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The Hunt for Alligator Eggs
"Like alligator eggs, problems often start small. If you wait a while and ignore them, those eggs hatch," writes Ellis New. "Wait a little longer,…
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Is there “mudagement” in your organization?
"Mudagement." What a strange word. But to Tony Lamberton, the concept behind that word has made all the difference in identifying invisible waste in his…
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The Secrets of Lean
"The key to Lean is that it creates understanding, not knowledge," write John Ehrenfeld (Executive Director of the International Society for Industrial Ecology) and LEI…
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A Brief History of Lean
Although there are instances of rigorous process thinking in manufacturing all the way back to the Arsenal in Venice in the 1450s, the first person…
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Lean Enterprise Institute CEO John Shook Wins Sloan Management Review Award for Best Article on Change and Organizational Development
Winning article on culture change lessons from NUMMI should be “required reading” for anyone concerned with corporate culture change, according to SMR.
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Assessing Problem Solving Capability in Job Candidates: A True Account
Last month, Derrick Redding shared three questions that you can ask job candidates to assess their problem-solving capacity. As a followup, he is now sharing…
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What do effective leaders actually do every day? GTS4
So many of us know the value of lean thinking and practice, but what do lean leaders actually do every day? Tracey Richardson offers a…
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Beyond Toyota
Weíve won the battle of ideas on how to operate and improve processes. But creating management systems and organizations that can practice (not just preach)…
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Why Doesn't Lean Have a Seat at the Table?
Why hasn’t Lean spread more widely, asks Steven Spear, suggesting that it has not been framed in a way that addresses the strategic concern of…
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Focus Your Operating System To Bring Your Strategy to Life
A strategy can just turn into wallpaper if you don't have the right systems in place to support it. Jim Morgan has seen this happen…
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Your Gemba Isn't the Only Gemba to Walk
We all know the critical importance of gemba walks in our organization. But what many of us forget is that sometimes visiting OTHER gembas can…
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Toyota and Sudden Acceleration: Facts from the NASA Report
NASA just released its highly anticipated report about the Sudden Unintended Acceleration (SUA) charge in Toyota vehicles. The verdict is in. And Toyota’s electronic throttle…
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What Level of a Problem Requires an A3?
Here are some thoughts to help you determine what type of problem you have, and how to apply A3 thinking to it most productively. You…
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Lessons From Japan: Day Three
Is Toyota improving productivity or developing people? What we saw today suggests not just that the answer is both but that the two are inseparable,…
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Fundamentals Redux--An Appreciation of Kaizen Express
Kaizen Express is the expression of an approach to kaizen that is at once a return to basics while at the same time emphasizing the…
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