Article

Overcoming Challenges with Lean Thinking Leads to Record-breaking Performance 

Despite obstacles, a new CEO transformed a manufacturing business from plant floor production to design engineering — and created a learning organization with a relentless…

by Matthew Savas

Case Study

Change in Implementation Approach Opens the Door at EMCO to Greater Gains in Less Time

Many lean thinkers ask how they can accelerate the pace of a transformation or spread it to other facilities. EMCO Enterprise’s Des Moines plant has…

by Chet Marchwinski

Lexicon Term

Value Stream Mapping

Value-stream mapping (VSM) is diagraming every step involved in the material and information flows needed to bring a product from order to delivery. It is…

Article

Lean Physician, Heal Thyself!

"We [need] to equip people with the right tools to address the problems they must solve," writes Phil Coy. "New software is emerging that is…

Download

dentist_takt

Lexicon Term

Standardized Work

Establishing precise procedures for each operator’s work in a production process, based on three elements: Takt time, which is the rate at which products must…

Article

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

Article

Why do you lean experts still revere the Toyota Production System? Hasn't any one come up with something better?

Dear Gemba Coach,Since Toyota formulated TPS 50 years ago, many other companies have come up with their own business systems ñ I have been taught…

by Michael Ballé

Article

What does developing people mean?

Dear Gemba Coach,Are people tools? Should bosses use people? What does development mean? How should we think about it?

by Michael Ballé

Article

Standardized Work in Machine-Intensive Processes

Dear Gemba Coach,Most lean literature and case studies to date focus on assembly type manufacturing which utilizes very people-intensive operations. This is not the case…

by Michael Ballé

Article

Surfer Culture Meets Standardized Work

Can surfing instructors and students really learn standardized work? Read the surprising story of how lean coach Sammy Obara worked with Pacific Surfing School to…

by Doug Bartholomew

Article

How Lean Tools Support the Principle of Respect (Part 1)

We first met Andy Ward when he was struggling to save his plant from closure in The Lean Manager. Since then he's helped lead a…

by Lean Leaper

Article

Working on the Management

Effective daily management is still hard to achieve for most organizations, says Jim Womack. But until line managers start tackling problems first hand as they…

by James (Jim) Womack, PhD

Article

5 Ways My Thinking Changed With the Help of a Lean Coach

"Coaching for development is different than being managed," writes Deborah McGee. "Lean coaching in our case was not directing an improvement swat team or teaching…

by Deborah McGee

Article

Seeing the Work of a Daily Management System

Daily management systems tap visual elements that expose problems, and also use obeyas as thinking spaces for reflecting on broader challenges, says Michael Balle.

by Michael Ballé

Article

Taking a Value Stream Walk at Firm A

I was out walking through a company this past week, something I often do. The firm I visited had asked what I thought of their…

by James (Jim) Womack, PhD

Article

LEAN = TPS {KAIZEN + RESPECT}

Dear Gemba Coach: In the webinar, you’ve defined LEAN = KAIZEN + RESPECT. Isn’t it simplistic? Is that all there is to it? What about TPS?

by Michael Ballé

Article

What is leader standard work?

Dear Gemba Coach: Is there such thing as a leader standard work, and, if so, what is it?

by Michael Ballé

Article

Can Lean Boost Sales?

Dear Gemba Coach: Every one says that lean is not just about cost cutting. But I fail to see how lean techniques can influence the…

by Michael Ballé

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…

by Michael Ballé