Article

Finding a Lean Cure that Respects the Health of Healthcare Workers

In his prognosis of the health care system, LEI CEO Eric Buehrens says we need to improve the work to remove waste and create value;…

by Eric Buehrens

Article

Method vs. Tool

Dear Gemba Coach: I think that TPM, JIT, SMED, Heijunka are methods and the 5S, VSM Kaizen are tools.  Perhaps we could use the expression…

by Michael Ballé

Lexicon Term

Paced Withdrawal

The practice of releasing production instructions to work areas and withdrawing completed product from work areas at a fixed, frequent pace. This practice can be…

Article

TPS, the Thinking People System

The twin pillars of just-in-time and jidoka help support a full model about how to achieve customer satisfaction from employee satisfaction, through teamwork and respect,…

by Michael Ballé

Article

Is agile project management simply lean thinking applied to software development?

Dear Gemba Coach: You seem to distinguish between agile and lean, but to my understanding, agile is simply lean thinking applied to software development. Am…

by Michael Ballé

Article

Value at the Imperial Grill

"The Imperial Grill was a lean enterprise, and my folks, lean thinkers, though they would simply call it common sense," writes Pascal Dennis. In his…

by Pascal Dennis

Article

As head of a lean office, what must I do to really walk the talk?

Dear Gemba Coach: I am the head of a lean office. I’d like to lead by example, but it occurs to me that we often…

by Michael Ballé

Article

Lean Fitness: The Individual vs. the Organization

"For both the individual and the organization, the problem is the same," writes Dan Markovitz. "There may be a stated goal—lose 15 pounds, improve muscle…

by Dan Markovitz

Article

Should we have our own TPS "house"?

Dear Gemba Coach: My management wants to build our own version of the TPS (Toyota Production System) house in order to standardize our lean approach.…

by Michael Ballé

Article

Intentional Respect

"Most organizations fail to intentionally balance the technical tools side with the social side of Lean," writes Mike Orzen. "People say, 'We respect our people.…

by Mike Orzen

Article

Why Doesn't Lean Have a Seat at the Table?

Why hasn’t Lean spread more widely, asks Steven Spear, suggesting that it has not been framed in a way that addresses the strategic concern of…

by Steven Spear

Article

Just-in-Time Roundup: Great Lean Reads from Across the Web (Vol. 8)

Check out our picks for high value lean reads you may have missed - this time from Inc., Harvard Business Review, Planet Lean and more.

by Lean Leaper

Article

Lean Thinking for Air Travel

Recently I got a call from an aide to Don Carty at American Airlines (their Chairman who resigned this past week.) This person wanted to…

by James (Jim) Womack, PhD

Article

Now What Do We Call the Karaoke Bar?

We asked the lean community to sound off on whether or not they favored using Japanese terms in their lean transformations. The results were interesting…

by Chet Marchwinski

Article

Lean Physician, Heal Thyself!

"We [need] to equip people with the right tools to address the problems they must solve," writes Phil Coy. "New software is emerging that is…

Article

Five Missing Pieces in Your Standardized Work (Part 2 of 3)

John Shook delves more deeply into two of the five most often neglected elements, demonstrating the importance of practice and the role of the leader,…

by John Shook

Article

Cadence

What do the numbers 1/16, 4/04, 5/03, 5/30, 8/22, 10/23 and 12/20 have in common? They are the dates (day/month) that I sent out my…

by James (Jim) Womack, PhD

Article

Lean Information Management

Recently I was walking through a manufacturing operation and found myself wondering about the principles of lean information management, in particular with regard to production…

by James (Jim) Womack, PhD

Article

Just in Time, Just in Case, and Just Plain Wrong

Jim Womack responds the the January 12th Wall Street Journal headline “Just-In-Time Inventories Make U.S. Vulnerable to a Pandemic”

by James (Jim) Womack, PhD

Article

Product and Process Lean

Dear Gemba Coach: Lean product development guys tout the gospel of product focus as core to lean success. No argument from me. But … how,…

by Michael Ballé