Article

Lean Business-IT Integration, Part Two: Obstacles to Value-Stream Transformation

In this, the second of a five part series, LEI faculty member Steve Bell offers a framework to help overcome the common obstacles to a…

by Steve Bell

Article

Ask Art: How Do Improvements to Your Balance Sheet Drive Earnings?

Converting to true lean practice yields significant improvement in financial performance -- and one place to start is by focusing and fixing your balance sheet.…

by Art Byrne

Article

Ask Art: How Much Time Does It Take to Complete a Lean Transformation?

Though you can never be "finished" with the essential work of creating a continuous improvement culture, here are a few ways to determine whether you're…

by Art Byrne

Article

Does quality really come first?

Dear Gemba Coach: I’ve been practicing lean for many years and have learned to create flow and one-piece-flow. However I still struggle with quality problems.…

by Michael Ballé

Workbooks

Creating Lean Dealers

Car manufacturing has been transformed by Lean over the last 20 years yet car dealerships have remained virtually untouched by Lean. Now that’s changing. Dealerships…

by David Brunt and John Kiff

Article

What Too Many Lean Leaders Forget about Gemba Walks

Lean Coach Darren Walsh of the UK's Lean Enterprise Academy has seen many lean leaders make a troubling, yet highly avoidable, mistake on their gemba…

by Darren Walsh

Article

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…

by Art Byrne

Article

Deliberate Innovation Through Lean Product & Process Development

Check out LEI's live blog from the Lean Product and Process Development Exchange (North America) Conference happening now in Durham, North Carolina.

by Lex Schroeder

Article

After Lean Progress, Fighting the Challenges of Backsliding

After accepting the tough challenge of reducing deliver lead-time, CEO Nicolas Chartier and their entire team learned "to react at the first sign of backsliding…

by Nicolas Chartier

Article

If lean is valid in all situations doesn't that make it an ideology?

Dear Gemba Coach: Is lean really valid in all situations? That sounds like ideology to me!

by Michael Ballé

Article

How lean should a lean line design be?

Dear Gemba Coach: I’m in manufacturing engineering and have been asked to design a lean line. I’ve participated to several kaizen workshops and have some general…

by Michael Ballé

Article

Why Are There So Many Points of View About What Lean Is?

Dear Gemba Coach: I’ve been interested in lean for over two years now, and can’t quite understand why after 20 years there are still so…

by Michael Ballé

Article

How Come Toyota Veterans Don’t Use a Roadmap?

Dear Gemba Coach: Recently I spent a few months working with Toyota veterans at an automotive supplier. I was surprised at their approach. I expected…

by Michael Ballé

Article

What does “separating human work from machine work" mean?

Dear Gemba Coach: What does “separating human work from machine work” mean? How does it matter?

by Michael Ballé

Article

Why We Believe that Lean is More Than A Manufacturing Approach

Is Lean thinking a thing of the past from glorious manufacturing times in the late twentieth century? Or, on the other hand, is it possible…

by Lean Sensei Women

Article

Live Blogging the Lean Transformation Summit, Day 2

LEI Senior Editor Tom Ehrenfeld continues his live blog of the Lean Transformation Summit, happening now in Orlando!

by Tom Ehrenfeld and Lex Schroeder

Article

Developing Problem Solvers

We traditionally see an organisation as a collection of departments or activities, each managed separately and each separated from the rest by inventories or time…

by Dan Jones

Article

Not a High-Volume Widget Manufacturer? Lean Still Makes Sense for High-Mix, Low-Volume Production

If your organization deals with a wide variety of products that incur fluctuating demand and your customers are ever increasing the product range while demanding…

Article

Lean Business-IT Integration, Part Five: Measurement - Finding Our True North

In the fifth article of a five-part series on Lean IT, LEI faculty member Steve Bell addresses measurement. Part One begins with the importance of…

by Steve Bell

Case Study

Using Lean Thinking to Reinvent City Government

In many cities, stagnant tax revenues from a slowing economy coupled with rising healthcare and energy costs are causing budget shortfalls. To cope with the…

by David Drickhamer