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How Do I Lead Change Without Discouraging Employee Engagement?
Dear Gemba Coach: How do you balance the sometime conflicting practices of gaining employee engagement while ensuring that everyone remains…
Read article Where to Start in Engineering
Dear Gemba Coach: I’m in charge of the engineering department in our company and the CEO has asked me to start…
Read article The Tipping Point?
Early efforts to apply lean principles to healthcare faltered and for many years the challenge seemed to be too great.…
Read article Standards at workstations
Dear Gemba Coach: Our corporate production system asks us to post standard work at workstations, but we feel that the paperwork…
Read 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…
Read article Philosophy Helps Start-Ups Move Faster
"Lean isn't about being cheap [but is about] being less wasteful and still doing things that are big," says Eric Ries,…
Read article How lean should a lean line design be?
Dear Gemba Coach: I’m in manufacturing engineering and have been asked to design a lean line. I’ve participated to several kaizen…
Read article What are you going to do about your plant’s ‘cats and dogs’?
Dealing with "cats and dogs,” parts or products that are typically small volume, high variety, hard to make, or all of the…
Read article When should I push and when should I praise?
Dear Gemba Coach: I am in charge of a service activity and have started a lean approach with a sensei. In…
Read article Q & A with the Authors of Building a Lean Fulfillment Stream
A Conversation with Robert Martichenko and Kevin von Grabe, authors of Building a Lean Fulfillment Stream: rethinking your supply chain and…
Read article Value-Stream Mapping at FAA Office Improves Information Flow
Lean management principles and tools originated on the shop floor to improve manufacturing processes but in its first value-stream mapping…
Read article Should I pursue waste elimination or lead-time reduction?
Dear Gemba Coach: We’re having a heated debate in our company over whether to pursue cost reduction through waste elimination by…
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