Article
Unique Philanthropy Does Well by Doing Good
An internship program enables students to attain real-world lean management experience while helping community service organizations reach more people.
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Article
Human Resources and Lean; It Really Is About People
Despite an expert’s exhortations to “do more kaizen, develop kaizen mind” this lean transformation failed. Find out why from someone who saw it happen and…
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Article
My CEO has asked me to take a hard look at the lean program at our hospital – where should I start?
Dear Gemba Coach: I am ops director of a large hospital. We have been doing lean for several years now, with a lean office of…
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Article
Lean and Financials
Dear Gemba Coach: During the webinar, you mentioned the importance of quantifying the financial impacts of lean efforts before introducing the system. This is a very…
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New Book Explains How to Create “Steady Work” in Unsteady Times with Standardized Work Cadences
In Steady Work, the new book from the Lean Enterprise Institute, author and former Starbucks’ Regional Manager Karen Gaudet offers astute business guidance for turbulent…
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Article
Visual Replenishment Delivers for Zingerman’s
How an online grocery business meets pandemic-related demand increases while maintaining a safe work environment.
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Article
How Stalwart Lean Leadership and Classic Lean Practices Yield Operational and Clinical Excellence
Organizations can achieve the seemingly impossible when they have steadfast lean leadership, a sharp focus on purpose, and experience applying "classic" lean thinking and practice.…
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Article
How the Study Phase Helps You Create More Value for Your Customers and Less Drama for Your Development Teams
A product development team volunteered to pilot applying lean product and process development principles -- and discovered how critical "understanding before you execute" is to…
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Article
Real Respect Feels Like Knowing You’re Being Heard
To establish or strengthen a culture of engagement and continuous improvement, leaders must understand that genuinely listening to employees is as critical as what you…
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Article
Why should I manage as if I had no power when power is the most effective way of getting things done?
Dear Gemba Coach: I’m tired of hearing I should manage as if I had no power. Surely power is the most effective way of getting…
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Cultivating Intuition at the Gemba
Our trainers conditioned us to water the seed of experience and use it not just to fire-fight but rather be more predictive and value add…
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Podcast
32. Coachable: A Model Story, Coaching Work Improvement
An excellent study in masterful coaching on the floor where the work happens.
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Article
When Is The Best Time To Implement Profit Sharing?
Orry Fiume argues that when businesses reopens, there are many things that will be different; and that when they do it will be time to…
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Video
Art of Lean on Situational Leadership, Part 3: D2-S2 and Coaching
Part two saw Art Smalley discussing Toyota, Taiichi Ohno, and more examples of situational leadership being exemplified in real-time. This time, he returns to provide…
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Article
Back to Basics
I often take advantage of relaxing holiday time to go over old things, take care of less pressing matters that I often don't have time…
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TWI Job Instruction As a Way of Sharing High Value Knowledge
"Before we try to create value, we first need to study the jobs — looking for those parts of the job that require time and…
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Article
When should we do an A3 or use a different problem-solving tool?
Dear Gemba Coach: I would really appreciate your perspective on the following: (1) When should we do an A3 for something vs. when would it…
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