Lean leadership means achieving your goals by developing people, teaching them to create more value and learn to eliminate waste
We’ll all agree that we learn by doing, but doing something, anything new is hard. The mind is hardwired to imagine a future in which we can carry on without changing our habits, opinions or place in the world. We hold […]
Value is what customers come looking for when they talk to you. Value they can’t find anywhere else is the key to scale-up. But value is also very, very hard to pin down. What can we do today to please […]
What are the rules for using “Red Bins”? It depends. What is the rule for stop-at-every-defect? I don’t know, it depends. What are the rules for effective problem solving? Let me see… it depends. People want rules to get on […]
When the CEO and COO of this service company heard that the key to improve their financial performance was to reduce their inventory of spare parts, they were a somewhat doubtful: their business is maintenance of gas stations and spare parts […]
This is probably the best example of kaizen I’ve ever seen so far: A few deep thoughts to think about: They don’t show you how to find a solution to the problem, they first tell you about George, his will […]
Lean Sensei Art Smalley reminded me again that there was not one method of problem solving, but many, and each depended on the type of problem you are trying to solve. Fifteen years ago, Art opened my eyes to the importance […]
Why Lean? How is it any different from other management approaches? Why, after 25 years is it still equally important and has, paradoxically, spawn a bevy of trends that have all come and gone? The wonder of Lean comes from […]
People keep asking: What are the five steps to lean so we can get started with lean right away without having to learn the whole thirty-years-to-make-a-sensei shebang? We keep answering: there are no “five steps”, lean is organic, it’s not […]
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 in the machine-intensive process industries and therefore has major implications on the format of […]
Where do Lean results come from? Increased Sales are supported by a firm understanding of PROTECT THE CUSTOMER within the company. Delivering products without defects on time has a remarkably rapid effect on sales. Sales are further developed by improving […]
