Article
What Lean Thinkers Think About The Gold Mine
Questions and comments†from readers to co-author Michael BallÈ about his book The Gold Mine.
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Article
How the A3 Process Developed to Help Build Better Managers
One of the hallmarks of a successfully executed A3 process is that it is a collaborative activity--a learning process for everyone involved: for learner and…
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Article
Solutions from Afar
A leader's job isn't to provide solutions to problems; it's to teach and coach their staff to solve problems themselves--at the gemba.
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Article
Never Fail...To Create the Conditions for People to be Successful
In this excerpt from Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn, Katie Anderson shares the story of how Isao Yoshino learned first-hand the value that Toyota…
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Article
Expanding Our Perspective on Lean Management, Part 1: A Creative Ethic
To explore the idea that there may be other angles for understanding lean management principles than purely business or analytical perspectives, a group of lean…
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Article
Be More Innovative with These Resources and Ideas for Exploiting World-Shaping Trends
Great products and services begin with great ideas and great ideas are informed by the big trends that are shaping the world. But how do…
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Article
Lessons Learned from the Cleveland Indians’ Historic 22-Game Winning Streak
In the wake of the Cleveland Indians' record-shattering 22-game winning streak, George Taninecz reflects on some important business lessons that we can learn from this…
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Article
Put Your People at The Center of Your Development System
"It is your people that provide the skills, energy and creativity," writes Jim Morgan. "They are the single most important element of great product development…
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Article
Why We Are a Nonprofit (And How You Can Benefit)
Every month I get calls and emails from folks thinking the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI) is a consulting business and wanting to hire a sensei.…
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Article
The Leader's Dilemma: Becoming a Learner
We build leaders up to be all-knowing, but leaders who act as 'knowers' (as opposed to learners) actually limit their ability to accomplish what is…
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Article
Fixing Lean’s “Sales” Problem
When companies begin lean transformations, IT systems too often are viewed as obstacles. So, some lean thinkers may view Jacob Stoller, author of The Lean…
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Article
The Story of an Error
As a followup to his popular article from earlier this summer about lean profit-sharing plans, Orry Fiume delves deeper. He shares a booklet that McKesson…
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Article
How to Improve Your Product Development Process
Members of LEI's Lean Product and Process Development Learning Group share their successful strategies.
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Article
What comes after Lean?
Lean practice is an ongoing process, it never ends. But what are we learning about the field? What comes after Lean in terms of emerging…
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Article
Creating Value or Shifting Wealth?
How do we judge the progress of the Lean Movement? One critical indicator is our success in extending lean thinking to new industries and activities.…
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Article
Customers Should Determine the Businesses of the Future, Not the 1%
"We set up entrepreneurs to fail when we put all the emphasis on pitch day and the amount of money raised, instead of rewarding companies…
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Article
The Prospects for Lean
As we all return to work in the New Year, I wanted to provide a few thoughts on the prospects for lean thinking in the…
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Article
Developing Students, Improving Universities
"Today, lean thinking in higher education is uncommon," writes Theresa Coleman-Kaiser of Michigan Tech University. "As a rule, institutions that teach lean continuous improvement in…
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Article
LEI looks for success stories to share
I routinely end my talks by offering to give anyone 15 minutes of fame in my and Dan Jones’s next book if they will do…
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Video
Lean Principles Are the Bread & Butter of this Retail Transformation
Entrepreneurs explain how their chain of bakeries and retail stores used lean continuous improvement to profitably expand, engage employees, and meet growing customer demand for…
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