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The Lean Post / Articles / Shook Addresses Current State of Lean Thinking After U.S-Turkey Tiff Compels Keynote Countermeasure

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Shook Addresses Current State of Lean Thinking After U.S-Turkey Tiff Compels Keynote Countermeasure

By John Shook

December 14, 2017

Indefatigable presenter John Shook quickly made this video as a countermeasure to being denied entry to Turkey, where he was scheduled to keynote an Istanbul conference.

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Indefatigable presenter John Shook quickly made this video as a countermeasure to being denied entry to Turkey, where he was scheduled to keynote the 2017 Lean Institute Turkey conference, Dec. 4-5. (In a reciprocal dispute, Turkey and the U.S. recently suspended processing visas to citizens of the other country.)

The video on the current state of lean thinking and practice was shown to attendees in Istanbul. We’re sharing it now with the broader lean community. Use the comments section to tell us and other members of the lean community what you think. Here’s a timeline:

  • 00:59 – “Lean Production” coined in 1987 by an MIT research team led by Jim Womack, LEI’s founding CEO.
  • 2:20 – How do companies and people change; is national culture a factor?
  • 7:50 – Toyota Production System “house” as unique to the company and Japanese culture
  • 9:31 – The 5 fundamental questions of the Lean Transformation Framework and its connection to the TPS “house”
  • 13:08 – The most common failure mode of lean transformation attempts
  • 16:00 – Fractal thinking for specific challenges
  • 21:00 – Exploring the 4 types of problem solving
  • 25:55 – The tradeoff between speed and reliability in innovation
  • 33:59 – A better name for “lean” management
  • 37:36 –Toyota’s basic thinking is unchanged but how the thinking is manifested has changed over time, according to a Lean Global Network study mission to Japan
  • 38:38 – Ambitious aspirations for the future of lean thinking and practice

Watch the slides and video of John Shook, Lean Enterprise Institute executive chairman, on the current state of lean management.

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Written by:

John Shook

About John Shook

John Shook learned about lean management while working for Toyota for 11 years in Japan and the U.S., helping it transfer production, engineering, and management systems from Japan to NUMMI and other operations around the world. While at Toyota’s headquarters, he became the company’s first American kacho (manager) in Japan.…

Read more about John Shook

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