Article

Part 2: What is the best lean way to understand VALUE (in terms of what our customers want)?

Dear Gemba Coach,   What is the best lean way to understand VALUE (in terms of what our customers want)

by Michael Ballé

Article

How can we remain positive?

Dear Gemba Coach: I am a kaizen coach in a large company, and it never seems to get any easier. We’ve been doing kaizen for several…

by Michael Ballé

Article

TPS, the Thinking People System

The twin pillars of just-in-time and jidoka help support a full model about how to achieve customer satisfaction from employee satisfaction, through teamwork and respect,…

by Michael Ballé

Article

Ask Art: What Are the Most Important Management Changes Needed to Implement A Lean Turnaround?

Lean thinking requires a totally different mindset than traditional management, argues lean veteran Art Byrne. This is probably the most significant reason that companies fail…

by Art Byrne

Article

Ask Art: Why Do I Need to Switch From Batch to Flow?

Moving from batch to flow reveals the waste in your processes and simplifies your work at a systems level, says Art Byrne. It creates simplicity,…

by Art Byrne

Article

Why Lean Fails in Job Shops... and What to Do to Succeed

Like many job shop owners, LEI faculty member Greg Lane struggled with implementing lean principles early on. The experiences and books he had been exposed…

by Greg Lane and Chet Marchwinski

Article

Advice from the Gemba: TPS Mythbusting

Despite its fundamental role in a lean transformation, the Toyota Production System is not an easy thing for many to grasp. In this special installment…

by Karen Gaudet, Josh Howell and Matthew Savas

Article

Why We Believe that Lean is About Changing Our Own Behaviors, and Not Just Accumulating New Knowledge

Lean repeatedly pushes us to develop new competences (or recover lost know-hows) through kaizen and problem solving. This collection of short articles from seven leading…

by Lean Sensei Women

Article

A Lean Walk Through History

Most of us don’t realize that we are heirs to a remarkably long struggle in human history to see beyond isolated points in order to…

by James (Jim) Womack, PhD

Article

If lean really is about innovation, why does so much of it seem to be about logistics?

Dear Gemba Coach: If lean really is about innovation, why does so much of it seem to be about logistics, with truck preparation areas, leveling…

by Michael Ballé

Article

I don’t get kanban -- I don’t work in production so how would it apply to one-off work?

Dear Gemba Coach: I feel that I still don’t get kanban. I don’t work in production, and I fail to see how stock replenishment would…

by Michael Ballé

Article

Lean in the IT Department

Dear Gemba Coach: My company has been doing lean for a while now, and I've been asked to start lean in the IT department. I've…

by Michael Ballé

Article

What? My Pull System Is Supposed to Fail?

Dear Gemba Coach: We’ve given up on installing a pull system – every time we try, our on time delivery rate plummets, and we can’t…

by Michael Ballé

Article

Should we plan according to what we can do, or the other way around?

Dear Gemba Coach: Should we plan according to what we can do, or the other way around?

by Michael Ballé

Article

Standardize Locally

A few weeks ago, during a day-long meeting with an executive management team, the topic of standardized work came up … again. It’s been popping up in…

by Josh Howell

Article

Tap the Power of Flow to Develop Lean Thinkers

Flow is personal--a moment of enrichment, and a mental state. It´s stretching oneself just that little bit extra, not because someone else tells us to,…

by Eivind Reke

Article

Can lean management help with the start of production?

Dear Gemba Coach: Can lean management help with the start of production?

by Michael Ballé and John Shook

Case Study

Thrustmaster Comes Around

The following Lean Enterprise Institute case study reveals how Thrustmaster of Texas successfully adopted lean thinking and practices to make sustainable improvements in a short…

by and David Drickhamer

Case Study

Canada Post Puts Its Stamp on a Lean Transformation

A  growing lean transformation at Canada Post's Calgary plant shows how lean principles can be implemented in environments other than manufacturing.

Article

Once Again, Here's Why JIT Matters

Jeffrey Liker argues that recent media snipes fail to understand the crucial role JIT plays in a complete #lean system in surfacing problems & pressuring…

by Jeffrey Liker