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Leadership Q&A: Karl Wadensten, president, VIBCO
From the LEI senior executive series on lean leadership:In the first couple years of its lean transformation VIBCO, Inc. saved over $2 million in inventory, cut…
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Lessons on Managing Time from the hit show, The Bear
Dive into the world of The Bear, a TV show that authentically captures the intense challenges of restaurant life. Discover how lean thinking and collaborative…
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It's About Best Practicing
"Just like practicing to learn to play an instrument, practicing the Improvement Kata helps us learn to view uncertainty more as an opportunity," writes Mike…
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Should I bother reading lean management books or rely on experience implementing lean?
Dear Gemba Coach: Should I bother with reading lean books, or just work from experience? There are so many, and they seem to contradict each…
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Is Lean Mean?
I was recently asked a question that demanded an answer: “How can you advocate ideas that improve efficiency but destroy jobs? What the world needs…
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Why don’t middle managers practice A3 thinking?
Dear Gemba Coach: I’m a lean consultant, and have been hired by a large service organization to develop an A3 problem solving training program for…
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What Strategy Is and What It's Not
"In my career, I was always more interested in what it would take to create and sustain competitive advantage than just doing good things," writes…
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The Lean Power Stance
"Yoga is more than the physical movement of postures," writes Rachael McKay, an industrial engineer at lululemon athletica and yogi. "As a result of [practicing],…
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Levelled Production: Why Do It?
Ian Glenday explains how levelled production and "economies of repetition" make way not just for stability, but improved business performance.
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Contributor's Corner: How Synchronizing Workflows Helped TechnipFMC Develop Its Latest Robot
Following the lean product and process development principles yields significant benefits. Just ask Scott Fulenwider and Hanna Schell as they report the results of their…
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Coping with COVID-19: Lessons from The Plague
In this time of pandemic, John Shook shares some ways this novel coronavirus is impacting him personally, noting "For Camus, hope is the enemy. But,…
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Reimagining the Restaurant Industry in a Post-COVID-19 World
The impact of COVID-19 has proven how ill-prepared we are to deal with crises. It’s time for hospitality businesses like restaurants to rethink how we…
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Short Stories and Quick Kaizens
Lean coach Danielle Blais continues to see opportunities for lean thinking just about everywhere she goes.
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Developing PDSA Capabilities
Improvement kata and A3 management have become popular ways for developing and practicing plan-do-study (or check)-act capabilities. What’s the connection between them? When do you…
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Transforming Your Organization with Lean Thinking and Practices
This brief animation offers a guide to the five fundamental equations that help lean practitioners understand — and execute — a lean transformation.
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Why Social Entrepreneurship is Dead
Despite all the hype, entrepreneur Nathan Rothstein (of Project Repat) believes social entrepreneurship is dead. Read what he recommends for those of us looking to…
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Do we need more research to understand what works and what doesn’t when implementing lean healthcare?
Dear Gemba Coach: There are controversies over whether lean/TPS works in healthcare or not. Authorities in lean practice suggest conducting research that compares outcomes with…
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