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So, what are you going to do about it?
What a year for global supply chains! It started quietly, with a few leading firms taking the lead in reintegrating hopelessly disintegrated supply lines. Then…
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Why is Flow Easy, and Quality Hard?
Dear Gemba Coach: My lean team has become proficient at teaching flow but it's not gaining traction when it comes to quality issues. Do you…
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Ask Art: “Do lean conversions actually go smoothly, like in the books?”
Art Byrne receives many inquiries from people wondering whether lean transformations really are as smooth as they seem in books, or if the way is…
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Ask Art: Does Lean Really Work Everywhere?
There's a common misconception that Lean is "just some manufacturing thing." Read why Art Byrne believes Lean can be applied any and everywhere.
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Why audit standard work? And what is the best approach?
Dear Gemba Coach: Can you help me determine the best way to conduct audits of standard work (SW)? The Toyota Way Fieldbook describes a layered…
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How do we get started with standard work?
How do we get started with standard work? The literature seems to say there can’t be meaningful kaizen without standards, but although we have procedures…
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5 Missing Pieces in Your Standardized Work (Part 1 of 3)
John Shook offers an overview of the five most frequent misunderstandings about this fundamental lean practice and expands on three of them.
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Lean Warehousing and Distribution Benefits Your Company, Customers, and Supply Chain
Lean warehousing sounds like an oxymoron. But in this interview, lean practitioner and Toyota veteran David Graham explains how lean concepts apply to warehouse and…
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Learning Through Struggle
LEI coach Danielle Blais reflects on one of the most frustrating (and ultimately, most rewarding) coaching moments she's experienced so far in her career.
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Standardized Work for Kaizen: Define, Achieve, Maintain, Improve
We can all agree that kaizen (continuous improvement to create more value with less waste) is important, but do you have standardized work for kaizen?…
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Leaning Healthcare
Healthcare is the next great industry to begin the Lean journey. The existing model in which the hospital doctor acting as a skilled craftsperson effectively…
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Mapping a Reading List to Lean
We humans want to see what is happening, understand how we and our colleagues best collaborate, solve problems, make good decisions, and have an insatiable…
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Why implement lean when it fails so often?
Dear Gemba Coach: Is it true that lean often fails? What’s the point then?
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Isn’t lean all about culture?
Dear Gemba Coach: Isn’t lean all about culture, really?
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Follow-up Webinar Q&A with Jim Lancaster, Lantech CEO and author of the Work of Management
"The Real Work of Management" webinar drew an engaged audience that wanted to know more about the daily management system that CEO Jim Lancaster installed…
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Seeing the Work of a Daily Management System
Daily management systems tap visual elements that expose problems, and also use obeyas as thinking spaces for reflecting on broader challenges, says Michael Balle.
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5 Ways My Thinking Changed With the Help of a Lean Coach
"Coaching for development is different than being managed," writes Deborah McGee. "Lean coaching in our case was not directing an improvement swat team or teaching…
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Tap the Power of Flow to Develop Lean Thinkers
Flow is personal--a moment of enrichment, and a mental state. It´s stretching oneself just that little bit extra, not because someone else tells us to,…
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Lexicon Term
Pitch
The amount of time needed in a production area to make one container of products. The formula for pitch is: takt time x pack-out quantity…
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The Art of Silent Observation
Silent observation is not as intuitive as it may sound. Andrew Quibell often meets people who think it's as simple as standing and watching the…
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