For my Facebook fans you already know about this great feature. But for those of you that are not connected to A Lean Journey on Facebook or Twitter I post daily a feature I call Lean Tips.  It is meant to be advice, things I learned from experience, and some knowledge tidbits about Lean to […]

Developing Coaching Skills: Mine, Yours, Ours REGISTER NOW I’m excited to be hosting and moderating a new webinar that’s part of the KaiNexus Continuous Improvement webinar series, to be presented by Tracy Defoe, an adult educator specializing in learning at work. Join us on March 21st at 1 pm ET. The free session will also […]

The Holy Grail of the Lean movement is Lean CEOs, which I will define here as leaders who are willing to abandon classical management and replace it with Lean management; willing to lead a so-called Lean transformation. They are eager to take on the challenge that, as Art Byrne says, “everything must change.” “Everything” means […]

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on […]

Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this… there’s always so much good reading, listening, and viewing shared here by him! Subscribe to get these directly from Ryan via email. News, articles, books, podcasts, and videos about how to make the workplace better. Operational Excellence, Improvement, and Innovation Here comes the (productivity) boom? AI. Remote […]

The continuous improvement methodology of Kaizen was once closely associated with industrial and automotive manufacturing. That’s because the Kaizen philosophy originated in the Japanese auto industry and was then later adopted by technology manufacturers like GE and Motorola. But if you’ve been hearing about Kaizen project management in other sectors over the last few years, […]

Lean promoters,influencers, and professionals often attribute the lack of Lean management sustainability to frequent changes in top leadership. With an average CEO tenure of 7 years, and a median tenure of 5 years, it seems logical that efforts to establish a Lean business system — which minimally takes 3 to 5 years — would suffer […]

The DMAIC process stands out as a powerful tool for achieving efficiency and quality in the world of business and process improvement. Short for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control, the DMAIC process is a structured approach used to solve problems, optimize existing processes, and drive continuous improvement within organizations. In this blog post, we’ll […]

Getting CEOs to go to the genba and have meaningful engagements there has proven to be difficult to do. The simple reason is that the genba is someone else’s job to tend to, from the vice president of operations to the supervisor. There are many people to do that, so from most CEOs’ perspective there […]

You might still associate the “old GE” with Six Sigma, but under the leadership of CEO Larry Culp the last five years, it’s all about Lean. You can get a strong sense of that in the recording of their 2024 GE Aerospace Investor Day event (registration required). First off, the old conglomerate General Electric has […]

Advice I will never forget. Swallow your pride and follow the advice.

After 35 years, Lean management is mostly known and appreciated within a subset of the larger business community. Lean might have a better chance of displacing classical management if it gained a much larger audience. What might happen if Lean’s values were made clear as a force for good and its identity shifted to become […]

Unraveling the Threads of Strategic Success In the intricate tapestry of business management, three threads run consistently: project, program, and portfolio management. Each strand, distinct yet interwoven, forms the fabric of successful organizational strategy. Here’s how to differentiate and harness the power of each one to weave your own narrative of success. Project Management: The […]

Navigating the job interview process can be daunting, but with the right preparation, you can turn it into an opportunity to showcase your best self. Interviews are your chance to demonstrate not just your qualifications, but also your problem-solving skills, adaptability, and ability to work under pressure. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or stepping into […]

At Geolean, we take pride in providing comprehensive material handling solutions that optimize operations for our clients. Let’s delve into real-life use cases where our system brought tangible benefits to our customers. 6 Ways Geolean Optimizes Operational Efficiency  Geolean is a world leader in lean implementation, and our team is passionate about improving people, processes, […]

Does it Feel Better to Be Vulnerable or Candid in a Workplace? I’ve learned so much from Timothy R. Clark of the firm LeaderFactor, author of the excellent book, The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety. I can’t recommend his work enough–including his free podcasts, webinars, and more. I was fortunate to go through a formal […]

A couple days ago I posted an article on standard work as a mechanism for facilitating and empowering improvement. By documenting the current best practice, standardized work forms the baseline for kaizen or continuous improvement. As the standard is improved, the new standard becomes the baseline for further improvements, and so on. Improving standardized work […]

What is the difference between authentic cultures of continuous improvement versus superficial displays?  In this episode, I invited Patrick Adams, Founder of Lean Solutions and best-selling author of Avoiding the Continuous Appearance Trap, to share his insights on the heart of organizational culture and transformational leadership. Strengthening Leadership for Real Company Culture Improvement Patrick explains […]

The statistical quality profession has a love/hate relationship with the Gaussian distribution. In SPC, it treats it like an embarrassing spouse. It uses the Gaussian distribution as the basis for all its control limits while claiming it doesn’t matter. In 2024, what role, if any, should this distribution play in the setting of action limits […]

Recently, I’ve heard an idea a few times that I’d like to share and discuss in this post. As I’m writing this, I can’t remember who to cite. That’s my mistake. I’ll happily correct the post if I remember or somebody lets me know who to credit. Because I love this idea… but it’s not […]

I’ve been more aware that people are often very unaware of their day-to-day problem solving, all of that problem solving that happens when we are NOT using a structured approach or tool. Of course, problem-solving is a human capability, but we can learn how to do it so much better. What’s interesting is something that […]

Allow me to like to introduce to you Kaizen Kitty! This delightful new cat joins LinkedIn to deliver her unique brand of advice to CEOs worldwide. She is the sensei to CEOs. Her job is to tell it like it is. Kaizen Kitty has no sponsors or obligations to anyone and she seeks only one […]

The facilitated workshops page lists five workshop designs, the first four (those shown on the image above) deliverable by authorised facilitators and trainers alike, the fifth only by trainers: Discovery Workshop Assessment Debrief Workshop Outside-in Strategy Review Workshop Adaptive Organisation Workshop Leading in a Transforming Organisation Plenty of choice there, so which should be used when? The first […]

Poka yoke is Japanese for mistake proofing. It is a way to reduce errors and mistakes by designing the product so that it cannot be assembled or used incorrectly. I find this extremely useful, not only in manufacturing but also in many instances in daily life where poka yoke prevents me from making mistakes. In […]

By Pascal Dennis (bio) In times of tumultuous change brevity is king. Blah, blah, blah…doesn’t cut it when revenue is non-existent and investors are jittery. Endless PowerPoint decks, no matter how slick, are tiresome and wasteful. The four-hour meeting that goes nowhere is downright irritating. Less is more remains the cardinal rule in music, art, […]

Standard work is a written description of how a process should be done. It guides consistent execution. At its best, it documents a current “best practice” and ensures that it is implemented throughout a company. At a minimum, it provides a baseline from which a better approach can be developed. The definition of standard work […]

It’s 9 p.m. in an operating room, just before the last procedure of a long day that had been full of delays. A nurse sees that the surgeon is about to make an incision without first stopping for the expected “timeout,” a crucial step that helps the team confirm, among other things, that the correct […]

Some people are losing or have lost faith in Lean management, or have lost confidence in their ability to produce meaningful change — principally among those who have been engaged with Lean for a decade or more. Concurrently, though, lots of people are discovering Lean. That keeps the business of Lean running, but, in time, […]

Efficiency and effectiveness are the key to success in the fast-paced world of business. With that being said, many companies are turning to lean process management to streamline their operations and maximize productivity. In this blog post, we’ll get into the world of lean process management and explore how this approach can revolutionize the way […]

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on […]