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Lean Learning Experiences

Real Applications, Not Just Concepts

We design our workshops to answer the question many of you have about Lean concepts, "What concrete steps do I take on Monday morning to begin implementing?"

So we teach you actual applications, not just concepts, in plain language with the case studies, worksheets, formulas, and methodologies you need. You learn step-by-step methodologies for implementing and making the critical leap from the conventional business focus on optimizing individual processes to the value-stream focus of optimizing the flow of value. No wonder our workshops have a reputation for practical and comprehensive content.

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Learn More About Our Learning Experiences:

Lean Concepts and Tools

5S - Visual Workplace
5S methodology helps organizations achieve more consistent operational results through maintaining an orderly workplace. This workshop will introduce you to the 5S methodology and help you learn basic implementation steps including evaluation and audit.
Read more »
New!Building a Lean Operating & Management System A hands-on, mind engaging simulation-based workshop that will help you achieve a deeper understanding of lean principles and tools by developing your problem solving skills to meet critical business challenges at your workplace. Read more »
Change That Sustains This interactive, hands-on workshop provides methods and tools to beat those odds and create change that sustains, using lessons learned from successfully implementing change at two Fortune 200 companies. Read more »
Coaching Problem-Solving in Huddles and Team Meetings If you are a leader, process owner, manager, or CI professional responsible for leading and coaching in huddles and RIE teams, this workshop will help you reach the next level of success, which depends on precisely identifying problems and using rapid experiments to uncover root causes. Read more »
Continuous Improvement Using Personal Kanban A simple, effective management system for digging out of work -- and staying dug out -- to achieve higher quality, better productivity, greater job satisfaction, and peace of mind. Read more »
From Fire Fighting to True Continuous Improvement This workshop is an introduction into A-3 / PDCA problem solving. Workshop participants learn the thinking and practice of PDCA by doing. We ask each participant to come to the workshop with a problem that they would like to use as a test case to explore and learn new ways of thinking about how to solve problems. Read more »
Kaizen: the Culture of Continuous Improvement This workshop is an introduction to the Kaizen Teian or Kaizen methodology which promotes the sustainable continuous improvement as a daily way of life for every member within the organization. The class is based on a “hear-see-do” approach allowing you to learn through instruction, discussion, simulation, and small-group exercise. Read more »
Key Concepts of Lean Designed for individuals and teams that want to gain a better understanding of the components and underlying philosophy of lean, based on the Toyota Production System (TPS), and how the elements and philosophy work together to create a Lean Enterprise. Read more »
Key Elements for Sustainability - Half Day Class This 4-hour workshop will provide real examples of proven methods to implement and sustain changes within an organization. It is an abbreviated, yet powerful, session that will cover concepts, tools, examples and exercises. Read more »
Lean Problem Solving Harness the DNA of successful, sustainable lean implementations. You'll learn and practice the PDCA (plan-do-check-act) problem-solving method in this interactive workshop. Read more »
New!Lessons in A3 Thinking: What Porter Learned in Managing to Learn Understand the work, thinking, and leadership behind the A3 process -- not only what goes into the storyboard boxes. Read more »
Managing Kaizen Events The workshop is comprised of instruction, discussion, gemba tales (a.k.a. war stories), as well as forensic review of recently completed kaizen events, and small group exercises around pre-event planning, including event selection/scoping, team composition, and initial strategy formulation. Read more »
New!Managing to Learn at the Gemba This session builds capability to effectively observe the gemba in a purposeful way and to define a clear problem to solve. This is built off of the fundamental framework of A3 thinking from Managing to Learn by John Shook. Read more »
New!Mapping your Work, Navigating Life: Personal Kanban In this one-day immersive experience we will explore the impact of overload on both the individual and the team; politics and "work-arounds" that start quietly and quickly morph into unwritten rules; and smooth work-, information-, and communication-flows that can lead to happier, less stressed, and more effective teams. Read more »
Online - Introduction to Lean Thinking and Practice This online course serves as an introduction to the key concepts, philosophies, and tools associated with lean thinking and practice. Designed through a joint effort between the Lean Enterprise Institute and the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Read more »
New!Online - Introduction to Problem Solving In this course, you will learn to grasp the situation at the gemba and use all your senses to understand what is truly happening. All too often, people create countermeasures to perceived problems without digging deeper or thinking more, that is, learning at the gemba to grasp the actual situation of the problem. Read more »
Online Webcast Key Concepts of Lean This comprehensive program will show you how to build a culture of continuous improvement and collaborative problem solving by aligning Purpose, Process, People, and regularly practicing the scientific method of PDCA. Read more »
Online Webcast Managing Kaizen Events This comprehensive program will give participants practical insight into the principles, tools, and techniques that drive effective kaizen events from the perspective of measurable and sustainable results and organizational development and engagement. Read more »
Practicing Lean Fundamentals in an Office Environment Description: This two-day workshop has been designed for individuals and teams who work in office and service environments that want to gain a better understanding of the philosophy, thinking and acting within a Lean Enterprise and how it might benefit their customers, organizations, and staffs. It will demonstrate the overall approach for implementing a lean transformation including both work and management processes in your organization. Read more »
Standardized Work: The Foundation for Kaizen Standardized work is one of the most powerful but least used lean tool. Learn how documenting the current best practice (standardized work) forms the baseline for kaizen or continuous improvement. Read more »
Using Training Within Industry (TWI) Techniques for Rapid and Sustainable Problem Solving Join us for a workshop based on scientifically-proven Training Within Industry (TWI) techniques designed to help you and your team (and the organization) learn faster. Read more »
Value-Stream Mapping for Manufacturing
(on-site only) Learn how to use this fundamental initial step in a lean transformation to create the "blueprints" for applying other tools and targeting kaizen events most effectively. Read more »
Value-Stream Mapping for Manufacturing: Gemba-Based Workshop This workshop, now offered live for the first time, shows you how to create and apply this fundamental and critical tool, based on Lean Enterprise Institute's groundbreaking VSM workbook, Learning to See, which has introduced the mapping tool to thousands around the world Read more »
Value-Stream Mapping: a Methodology for Sustainable System Improvement This interactive workshop takes you through EVERY step of the value-stream improvement process: preparation before mapping, current-state mapping, problem solving to design the future state, managing implementation of a lean transformation to plan, and continuing to support the value stream after implementation. Read more »
Value-Stream Mapping: Gemba Based Workshop This workshop, now offered live for the first time, shows you how to create and apply this fundamental and critical tool, based on Lean Enterprise Institute's groundbreaking VSM workbook, Learning to See, which has introduced the mapping tool to thousands around the world. Read more »

Lean Leadership

A Factory of One: Applying Lean Thinking to Improve Your Personal Performance
(on-site only) As lean moves out of the "tool age," leaders—managers, directors, executives— must invest more time in the critical work of lean leadership: going to the gemba to support value creators in their improvement work and coaching and mentoring teams to develop their problem solving capabilities. This ensures that all organizational processes continuously add value to customers. Read more »
Aligning the Right Behaviors with Your Business Objectives This hands-on workshop gives you a simple, practical method to scrutinize your business objectives against the traits and behaviors needed to achieve your objectives. To reinforce the training, you’ll work through case studies based on actual research and experiments within companies. We will look at improving the interrelationships (indicated by the circles in the graphic below) between business behaviors and three key elements of lean leadership. Read more »
Basic Techniques for Humble Inquiry Questioning Learn how to switch from trying to be the person out front leading the charge to being someone who utilizes his/her knowledge and experience to coach employees when needed. In other words, try the sensei approach to coaching and leading. Read more »
Building Effective Coaching Relations This workshop explores the key aspects of a coaching relationship which focuses on helping others develop the problem solving capability required for implementing lean and building the culture of continuous improvement. Read more »
Change Agent Skills for Lean Implementation Leaders Learn how to lead others to and through implementation of lean change activities by persuasion, influence, demonstration, negotiation, and teaching. Read more »
New!Coaching for Development - Structured Coaching Using A3 Thinking This workshop will take participants through a unique version of the A3 thinking process, modified to facilitate and foster personal development. We will also discuss key coaching and leadership skills that support developing others as problem solvers, and tips for how to use the personal A3 framework to anchor ongoing coaching relationship. Read more »
Creating a Sustainable Lean Culture: Connecting the “Product” and the “People” Value Streams Process-improvement tools are important, but their ultimate effectiveness depends on the ability to develop the underlying culture of problem solving to support continuous growth and improvement. This workshop explores the foundations of Toyota’s unique culture and helps you develop an action plan to support the transition from conventional to lean culture. Read more »
Developing People with Capability for Lean Learn about a supportive management environment for lean performance. Explore the manger’s role in people development and responsibilities in creating a learning environment. Identify the perspectives, capabilities and behaviors required by the role and examine organizational systems and practices that support managers in carrying out their role to develop and sustain capability for performance in a lean operation. Read more »
Gemba Walks - A Management Process for Leading the Organization This opening paragraph of the introduction of Jim Womack’s latest book, "Gemba Walks," is the starting point for a gemba-based learning experience designed to help participants better understand their role in creating lean thinking through lean management led by their own behavior in “taking a walk.” Read more »
Getting the Right Things Done A major problem in a lean transformation is taking on too many initiatives at once. Policy Deployment guides you in "de-selecting" initiatives down to the ones the organization can really achieve while aligning them with company strategic objectives. Read more »
Improvement Kata / Coaching Kata What is a Kata? A kata is a pattern you practice to learn a skill and mindset. Through practice the pattern of a kata becomes second nature - done with little conscious attention - and readily available. Examples are riding a bicycle, driving a car, typing. People who have learned to drive don't think much about using the car's controls. They focus on navigating the road ahead. Read more »
Improvement Kata Experience This interactive experiential workshop offers the content and activities from Day 1 of our three-day Improvement Kata/Coaching Kata program with the intent to demonstrate two core Kata routines through hands-on practice. Read more »
Improvement Kata Seminar This interactive experiential workshop offers the content and activities from Day 2 of our three-day Improvement Kata/Coaching Kata program with the intent to help you understand and begin practicing a systematic routine for continuously improving the work you do. Read more »
Integrating Visual Management This workshop introduces the tools and practices of visual management as one of the components of the Lean Management System and shows how they need to be used to effectively support the daily routine of lean leaders. Read more »
Integrating Visual Management Tools and Leader Standard Work This course deals with designing and executing an implementation plan to migrate your company from one of “gather data, synthesize, meet, and react” to one of “see waste, manage exceptions, and improve processes”. It will show you how to tie together the tools of Policy Deployment, Value Stream Mapping, Visual Management, and Management Standard Work. The emphasis of the course is on the development of visual management tools and incorporating them into management standard work. Read more »
Lead with Respect: Practicing Respect for People to Enable Engagement, Teamwork & Accountability Building a great organization requires effective leadership. It turns out that leadership skills can be learned. A key element that is often misunderstood is what it means to lead with respect. This learning session explores why leading with respect is essential in a successful transformation, what respect looks like in practice, and how it impacts your people to drive lasting change for the better. Read more »
Leader Standard Work There is lots of information out there on how to improve processes in industrial, office, and healthcare settings, but very little practical information on how to manage new processes as they are put into place. This workshop will help you learn how to review your existing management systems, supplant them with more effective lean methods and practices, and become more effective at creating a sustainable lean culture moving forward. Read more »
Leading in a Continuous Improvement Culture: Engaging and Coaching Problem Solving Thinkers This program is designed to describe this new role you can play as a leader in a program solving culture. It will also introduce skills that will help you be effective in that role and give you opportunities to practice them. Read more »
Lean Journey Self-Assessment Tool Whether you are starting out, strengthening, or reinvigorating your lean efforts within your organization this workshop will provide you with a tool to better understand where you are today and what your future can look like. Read more »
Lean Leadership: Through the Transformation and Beyond The purpose of this interactive one-day program is to facilitate a discussion with senior leaders about the challenges and obstacles they face implementing change relative to the lean transformation. The program will further address the roles, responsibilities and competencies of senior leaders that support the implementation of lean. Read more »
Lean Management System This one-day course is an overview of the elements that comprise the Lean Management System and an examination of how they work together to create a system of continuous improvement through collaborative problem solving. Read more »
Managing to Learn: The Use of the A3 Management Process This workshop introduces the A3 management process and the way of thinking represented in the A3 format that capture the heart of lean management. Participants will be provided an overview of various forms and uses of the A3 format and will have an opportunity to create their own A3. Working in small groups, they will be able to read, discuss, and evaluate each another’s A3s. Read more »
Online Webcast: Creating a Sustainable Lean Culture: Connecting the “Product” and the “People” Value Process-improvement tools are important, but their ultimate effectiveness depends on the ability to develop the underlying culture of problem solving to support continuous growth and improvement. This webcast explores the foundations of Toyota’s unique culture, and the role leaders play in supporting the transition from conventional to lean culture. Read more »
Problem Solving to Align Purpose, Process and People This is an expanded version of our 1-day Lean Problem Solving workshop which is offered exclusively in our office in Cambridge, MA. Read more »
Step 1,Skills to Coach for Development: Recognizing Effective PDCA Problem Solving This workshop will review the basic six-step PDCA process for investigating problems and deciding the most effective ways to eliminate them. It is intended to help leaders and coaches develop the listening and observation skills to recognize and model sound PDCA problem solving based on grasp of actual conditions. It will also prepare leaders to facilitate teams in PDCA thinking and coach employees to develop the skills to apply the process on their own. Read more »
Step 3, Skills to Coach for Development: Advanced Techniques for Humble Inquiry Questioning Specifically, Step 3, Skills to Coach for Development: Advanced Techniques for Humble Inquiry Coaching will focus on two critical skills to help you ask the right question at the right time. First, you will discover techniques for increasing your awareness of the coachee and yourself as two people engaged in a purposeful discussion. Second, you will learn ways to pick up on where the coachee is in his or her problem-solving thinking and ask questions to help them look more deeply or move ahead as needed. Together these skills will greatly improve your effectiveness in helping others to develop their PDCA problem-solving thinking. Read more »
Step 4, Skills to Coach for Development: Facilitating Reflection for Learning and Improvement This program will explore the nature and importance of reflection and give you opportunities to learn and practice the basic skills for leading the process of reflection. As with the other programs in the Skills for Coaching to Develop sequence, the focus will be on using humble inquiry questioning to facilitate others in reflecting. Read more »
Strategy Deployment and Alignment through Hoshin This workshop will help leaders understand Policy Deployment as a process for "de-selecting" initiatives down to the ones the organization can really achieve while aligning them with company strategic objectives and deploying them down through the organizational ranks. Read more »
Transformational Leadership: An Experiential Program for Lean Leaders This 2.5-day executive program uses experiential methodology to uncover the thinking that drives leaders’ behaviors. The program engages you in a realistic business simulation followed by a series of debriefs for reflection on your current leadership style and in order to help you develop a plan for moving toward a more effective lean leadership model. Read more »
TWI: Job Instruction This workshop will provide an overview of TWI with a focus on the Job Instruction program. Job Instruction is The Way to get A person to Quickly Remember how to do A job Correctly, Safely, and Conscientiously. These work standards then provide the foundation for employee engagement, continuous improvement and problem solving. Read more »
TWI: Job Relations Along with LEI’s workshop TWI: Job Instruction, the Job Relations Training for Leaders class provides an overview of another component of the Training Within Industry Program which was created by the United States during World War II, and has been used by Toyota and other Japanese companies for over 50 years to develop leaders and an exceptional workforce. Read more »
Understanding Lean Transformation Come explore the components of the Lean Transformation Model, see examples of what others are doing and reflect upon some potential gaps to close within your own organization. Read more »

Lean Online Education

In Partnership with the Isenberg School of Management

Courses developed by the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI), in partnership with the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Courses are hosted on on the Blackboard learning platform through UMass Online.

Online - Introduction to Lean Thinking and Practice This online course serves as an introduction to the key concepts, philosophies, and tools associated with lean thinking and practice. Designed through a joint effort between the Lean Enterprise Institute and the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Read more »
New!Online - Introduction to Problem Solving In this course, you will learn to grasp the situation at the gemba and use all your senses to understand what is truly happening. All too often, people create countermeasures to perceived problems without digging deeper or thinking more, that is, learning at the gemba to grasp the actual situation of the problem. Read more »

Online/Live-Streamed Workshops

Seamlessly adapted from LEI's workshop curriculum, these workshops are presented live. Join a live instructor for four 2-hour sessions, over the course of 2 weeks.

A Factory of One: Applying Lean Thinking to Improve Your Personal Performance (Online Webcast) This workshop will help leaders understand how three lean concepts – standard work, flow and visual management - can be applied to the gemba of an individual knowledge worker to make communication more effective and less burdensome. It will enable leaders at all levels to focus on value creation rather than becoming more efficient at Management of non-value-creating activities. The workshop will show leaders how they can do their work quicker and with better quality so that they can spend more time at the gemba coaching and mentoring those who work in value—creating roles. Read more »
Online Webcast Key Concepts of Lean This comprehensive program will show you how to build a culture of continuous improvement and collaborative problem solving by aligning Purpose, Process, People, and regularly practicing the scientific method of PDCA. Read more »
Online Webcast Key Concepts of Lean in Healthcare This webcast is designed for individuals and teams working in Healthcare who want to gain a better understanding of the principles, tools, and underlying philosophy of the lean management system. Read more »
Online Webcast Managing Kaizen Events This comprehensive program will give participants practical insight into the principles, tools, and techniques that drive effective kaizen events from the perspective of measurable and sustainable results and organizational development and engagement. Read more »
Online Webcast: Creating a Sustainable Lean Culture: Connecting the “Product” and the “People” Value Process-improvement tools are important, but their ultimate effectiveness depends on the ability to develop the underlying culture of problem solving to support continuous growth and improvement. This webcast explores the foundations of Toyota’s unique culture, and the role leaders play in supporting the transition from conventional to lean culture. Read more »

Specialized

A Factory of One: Applying Lean Thinking to Improve Your Personal Performance (Online Webcast) This workshop will help leaders understand how three lean concepts – standard work, flow and visual management - can be applied to the gemba of an individual knowledge worker to make communication more effective and less burdensome. It will enable leaders at all levels to focus on value creation rather than becoming more efficient at Management of non-value-creating activities. The workshop will show leaders how they can do their work quicker and with better quality so that they can spend more time at the gemba coaching and mentoring those who work in value—creating roles. Read more »
Capturing the Value of Lean This workshop will show the connectivity between the various types of lean tools, techniques and concepts and how the benefits of using lean can be captured in both quantitative and qualitative aspects. Participants will be asked to bring specific problems or challenges with them to this workshop and throughout the day, "real-life" examples, applicable to their situation, will be given to show how to capture the benefits of lean based upon their specific need. Read more »
New!Designing the Future: A Lean Product Development Immersive Learning Experience This two day workshop is targeted towards practitioners with an immersive experience applying LPPD principles while developing a product. Since LPPD is an enterprise activity, managers, leaders and continuous improvement agents in an organization are encouraged to attend. Read more »
Facilitation Skills for Leading Successful Teams Good meeting and facilitation skills are essential for any collaborative effort and they enable teams to make decisions efficiently and effectively. This workshop will share the core meeting process to follow for running successful meetings that are shorter, more focused and yield desired outcomes. Read more »
Go and See the Lean Supply Chain: Gemba-Based Workshop This two-day workshop is part of our new series of special programs which combine classroom learning with practical experience at the gemba. The workshop is conducted at the LeanCor Supply Chain Group Operational Center in Florence, Kentucky to allow the program attendees to see firsthand how lean principles are applied to logistics and supply chain processes in order to create an extended lean enterprise. It defines logistics and supply chain management and discusses what organizations need to do to successfully implement lean in order to build a Lean Supply Stream. Read more »
Improving Operations in High Mix/Low Volume Organizations An overall implementation method specific for low-volume and make-to-order businesses, along with specialized applications of lean tools. Not only will the focus be on the shop floor, but improvement methods for the office and administrative functions as well. Read more »
Lean Accounting To sustain a lean transformation, top executive and financial managers must know how to transform routine accounting practices to a new system that not only is lean itself but also supports lean practices. Read more »
Lean Fundamentals for Sales Organizations This workshop is an expansion of lean concepts and tools for Sales practitioners, as well as the organizational leadership responsible for creating and implementing strategies. By discussing real problems and how to apply new concepts, participants will become better prepared to assess when, where, and how to leverage learning and problem solving techniques in their own specific circumstances. Read more »
Lean Product Development: Delivering New Products, Faster and Better Many companies have applied lean thinking to manufacturing or service processes, and some have even honed focus by applying the standard tools and methods to additional organizational functions. But true lean leaders realize that their enterprise cannot thrive in the current environment of rapid change and unpredictable economics by focusing only on efficiency Read more »
Lean Upstream This one-day interactive session is designed to give participants critical insight into applying lean thinking upstream in the product lifecycle. Content will be organized around foundational principles, illustrated by examples from the Ford Motor Company whose legendary turnaround in recent years owes much to the transformation of their product development capability. Read more »
Lean Warehousing and Distribution Operations: Gemba-Based Workshop Learn how to begin implementing lean principles step-by-step into a warehouse and/or distribution center, using techniques such as lean storage, operational diagramming, standardized work, workload planning, and visual management. Read more »
Managing High Mix/Low Volume Organizations Management approaches and techniques introduced in this workshop will help you reduce the time you currently spend fire-fighting and focus on indirect/administrative process improvements to achieve lead-time reductions, increase process capacities and enhance customer satisfaction. Upon completion you will be energized with ideas on how to apply lean management tools which have been modified for high mix environments Read more »
People Systems: A Component of the Lean Management System This two day course is a critical examination of the policies, practices, and systems that incent the work force to behave in a predictable manner consistent with desired outcomes. It also deals with methods of realigning those incentives to encourage the behaviors we seek in a Lean thinking organization. Read more »

Lean Healthcare

Key Concepts of Lean in Healthcare
(on-site only) This two-day workshop, incorporating examples from many healthcare settings, is designed to gain a better understanding of the components and underlying philosophy of lean, and how the elements and philosophy work together to create a lean healthcare organization.Special emphasis is placed on balancing Toyota’s equally-important core principles of continuous improvement and “respect for people.” Practical steps will be presented for starting with lean immediately upon returning to your healthcare organization, as well as a way of thinking through a longer-term lean strategy for your organization. Read more »
Online Webcast Key Concepts of Lean in Healthcare This webcast is designed for individuals and teams working in Healthcare who want to gain a better understanding of the principles, tools, and underlying philosophy of the lean management system. Read more »
Supporting Healthcare Leader Standard Work with Visual Management Tools
(on-site only) If you are involved in Lean healthcare, in any capacity, you have probably heard about Gemba Walks and Visual Management. By combining Visual Management and Leader Standard Work, you harness the power of your organization seeing waste in real time and coming up with creative ways to eliminate it, improve patient care, and make the job of providing health care easier for everyone. This course will show you the basic tools necessary to reach those goals. This workshop has application in areas including: • Primary care • Pediatrics • Family practice • Optometry • Chiropractics & Alternative healthcare • Emergency departments • Surgical ICU’s Read more »
Value-Stream Mapping for Healthcare
(on-site only) This interactive workshop demonstrates how to apply lean principles and value-stream mapping, a fundamental and critical tool, to make fundamental improvements in a healthcare organization's clinical/administrative processes. See how these principles apply to the processes such as emergency medical care, pharmacy, diagnostic procedures (lab and radiology), patient registration and discharge, records, and billing. Read more »

Lean Product and Process Development

New!Designing the Future: A Lean Product Development Immersive Learning Experience This two day workshop is targeted towards practitioners with an immersive experience applying LPPD principles while developing a product. Since LPPD is an enterprise activity, managers, leaders and continuous improvement agents in an organization are encouraged to attend. Read more »
Lean Product Development: Delivering New Products, Faster and Better Many companies have applied lean thinking to manufacturing or service processes, and some have even honed focus by applying the standard tools and methods to additional organizational functions. But true lean leaders realize that their enterprise cannot thrive in the current environment of rapid change and unpredictable economics by focusing only on efficiency Read more »

5S - Visual Workplace
5S methodology helps organizations achieve more consistent operational results through maintaining an orderly workplace. This workshop will introduce you to the 5S methodology and help you learn basic implementation steps including evaluation and audit.
Read more »
A Factory of One: Applying Lean Thinking to Improve Your Personal Performance
(on-site only) As lean moves out of the "tool age," leaders—managers, directors, executives— must invest more time in the critical work of lean leadership: going to the gemba to support value creators in their improvement work and coaching and mentoring teams to develop their problem solving capabilities. This ensures that all organizational processes continuously add value to customers. Read more »
A Factory of One: Applying Lean Thinking to Improve Your Personal Performance (Online Webcast) This workshop will help leaders understand how three lean concepts – standard work, flow and visual management - can be applied to the gemba of an individual knowledge worker to make communication more effective and less burdensome. It will enable leaders at all levels to focus on value creation rather than becoming more efficient at Management of non-value-creating activities. The workshop will show leaders how they can do their work quicker and with better quality so that they can spend more time at the gemba coaching and mentoring those who work in value—creating roles. Read more »
Aligning the Right Behaviors with Your Business Objectives This hands-on workshop gives you a simple, practical method to scrutinize your business objectives against the traits and behaviors needed to achieve your objectives. To reinforce the training, you’ll work through case studies based on actual research and experiments within companies. We will look at improving the interrelationships (indicated by the circles in the graphic below) between business behaviors and three key elements of lean leadership. Read more »
Basic Techniques for Humble Inquiry Questioning Learn how to switch from trying to be the person out front leading the charge to being someone who utilizes his/her knowledge and experience to coach employees when needed. In other words, try the sensei approach to coaching and leading. Read more »
New!Building a Lean Operating & Management System A hands-on, mind engaging simulation-based workshop that will help you achieve a deeper understanding of lean principles and tools by developing your problem solving skills to meet critical business challenges at your workplace. Read more »
Building Effective Coaching Relations This workshop explores the key aspects of a coaching relationship which focuses on helping others develop the problem solving capability required for implementing lean and building the culture of continuous improvement. Read more »
Capturing the Value of Lean This workshop will show the connectivity between the various types of lean tools, techniques and concepts and how the benefits of using lean can be captured in both quantitative and qualitative aspects. Participants will be asked to bring specific problems or challenges with them to this workshop and throughout the day, "real-life" examples, applicable to their situation, will be given to show how to capture the benefits of lean based upon their specific need. Read more »
Change Agent Skills for Lean Implementation Leaders Learn how to lead others to and through implementation of lean change activities by persuasion, influence, demonstration, negotiation, and teaching. Read more »
Change That Sustains This interactive, hands-on workshop provides methods and tools to beat those odds and create change that sustains, using lessons learned from successfully implementing change at two Fortune 200 companies. Read more »
New!Coaching for Development - Structured Coaching Using A3 Thinking This workshop will take participants through a unique version of the A3 thinking process, modified to facilitate and foster personal development. We will also discuss key coaching and leadership skills that support developing others as problem solvers, and tips for how to use the personal A3 framework to anchor ongoing coaching relationship. Read more »
Coaching Problem-Solving in Huddles and Team Meetings If you are a leader, process owner, manager, or CI professional responsible for leading and coaching in huddles and RIE teams, this workshop will help you reach the next level of success, which depends on precisely identifying problems and using rapid experiments to uncover root causes. Read more »
Continuous Improvement Using Personal Kanban A simple, effective management system for digging out of work -- and staying dug out -- to achieve higher quality, better productivity, greater job satisfaction, and peace of mind. Read more »
Creating a Sustainable Lean Culture: Connecting the “Product” and the “People” Value Streams Process-improvement tools are important, but their ultimate effectiveness depends on the ability to develop the underlying culture of problem solving to support continuous growth and improvement. This workshop explores the foundations of Toyota’s unique culture and helps you develop an action plan to support the transition from conventional to lean culture. Read more »
New!Designing the Future: A Lean Product Development Immersive Learning Experience This two day workshop is targeted towards practitioners with an immersive experience applying LPPD principles while developing a product. Since LPPD is an enterprise activity, managers, leaders and continuous improvement agents in an organization are encouraged to attend. Read more »
Developing People with Capability for Lean Learn about a supportive management environment for lean performance. Explore the manger’s role in people development and responsibilities in creating a learning environment. Identify the perspectives, capabilities and behaviors required by the role and examine organizational systems and practices that support managers in carrying out their role to develop and sustain capability for performance in a lean operation. Read more »
Facilitation Skills for Leading Successful Teams Good meeting and facilitation skills are essential for any collaborative effort and they enable teams to make decisions efficiently and effectively. This workshop will share the core meeting process to follow for running successful meetings that are shorter, more focused and yield desired outcomes. Read more »
From Fire Fighting to True Continuous Improvement This workshop is an introduction into A-3 / PDCA problem solving. Workshop participants learn the thinking and practice of PDCA by doing. We ask each participant to come to the workshop with a problem that they would like to use as a test case to explore and learn new ways of thinking about how to solve problems. Read more »
Gemba Walks - A Management Process for Leading the Organization This opening paragraph of the introduction of Jim Womack’s latest book, "Gemba Walks," is the starting point for a gemba-based learning experience designed to help participants better understand their role in creating lean thinking through lean management led by their own behavior in “taking a walk.” Read more »
Getting the Right Things Done A major problem in a lean transformation is taking on too many initiatives at once. Policy Deployment guides you in "de-selecting" initiatives down to the ones the organization can really achieve while aligning them with company strategic objectives. Read more »
Go and See the Lean Supply Chain: Gemba-Based Workshop This two-day workshop is part of our new series of special programs which combine classroom learning with practical experience at the gemba. The workshop is conducted at the LeanCor Supply Chain Group Operational Center in Florence, Kentucky to allow the program attendees to see firsthand how lean principles are applied to logistics and supply chain processes in order to create an extended lean enterprise. It defines logistics and supply chain management and discusses what organizations need to do to successfully implement lean in order to build a Lean Supply Stream. Read more »
Improvement Kata / Coaching Kata What is a Kata? A kata is a pattern you practice to learn a skill and mindset. Through practice the pattern of a kata becomes second nature - done with little conscious attention - and readily available. Examples are riding a bicycle, driving a car, typing. People who have learned to drive don't think much about using the car's controls. They focus on navigating the road ahead. Read more »
Improvement Kata Experience This interactive experiential workshop offers the content and activities from Day 1 of our three-day Improvement Kata/Coaching Kata program with the intent to demonstrate two core Kata routines through hands-on practice. Read more »
Improvement Kata Seminar This interactive experiential workshop offers the content and activities from Day 2 of our three-day Improvement Kata/Coaching Kata program with the intent to help you understand and begin practicing a systematic routine for continuously improving the work you do. Read more »
Improving Operations in High Mix/Low Volume Organizations An overall implementation method specific for low-volume and make-to-order businesses, along with specialized applications of lean tools. Not only will the focus be on the shop floor, but improvement methods for the office and administrative functions as well. Read more »
Integrating Visual Management This workshop introduces the tools and practices of visual management as one of the components of the Lean Management System and shows how they need to be used to effectively support the daily routine of lean leaders. Read more »
Integrating Visual Management Tools and Leader Standard Work This course deals with designing and executing an implementation plan to migrate your company from one of “gather data, synthesize, meet, and react” to one of “see waste, manage exceptions, and improve processes”. It will show you how to tie together the tools of Policy Deployment, Value Stream Mapping, Visual Management, and Management Standard Work. The emphasis of the course is on the development of visual management tools and incorporating them into management standard work. Read more »
Kaizen: the Culture of Continuous Improvement This workshop is an introduction to the Kaizen Teian or Kaizen methodology which promotes the sustainable continuous improvement as a daily way of life for every member within the organization. The class is based on a “hear-see-do” approach allowing you to learn through instruction, discussion, simulation, and small-group exercise. Read more »
Key Concepts of Lean Designed for individuals and teams that want to gain a better understanding of the components and underlying philosophy of lean, based on the Toyota Production System (TPS), and how the elements and philosophy work together to create a Lean Enterprise. Read more »
Key Concepts of Lean in Healthcare
(on-site only) This two-day workshop, incorporating examples from many healthcare settings, is designed to gain a better understanding of the components and underlying philosophy of lean, and how the elements and philosophy work together to create a lean healthcare organization.Special emphasis is placed on balancing Toyota’s equally-important core principles of continuous improvement and “respect for people.” Practical steps will be presented for starting with lean immediately upon returning to your healthcare organization, as well as a way of thinking through a longer-term lean strategy for your organization. Read more »
Key Elements for Sustainability - Half Day Class This 4-hour workshop will provide real examples of proven methods to implement and sustain changes within an organization. It is an abbreviated, yet powerful, session that will cover concepts, tools, examples and exercises. Read more »
Lead with Respect: Practicing Respect for People to Enable Engagement, Teamwork & Accountability Building a great organization requires effective leadership. It turns out that leadership skills can be learned. A key element that is often misunderstood is what it means to lead with respect. This learning session explores why leading with respect is essential in a successful transformation, what respect looks like in practice, and how it impacts your people to drive lasting change for the better. Read more »
Leader Standard Work There is lots of information out there on how to improve processes in industrial, office, and healthcare settings, but very little practical information on how to manage new processes as they are put into place. This workshop will help you learn how to review your existing management systems, supplant them with more effective lean methods and practices, and become more effective at creating a sustainable lean culture moving forward. Read more »
Leading in a Continuous Improvement Culture: Engaging and Coaching Problem Solving Thinkers This program is designed to describe this new role you can play as a leader in a program solving culture. It will also introduce skills that will help you be effective in that role and give you opportunities to practice them. Read more »
Lean Accounting To sustain a lean transformation, top executive and financial managers must know how to transform routine accounting practices to a new system that not only is lean itself but also supports lean practices. Read more »
Lean Fundamentals for Sales Organizations This workshop is an expansion of lean concepts and tools for Sales practitioners, as well as the organizational leadership responsible for creating and implementing strategies. By discussing real problems and how to apply new concepts, participants will become better prepared to assess when, where, and how to leverage learning and problem solving techniques in their own specific circumstances. Read more »
Lean Journey Self-Assessment Tool Whether you are starting out, strengthening, or reinvigorating your lean efforts within your organization this workshop will provide you with a tool to better understand where you are today and what your future can look like. Read more »
Lean Leadership: Through the Transformation and Beyond The purpose of this interactive one-day program is to facilitate a discussion with senior leaders about the challenges and obstacles they face implementing change relative to the lean transformation. The program will further address the roles, responsibilities and competencies of senior leaders that support the implementation of lean. Read more »
Lean Management System This one-day course is an overview of the elements that comprise the Lean Management System and an examination of how they work together to create a system of continuous improvement through collaborative problem solving. Read more »
Lean Problem Solving Harness the DNA of successful, sustainable lean implementations. You'll learn and practice the PDCA (plan-do-check-act) problem-solving method in this interactive workshop. Read more »
Lean Product Development: Delivering New Products, Faster and Better Many companies have applied lean thinking to manufacturing or service processes, and some have even honed focus by applying the standard tools and methods to additional organizational functions. But true lean leaders realize that their enterprise cannot thrive in the current environment of rapid change and unpredictable economics by focusing only on efficiency Read more »
Lean Upstream This one-day interactive session is designed to give participants critical insight into applying lean thinking upstream in the product lifecycle. Content will be organized around foundational principles, illustrated by examples from the Ford Motor Company whose legendary turnaround in recent years owes much to the transformation of their product development capability. Read more »
Lean Warehousing and Distribution Operations: Gemba-Based Workshop Learn how to begin implementing lean principles step-by-step into a warehouse and/or distribution center, using techniques such as lean storage, operational diagramming, standardized work, workload planning, and visual management. Read more »
New!Lessons in A3 Thinking: What Porter Learned in Managing to Learn Understand the work, thinking, and leadership behind the A3 process -- not only what goes into the storyboard boxes. Read more »
Managing High Mix/Low Volume Organizations Management approaches and techniques introduced in this workshop will help you reduce the time you currently spend fire-fighting and focus on indirect/administrative process improvements to achieve lead-time reductions, increase process capacities and enhance customer satisfaction. Upon completion you will be energized with ideas on how to apply lean management tools which have been modified for high mix environments Read more »
Managing Kaizen Events The workshop is comprised of instruction, discussion, gemba tales (a.k.a. war stories), as well as forensic review of recently completed kaizen events, and small group exercises around pre-event planning, including event selection/scoping, team composition, and initial strategy formulation. Read more »
New!Managing to Learn at the Gemba This session builds capability to effectively observe the gemba in a purposeful way and to define a clear problem to solve. This is built off of the fundamental framework of A3 thinking from Managing to Learn by John Shook. Read more »
Managing to Learn: The Use of the A3 Management Process This workshop introduces the A3 management process and the way of thinking represented in the A3 format that capture the heart of lean management. Participants will be provided an overview of various forms and uses of the A3 format and will have an opportunity to create their own A3. Working in small groups, they will be able to read, discuss, and evaluate each another’s A3s. Read more »
New!Mapping your Work, Navigating Life: Personal Kanban In this one-day immersive experience we will explore the impact of overload on both the individual and the team; politics and "work-arounds" that start quietly and quickly morph into unwritten rules; and smooth work-, information-, and communication-flows that can lead to happier, less stressed, and more effective teams. Read more »
Online - Introduction to Lean Thinking and Practice This online course serves as an introduction to the key concepts, philosophies, and tools associated with lean thinking and practice. Designed through a joint effort between the Lean Enterprise Institute and the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Read more »
New!Online - Introduction to Problem Solving In this course, you will learn to grasp the situation at the gemba and use all your senses to understand what is truly happening. All too often, people create countermeasures to perceived problems without digging deeper or thinking more, that is, learning at the gemba to grasp the actual situation of the problem. Read more »
Online Webcast Key Concepts of Lean This comprehensive program will show you how to build a culture of continuous improvement and collaborative problem solving by aligning Purpose, Process, People, and regularly practicing the scientific method of PDCA. Read more »
Online Webcast Key Concepts of Lean in Healthcare This webcast is designed for individuals and teams working in Healthcare who want to gain a better understanding of the principles, tools, and underlying philosophy of the lean management system. Read more »
Online Webcast Managing Kaizen Events This comprehensive program will give participants practical insight into the principles, tools, and techniques that drive effective kaizen events from the perspective of measurable and sustainable results and organizational development and engagement. Read more »
Online Webcast: Creating a Sustainable Lean Culture: Connecting the “Product” and the “People” Value Process-improvement tools are important, but their ultimate effectiveness depends on the ability to develop the underlying culture of problem solving to support continuous growth and improvement. This webcast explores the foundations of Toyota’s unique culture, and the role leaders play in supporting the transition from conventional to lean culture. Read more »
People Systems: A Component of the Lean Management System This two day course is a critical examination of the policies, practices, and systems that incent the work force to behave in a predictable manner consistent with desired outcomes. It also deals with methods of realigning those incentives to encourage the behaviors we seek in a Lean thinking organization. Read more »
Practicing Lean Fundamentals in an Office Environment Description: This two-day workshop has been designed for individuals and teams who work in office and service environments that want to gain a better understanding of the philosophy, thinking and acting within a Lean Enterprise and how it might benefit their customers, organizations, and staffs. It will demonstrate the overall approach for implementing a lean transformation including both work and management processes in your organization. Read more »
Problem Solving to Align Purpose, Process and People This is an expanded version of our 1-day Lean Problem Solving workshop which is offered exclusively in our office in Cambridge, MA. Read more »
Standardized Work: The Foundation for Kaizen Standardized work is one of the most powerful but least used lean tool. Learn how documenting the current best practice (standardized work) forms the baseline for kaizen or continuous improvement. Read more »
Step 1,Skills to Coach for Development: Recognizing Effective PDCA Problem Solving This workshop will review the basic six-step PDCA process for investigating problems and deciding the most effective ways to eliminate them. It is intended to help leaders and coaches develop the listening and observation skills to recognize and model sound PDCA problem solving based on grasp of actual conditions. It will also prepare leaders to facilitate teams in PDCA thinking and coach employees to develop the skills to apply the process on their own. Read more »
Step 3, Skills to Coach for Development: Advanced Techniques for Humble Inquiry Questioning Specifically, Step 3, Skills to Coach for Development: Advanced Techniques for Humble Inquiry Coaching will focus on two critical skills to help you ask the right question at the right time. First, you will discover techniques for increasing your awareness of the coachee and yourself as two people engaged in a purposeful discussion. Second, you will learn ways to pick up on where the coachee is in his or her problem-solving thinking and ask questions to help them look more deeply or move ahead as needed. Together these skills will greatly improve your effectiveness in helping others to develop their PDCA problem-solving thinking. Read more »
Step 4, Skills to Coach for Development: Facilitating Reflection for Learning and Improvement This program will explore the nature and importance of reflection and give you opportunities to learn and practice the basic skills for leading the process of reflection. As with the other programs in the Skills for Coaching to Develop sequence, the focus will be on using humble inquiry questioning to facilitate others in reflecting. Read more »
Strategy Deployment and Alignment through Hoshin This workshop will help leaders understand Policy Deployment as a process for "de-selecting" initiatives down to the ones the organization can really achieve while aligning them with company strategic objectives and deploying them down through the organizational ranks. Read more »
Supporting Healthcare Leader Standard Work with Visual Management Tools
(on-site only) If you are involved in Lean healthcare, in any capacity, you have probably heard about Gemba Walks and Visual Management. By combining Visual Management and Leader Standard Work, you harness the power of your organization seeing waste in real time and coming up with creative ways to eliminate it, improve patient care, and make the job of providing health care easier for everyone. This course will show you the basic tools necessary to reach those goals. This workshop has application in areas including: • Primary care • Pediatrics • Family practice • Optometry • Chiropractics & Alternative healthcare • Emergency departments • Surgical ICU’s Read more »
Transformational Leadership: An Experiential Program for Lean Leaders This 2.5-day executive program uses experiential methodology to uncover the thinking that drives leaders’ behaviors. The program engages you in a realistic business simulation followed by a series of debriefs for reflection on your current leadership style and in order to help you develop a plan for moving toward a more effective lean leadership model. Read more »
TWI: Job Instruction This workshop will provide an overview of TWI with a focus on the Job Instruction program. Job Instruction is The Way to get A person to Quickly Remember how to do A job Correctly, Safely, and Conscientiously. These work standards then provide the foundation for employee engagement, continuous improvement and problem solving. Read more »
TWI: Job Relations Along with LEI’s workshop TWI: Job Instruction, the Job Relations Training for Leaders class provides an overview of another component of the Training Within Industry Program which was created by the United States during World War II, and has been used by Toyota and other Japanese companies for over 50 years to develop leaders and an exceptional workforce. Read more »
Understanding Lean Transformation Come explore the components of the Lean Transformation Model, see examples of what others are doing and reflect upon some potential gaps to close within your own organization. Read more »
Using Training Within Industry (TWI) Techniques for Rapid and Sustainable Problem Solving Join us for a workshop based on scientifically-proven Training Within Industry (TWI) techniques designed to help you and your team (and the organization) learn faster. Read more »
Value-Stream Mapping for Healthcare
(on-site only) This interactive workshop demonstrates how to apply lean principles and value-stream mapping, a fundamental and critical tool, to make fundamental improvements in a healthcare organization's clinical/administrative processes. See how these principles apply to the processes such as emergency medical care, pharmacy, diagnostic procedures (lab and radiology), patient registration and discharge, records, and billing. Read more »
Value-Stream Mapping for Manufacturing
(on-site only) Learn how to use this fundamental initial step in a lean transformation to create the "blueprints" for applying other tools and targeting kaizen events most effectively. Read more »
Value-Stream Mapping for Manufacturing: Gemba-Based Workshop This workshop, now offered live for the first time, shows you how to create and apply this fundamental and critical tool, based on Lean Enterprise Institute's groundbreaking VSM workbook, Learning to See, which has introduced the mapping tool to thousands around the world Read more »
Value-Stream Mapping: a Methodology for Sustainable System Improvement This interactive workshop takes you through EVERY step of the value-stream improvement process: preparation before mapping, current-state mapping, problem solving to design the future state, managing implementation of a lean transformation to plan, and continuing to support the value stream after implementation. Read more »
Value-Stream Mapping: Gemba Based Workshop This workshop, now offered live for the first time, shows you how to create and apply this fundamental and critical tool, based on Lean Enterprise Institute's groundbreaking VSM workbook, Learning to See, which has introduced the mapping tool to thousands around the world. Read more »

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