management movement in this post at Forbes.
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John Shook's Comments on One-Piece Flow Appear in Forbes
John Shook, Lean Enterprise Institute chairman and CEO, is quoted in a June 2014 Forbes article about the advantages of continuous flow for US manufacturing.
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Lean Enterprise Institute CEO John Shook Tells Entrepreneur Lean Management Is About Value Not Costs
The author and lean management expert explains how startups can use lean principles to stay lean as they grow.
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Lean Enterprise Institute CEO John Shook Joins Summit on “Manufacturing's Next Chapter"
Lean Enterprise Institute CEO John Shook addresses "Manufacturing's Next Chapter," a business summit organized by The Atlantic to bring together experts from business, government, and labor to deliberate the impact on industry of powerful trends in technology, insourcing, workforce development, and global competitiveness.
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Lean Enterprise Institute CEO John Shook urges manufacturers to “right-shore” operations for sustainable job creation
LEI CEO John Shook made the case for "right shoring" manufacturing while speaking at a Washington, DC, business summit presented by The Atlantic and GE.
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The Atlantic Quotes LEI CEO John Shook on Insourcing Trend
A cover story on insourcing quotes John Shook, chairman and CEO of the nonprofit Lean Enterprise Institute, and other manufacturing experts.
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Subaru Made in Japan Defies Trend as Fuji Lifts Output
Bloomberg BusinessWeek talks to Lean Enterprise Institute CEO John Shook and other industry experts on the decision by Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. to boost domestic manufacturing while other Japanese automakers are expanding overseas to escape the strong yen. A former Toyota manager, Shook was its first American kacho (manager) at its headquarters in Japan where he helped transfer its lean management system to North America.
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Billionaire Chung Shows Hyundai Luxury No Joke Chasing BMW: Cars
LEI CEO John Shook comments to Bloomberg Markets on the rise of Hyundai, once known only as the builder of cheap cars.
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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 Enterprise Institute: (1) Identify the value of the product for the customer; (2) Map the process for creating the product and eliminate elements without value; (3) Create a flow for the value-creating steps; (4) Let customers pull value from that flow; and (5) Begin the process again and seek perfection.
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Ohio Grabs Acura From Japan as Yen Fuels Exodus to U.S.: Cars
Bloomberg BusinessWeek quotes John Shook, Lean Enterprise Institute CEO and author, on Honda Motor Co.’s choice to build what it described as a racing-oriented “supercar” in Ohio.
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Lean leads the way to Manufacturing Hall of Fame
Lean Directions Newsletter notes that "perhaps best known of the three lean inductees" to IndustryWeek's Manufacturing Hall of Fame is John Shook, chairman and CEO of the Lean Enterprise Institute.
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National Magazine Inducts 10 Manufacturing Leaders Into the IW Manufacturing Hall of Fame
Lean Enterprise Institute CEO John Shoook is named to the 2011 IndustryWeek Manufacturing Hall of Fame.
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Gemba Walks: Learn lessons from the author who lived the experiences
AME's Target magazine reviews Gemba Walks by Lean Enterprise Institute Founder Jim Womack, calling it "a great reference to help you reflect on perennial issues that lean leaders face every day." (Scroll down the page to the review.)
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Interview: Lean Enterprise Institute CEO John Shook
In an article in the newsletter of Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University, LEI CEO and former Toyota Manager John Shook talks about the application of lean concepts beyond manufacturing, common mistakes companies make in implementing lean management, and recent trends in continuous improvement applications. While at Toyota, Shook helped the automaker transfer its management system to the NUMMI joint venture with GM in Fremont, CA.
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AME names five to Hall of Fame
Lean Enterprise Institute Founder James Womack was inducted into the Association for Manufacturing Excellence's Hall of Fame during a ceremony at its annual 2011 conference.
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Lean Enterprise Institute CEO John Shook Wins Sloan Management Review Award for Best Article on Change and Organizational Development
Winning article on culture change lessons from NUMMI should be “required reading” for anyone concerned with corporate culture change, according to SMR.
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Conference on how to keep jobs in U.S.
In an interview with WWLP-TV (Springfield, MA) LEI CEO John Shook notes that the roots of modern lean thinking are traceable to advancements in machining done more than a century ago in Springfield, the site of a conference on how lean protects U.S. jobs. The event, which Shook keynoted, was sponsored by the Greater Boston Manufacturing Partnership.
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John Shook on "The big lie about outsourcing"
Paul Levy, a former CEO of a large Boston hospital, posted a summary of John Shook's conferaence keynote on "Outsourcing: thae Big Lie."
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Outsourced manufacturing coming back? Conference focuses on ‘Made Lean in America’ as way to lure jobs back
LEI CEO John Shook tells the Hartford Business Journal that companies are learning to strengthen supply chains by partnering with local suppliers.
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Going regional to “stop the madness”
"I came across an interesting “e-letter” this weekend penned by John Shook, chairman and CEO of the business-focused think-tank Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI)," wrote Sean Kilcarr in his Trucks at Work Blog.
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Honda Civic Seen Loser On Mediocre Design
LEI CEO John Shook talks to Bloomberg abouot the influence of Honda founder Soichiro Honda.
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Nexteer Automotive adopts figure skating technology to streamline work
The Saginaw News (MI) references the Lean Enterprise Institute's story about how local manufacturer Nexteer Automotive is using motion analysis technology developed for sports as part of its lean transformation. Read the LEI story Lean Leap by Auto Supplier Gets Boost from Leaping Figure Skaters in the Knowledge Center.
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Toyota to Halt Japan Car Assembly Until March 26 After Quake
John Shook, CEO of the Lean Enterprise Institute and a former Toyota manager, talks to Bloomberg News about possible disruptions to Toyota's supply chain in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami.
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Ford focuses on flexibility at its factories
LEI Senior Advisor Jim Womack is quoted by USA Today on flexibility in auto production.
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Operations: Why lean programs fail
Business Excellence features an article written by Mike Rother, co author of the LEI workbooks Learning to See and Creating Continuous Flow, and Jeff Liker, author of The Toyota Way, about the difficulty in sustaining lean efforts.
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The Downside of Just-in-Time Inventory
Near the end of this article, James Womack, founder of the Lean Enterprise Institute in Cambridge, MA, notes that companies won't abandon just-in-time production because the cost savings are too great.
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Don't 'waste' the value-stream mapping process by ignoring the customer.
LEI CEO John Shook explains to IndustryWeek the origins of value-stream mapping and how companies miss its full benefits by not giving full attention to the flow of information as well as material. Shook is co-author of Learning to See, an LEI workbook that introduced value-stream mapping in 1999. The book has been translated into 14 languages. The story includes results from value-stream mapping projects at laboratory equipment manufacturer Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.
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Womack Says Toyota Needs to Engage Public Over Recall
Commenting on Toyota's recall crisis, Jim Womack, founder and chairman of the Lean Enterprise Institute, tells Bloomberg TV that the carmaker needs to "walk the talk" about how it runs the business and do a better job of engaging with the public.
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Manufacturers take 'lean' outlook
LEI author and faculty member Robert Martichenko talks to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about how U.S. companies are pursuing lean transformations more aggressively during the recession. Martichenko is co-author of the lean logistics workbook Building a Lean Fulfillment Stream. He also teaches a workshop on the same subject.
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John Shook To Take Over LEI Helm
John Shook, named to succeed James Womack as CEO of the nonprofit Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI), said his frist step will be to talk to the Lean Community about its needs.
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Factory Efficiency Comes to the Hospital
A front page article on lean healthcare in the Sunday New York Times business section quoted LEI Senior Fellow Mark Graban on the challenges of culture change. The main focus of the article was Seattle Children's Hospital, a member of the Healthcare Value Leaders Network. Three other network members were cited.
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Lean Problem Solving and A3 Expert Interviewed on Business901
"If you develop the [problem-solving] thought process of your workforce then you're tapping into a potential that many companies ignore," said Tracey Richardson, a faculty member at the Lean Enterprise Institute and a former Toyota manager. Tracey made her remarks during a recent Business 901 podcast series on lean implementation issues.
"The responsibility for developing people's problem-solving thought processes is yours as a manager or executive," she said. Tracey, who teaches a Lean Problem Solving workshop, offered several practical tips that you can use to develop people as problem-solvers.
Hear them at:
http://business901.com/blog1/problem-solving-really-the-core-of-lean-implementation/
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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 success of the Toyota-GM joint venture and what prevented GM from quickly deploying lessons that may have prevented bankruptcy. ("All Things Considered," March 26, 2010.)
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NUMMI: This American Life
LEI Founder and Chairman Jim Womack and Senior Advisor John Shook are among the key experts interviewed for this one-hour look at the success of the Toyota-GM joint venture and what prevented GM from quickly deploying lessons that may have prevented bankruptcy. ("This American Life" on National Public Radio, March 27, 2010) Note: A transcript of a shorter version of the story that aired on NPR's "All Things Considered" is available: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125229157
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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 carmaker, but growth may have cost the automaker its reputation for quality as it extended to Europe the recall of vehicles with faulty accelerators. “There was always a question about how fast they could go,” James P. Womack, an author and expert on Toyota’s manufacturing methods, said of the automaker’s growth. “I’m sure they regret that they stomped on the gas so hard.” (The New York Times)
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Latest Starbucks Buzzword: 'Lean' Japanese Techniques
Lean Enterprise Institute CEO John Shook tells The Wall Street Journal what's unique about the lean management implementation at Starbucks.
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Ipbüken: Turkey Should Adopt Lean Methods and Focus on Exports
A conference organized by the Lean Institute Turkey (Yalin Enstitu Dernegi), an affiliate of the nonprofit Lean Enterprise Institute, featured presentations by Toyota Engineering Corporation (TEC) CEO Toshio Horikiri and executives from Turkey's leading companies, including Orhan Holding, Uzel Machine Industry, Hugo Boss Textile, May Seed Company, TOFA Inc., and Goodyear Tire Company. All addressed successful lean applications in Turkey. The first day of the conference addressed issues relevant to the textile, agriculture and automotive sectors. The second day concentrated on applying lean principles to healthcare. "Considering the significance of the healthcare system and its problems in Turkey, the conference is expected to help this sector," said Institute Founder Yalcin Ipbuken. (Published by Today's Zaman, Dec. 3, 2007.)
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Executives Urged to Do “Lean Math” to Calculate the True Cost of Offshoring
Keynoting the annual conference of the Institute of Industrial Engineers, management expert James Womack, Ph.D., said senior managers should use “lean math” to calculate the true total cost of offshoring. "Lean math" and groundbreaking ideas for implementing lean principles in retail, air travel, and healthcare are explained in Lean Solutions, co-authored by Womack and Dan Jones.
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Machine That Changed the World Named to Executive Reading List in The New York Times
The classic management book The Machine That Changed the World, which was recently reissued in paperback, has been named to an executive reading list compiled by The New York Times.
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From Lean Tools to Lean Management
LEI Founder and Chairman James Womack describes three elements for moving companies beyond the application of lean tools, such as kaizen events, to lean management, based on the scientific approach of plan, do, check, act. Lean management is the successor to the previously dominant mass production approach to management as perfected by Alfred Sloan at General Motors in the 1920s. Now, Womack says, he sees signs that senior managers are beginning to realize that they need to think more about lean management.
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The Lean Way Forward at Ford
Lean Enterprise Institute Chairman and Founder, James Womack offers his views on the recent events at Ford.
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Just in Time, Just in Case, and Just Plain Wrong
Do lean just-in-time (JIT) inventories make supply chains more vulnerable in a world worried about disruptions from pandemics? Jim Womack sets the record straight in Just in Time, Just in Case, and Just Plain Wrong.
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Nonsense About JIT
Do lean just-in-time (JIT) inventories make supply chains more vulnerable in a world worried about disruptions from terrorism? Read Jim Womack's insights in Nonsense About JIT.
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Why Tesco is Winning: Lean Provision, based on Lean Production Principles, Helps Retailer Tesco Best Wal-Mart
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Why Toyota Won
GM and Ford don't need new car models; they need a new business model, says LEI President Jim Womack in this Wall Street Journal op ed.
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Mr. Ford's Wrong Turn
Read Jim Womack's rebuttal in The Washington Post to Bill Ford's claim that automakers need government help.
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A Tale of Two Business Systems
At its root, the crisis buffeting Ford and GM is not due to too many retirees, too-high healthcare costs, or too-high energy prices. The root cause of the crisis is a clash between two very different business systems, and the better system is winning, according to James Womack, president and founder of the Lean Enterprise Institute.
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Work Force 2006 Conference: Lean Thinking Works Everywhere!
Jim Womack's keynote address at the Jan. 10 Work Force Summit in Jacksonville, FL, a regional conference on workforce trends.
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Lean Consumption
"Lean Consumption," the lead article in the March issue of the
Harvard Business Review, is “a landmark synthesis of ideas whose implications haven’t been fully understood and a breakthrough to new territory,” according to Editor Tom Stewart. In this letter to the Lean Community, co-author Jim Womack, president and founder of the Lean Enterprise Institute, outlines the concepts in the article, which previews the book on the same subject that will be printed in the fall of 2005.
Get a copy of the HBR Lean Consumption article.
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Move Your Operations to China? Do Some Lean Math First
A hard look at the true cost of moving operations out of high-wage countries often shows that relocation is not the first line of defense, notes LEI Founder and President James Womack. Rather, as "lean math" demonstrates, it's to get truly serious about a lean transformation through the entire value stream for the product in question.
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Example of a current-state map
A current-state map shows the path of a product or service from order to delivery to determine the current conditions. (Source: Learning to See, Lean Enterprise Institute, 1999.)
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Example of a future-state map
A future-state map deploys the opportunities for improvement identified in the current-state map to achieve a higher level of performance.(Source: Learning to See, Lean Enterprise Institute, 1999.)
