Article

The Value Stream Manager

Objectives of This Paper:The Lean Enterprise Institute receives many questions about how to select the right person to be the value-stream manager. In some cases we are getting…

by Lean Enterprise Institute

Case Study

Massachusetts General Looks to Lean

Northeast Proton Therapy Center uses lean principles to increase capacity to treat life-threatening diseases.

by George Taninecz

Case Study

Shifting to Value-Stream Managers:a Shop-Floor Revolution Leads to a Revolution in Plant Organization

Two years into a lean transformation, the low-hanging fruit has been plucked and progress has started to slow. Read how a Thomas & Betts plant…

Case Study

Herman Miller’s Experiment in Excellence

With initial support from the Toyota Supplier Support Center, Herman Miller cultivates experimental thinkers who make process improvements every day. Their work has yielded dramatic…

by David Drickhamer

Article

Standardize Your Problem-Solving Approach? Why One Size Does Not Fit All

Lean management practitioners know what a powerful tool standardization is for continuously improving processes. Without standards, there can be no improvement as the old saying…

by Art Smalley

Article

Ask Art: What Targets Should We Set When Launching a Lean Turnaround?

Here's why setting results-oriented targets instead of process-oriented targets will doom your lean improvement efforts, says Art Byrne.

by Art Byrne

Podcast

Navigating Organizational Change: A Conversation with Dr. Lynn Kelley

In this podcast episode, LEI chats with Dr. Lynn Kelley to delve into organizational change: how to design it, execute it, and sustain it.

by Matthew Savas

Case Study

Change in Implementation Approach Opens the Door at EMCO to Greater Gains in Less Time

Many lean thinkers ask how they can accelerate the pace of a transformation or spread it to other facilities. EMCO Enterprise’s Des Moines plant has…

by Chet Marchwinski

Article

Take Baby Steps Towards Improvement

As you think about your 2019 resolutions, ask yourself if you’re making the change too big and, therefore, too scary, suggests Mark Graban. Instead of…

by Mark Graban

Video

How to Lead Physicians in Change

The Seattle Children's medical director of continuous improvement and innovation describes a successful method for standardizing — and improving — clinical processes.

by Lean Leaper

Case Study

Landscape Forms Cultivates Lean to Fuel Growth Goals

With single-item orders 80% of the time, adopting single-piece flow and cellular production made sense to management at Landscape Forms, a low-volume, high-mix producer of…

Article

Our hoshin plan failed. What do we do now?

Dear Gemba Coach: How do we deal with hoshin kanri when things don’t work out as planned?

by Michael Ballé

Article

Management has a bad case of investment loss aversion. What can I do?

Dear Gemba Coach: I’ve been asked to take over the corporate lean program but the company’s investment plan favors large high-speed equipment, which I’ve come…

by Michael Ballé

Article

A Sweeter Type of Lean

In one memorable lean project, Carlos Moretti found himself assisting a Brazilian sugar-cane supplier for the ethanol industry with a number of efficiency and quality…

by Carlos Moretti

Article

Be a Better Coach: Learn to “Force” Your Team to Reflect, Part 1

Sustaining a lean thinking culture requires consistent leadership and coaching that reinforces expected behaviors and practices. Here’s an example of how to ensure your frontline…

by David Verble

Article

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?…

by Tracey Richardson

Article

How Do You Find - or Develop - the Right Sensei to Lead Lean?

Dear Gemba Coach: We have become skilled at indicating what goes wrong, but solving the problems is not our strength. Making the transformation to problem…

by Michael Ballé

Article

Is there a lean way of delegating?

Dear Gemba Coach: I’m an entrepreneur and I used to micromanage everything, quite successfully. Now the firm has grown and I’m trying to delegate. How…

by Michael Ballé

Article

Making Your Work Work in the First 90 Days

In your first 90 days as a lean leader, what path will you take to support transformation? Andrew Quibell details the elements of both a…

by Andrew Quibell

Article

How Wiremold Reinvented Itself Through Kaizen

Art Byrne shares a seminal 25-year-old article recounting how Wiremold tapped Kaizen to support a complete lean turnaround that continues to inspire and instruct people…

by Art Byrne