Article
Toyota's New Material-Handling System Shows TPS’s Flexibility
Art Smalley, LEI author and faculty member, reports on Toyota's new material-handling system for assembly areas that he saw in action at an engine plant…
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Article
5S Again and Again and Again
Dear Gemba Coach,†I've just inherited responsibility for our 5S efforts in our company. Any suggestions for how I can get the program back on track?
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Ask Art: How high is up with lean?
Art Byrne explains that continuous improvement really is continuous and that there is no limit to the “up” in lean.
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Article
How do I introduce kaizen to IT?
Dear Gemba Coach: Based on your experience, what is the best strategy to introduce kaizen as social, ongoing events without start and end dates in…
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Lean Roundup: Respect for People
Respect for People is one of the most abstract and yet most concrete tenets of lean, a guiding principle that informs how people work, coach,…
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Article
PDCA, Fitness Apps, and Using Social Media to Improve Our Health
"Health isn't about always being perfect," writes lean coach Tracey Richardson. "Just like in our organizations, we all have imperfect days. It’s how we change…
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Article
More Evidence That ThedaCare Rocks
LEI coach Danielle Blais reflects on her recent gemba visit to the lean healthcare organization, Appleton Medical Center in Appleton, Wisconsin—a ThedaCare hospital widely known…
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Article
What Too Many Value Stream Maps Completely Miss
Believe it or not, up to half of all the value-stream maps that cross Drew Locher's desk are missing something extremely important. In his first…
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Article
Lean Roundup: Pull
A pull system links all production activity to actual customer demand--and creates what one lean thinker calls "an architecture for kaizen." Read more about this…
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Article
A Lean Leap of Faith
Michael Ballé reflects on a core assumption of Lean that is often disregarded and explains why it is worth taking a lean leap of faith.
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Article
Why aren’t the laws of lean articulated?
Dear Gemba Coach: Aren’t there laws of lean, just as there are laws of physics? And why aren’t these clearly articulated yet?
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How big should my lean promotion office be?
Dear Gemba Coach: How large should my lean promotion office be if I want to achieve quickly a lean culture change?
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Why are there so many different opinions about what lean management is and isn't?
Dear Gemba Coach: I have attended several lean conferences and am deeply interested in the topic, but puzzled about the diversity of viewpoints. Any advice…
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Apples & Oranges: Value-Stream Mapping in a Low-Volume/High-Mix Environment
Here's how one LVHM company mapped its complex value streams — and discovered the path to next-level productivity that enabled it to transform the business…
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Case Study
Seasoned Lean Effort Avoids "Flavor-of-the-Month" Pitfall
What comes first in a lean transformation? What comes next? Where do tools like six sigma fit? Here's an overview about how Freudenberg-NOK answered these…
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Case Study
Linking Lean Thinking to the Classroom
As team members sat down to discuss hiring a new production employee, the conversation gradually centered on the need to determine if operations could be…
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Why Is Failure Key to Lean Success?
Dear Gemba Coach: I am a LSS black belt working with a sensei to improve our performance. We conduct many workshops that get results, but…
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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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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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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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