Case Study

Making Lean Leaders -- Ariens Internship Program Develops Lean Management and Leadership Skills in Everyone

Besides making snow-blowers, mowers, and string trimmers, Ariens Co., of Brillion, WI, makes lean leaders. An internal lean internship program steeps factory and front-office associates…

Article

The Birth of Lean: How Practices, Principles, and Tools Came Together as a System

Toyota was struggling to survive when Taiichi Ohno and a handful of innovators began experimenting with methods that ultimately became the Toyota Production System. The…

Article

Ask Art: How Important are Your Suppliers to Implementing Lean Production?

You won't reap the full benefits of lean production without involving your suppliers as an essential part of your value stream. Here's how.

by Art Byrne

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People Are Not Cars

Tyson Ortiz's challenge in helping his son through a heart transplant clarified to him what a healthcare provider said: "People are not cars." And yet…

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Beware the Comforts of Waste

After a major move, lean thinker Rose Heathcote reflected that with lean thinking comes the responsibility to look inward at oneself before looking outward to…

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Align Your Continuous Improvement Efforts: Practical Tips from 4 CEOs in 4 Major Business Sectors

Four CEOs who are leading lean management voices in the critical economic sectors of manufacturing, supply chain, healthcare, and education, offer advice on aligning your…

by Chet Marchwinski

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Little and Often

I still encounter a degree of confusion about one of the key mental models that gets in the way of Lean thinking. Making products in…

by Dan Jones

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Ask Art: What Foundational Items Must I Be A Zealot About?

Be a zealot on the foundational items such as 5S, visual management, and setup reduction, says Art Byrne, and your chances of succeeding with lean…

by Art Byrne

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Don't Call It...Anything

Would lean be easier to teach and learn if it weren't called lean? If in fact it weren't labeled at all? Tracey Richaardson explains why.

by Tracey Richardson

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What's new in your new novel "Lead With Respect"?

Dear Gemba Coach: I see that you have a new lean management novel out called “Lead With Respect.” What's new in it?

by Michael Ballé

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Develop Your People Patiently Rather Than Rely on Super Taylorism

Lean starts with quality, argue the authors, who note that by worrying about and improving quality, we are also reducing both the cost of our…

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How Do I Reduce Buffers To Zero?

Dear Gemba CoachI run an assembly line for service station equipment. Our product is customized for each customer so we have a huge variety of…

by Michael Ballé

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In TPM, Isn't it needlessly costly to replace parts that are working fine? What do you think?

Dear Gemba Coach: I have a question about Total Productive Maintenance. My management has hired a TPM consultant who makes us systematically replace certain parts…

by Michael Ballé

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“People who can’t change their minds can’t change anything else”

Many people argue that if lean management really was a powerful strategy, rather than an operational tactic, then more companies would be doing it, says…

by Orest (Orry) Fiume

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Was Steve Lean?

I don’t know that much about Apple. The only gemba I've visited are lots of Apple stores (I don't know if they're lean but they…

by John Shook

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How does lean fit together with Lean Startup concepts?

Dear Gemba Coach: I work in IT and discovered lean through the Lean Startup movement. Now, as I read more about it, I find that…

by Michael Ballé

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Meeting the 19-Billion-Dose Challenge

What does it take to meet the historic challenge of rapidly increasing the annual global vaccine capacity from 5 billion to 19 billion doses? And…

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Why haven't kanban and value-stream mapping improved delivery from a low-volume/ high-mix process?

Dear Gemba Coach,We work in a low-volume/ high-mix process with component machining and assembly. Our OTD is somewhere between 70% and 80%. Weíve invested heavily…

by Michael Ballé

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How to Handle Fire Fighting, Process Averse Cultures, Naysayers, and More

Summit attendees hosted their own conversations on lean thinking and practice last week, identifying challenges and opportunities for Lean within their organizations. Check out the…

by Lex Schroeder

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Any advice for how to implement real pull across the company?

Dear Gemba Coach: My boss, the operations VP, has asked me to implement a pull system across the whole company. I’ve practiced lean for many…

by Michael Ballé