Article

Can creative people, like product developers, follow such a structured method such as lean?

Dear Gemba Coach: For product development you need creative (maybe even chaotic) people. Are those people suited to follow such a structured method as lean?…

by Michael Ballé

Article

Lean and Forecasting

Dear Gemba Coach: I’m in charge of the forecasting department in my company. My colleagues in production have been doing lean for several years and…

by Michael Ballé

Article

What is the worst mistake you’ve made on the gemba?

Dear Gemba Coach: What is the worst mistake you’ve made on the gemba?

by Michael Ballé

Article

Does lean change how you think about business?

Dear Gemba Coach: I can see that lean changes how one thinks about business, but can’t quite put my finger on it. If you had…

by Michael Ballé

Article

Learning the Hard and Soft Skills of Lean Coaching

While lean is often associated with process improvement, error reduction, and greater efficiency in a wide range of numbers; most veterans argue that above all…

by Lean Leaper

Article

Survive to Make Money or Make Money to Survive?

With GM’s demise becoming more real every day, many people have been asking me, “Why didn’t GM learn from Toyota when they had the perfect…

by John Shook

Article

Transforming a Food Desert to Food Oasis—During a Pandemic

How a group of volunteers used lean thinking and practices to make things better in their community -- and overcome the obstacles thrown in their…

Article

Why does visual management at a Toyota plant look so much different than at ours?

Dear Gemba Coach: We have been deploying lean visual management in my company for a while now, and I am troubled because I finally visited…

Video

Videos from WLEI: Deep Dives on the Factory Floor with Cliff Ransom

Cliff Ransom walks through a factory with us, emphasizing how lean thinking improves the quality and efficiency of the work at hand.

Case Study

Herman Miller’s Experiment in Excellence

With initial support from the Toyota Supplier Support Center, Herman Miller cultivates experimental thinkers who make process improvements every day. Their work has yielded dramatic…

by David Drickhamer

Article

Why Coaching is a Core Skill of a Lean Leader

If "learning by doing" at the gemba is the best way to learn lean thinking and practices (and it is), coaching is THE skill leaders…

by John Shook

Article

Ask Art: How Does Lean Apply to Every Company?

Lean veteran Art Byrne shares a back-to-basics explanation of why — and how — lean thinking and practices can improve the performance of any company…

by Art Byrne

Article

Ask Art: How Well Do Companies Follow Toyota's 'Respect for People' Principle?

Comparing traditional command-and-control management shows why this lean management tenet benefits both employees and the organization.

by Art Byrne

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Lexicon Term

Operator Balance Chart

A graphic tool that assists the creation of continuous flow in a multistep, multioperator process by distributing operator work elements in relation to takt time.…

Lexicon Term

Pitch

The amount of time needed in a production area to make one container of products. The formula for pitch is: takt time x pack-out quantity…

Article

Isao Kato Interview on Shigeo Shingo's Influence on TPS

Isao Kato believed that people development cannot be separated from production system development. During his career at Toyota he developed training materials under the direction…

by Art Smalley and Art Smalley

Lexicon Term

Basic Stability

Having essential capability, availability, and flexibility in the 4Ms — manpower, machines, materials, and methods. A lack of basic stability in a process prevents improvements…

Article

Profit and Cost At Toyota

Fresh off a tour of Japan where she observed how Toyota talks about costs and profit on the shop floor, LEI Chairperson Jean Cunningham shares…

by Jean Cunningham

Article

Follow-up Webinar Q&A with Jim Lancaster, Lantech CEO and author of the Work of Management

"The Real Work of Management" webinar drew an engaged audience that wanted to know more about the daily management system that CEO Jim Lancaster installed…

by Jim Lancaster