Just about any person who has developed their creative capabilities to a high level will tell you the importance of looking at problems with a “beginner’s mind” (BM). Having a beginner’s mind means to free yourself of the preconceptions and social pressures that limit your thinking. It means to see everything for the first time. […]

In this edition: Organising Conversations; Olivier’s PhD research; Leading in a Transforming Organisation; Featureban on Kanban Zone; Top posts Organizing Conversations As announced on Wednesday (linkedin.com), I’m thrilled to announce that my fourth book, Organizing Conversations: Preparing Groups to Take on Adaptive Challenges is now out – first on Kindle and now in print too. […]

Thanks, as always, to Ryan McCormack for this. He always shares so much good reading, listening, and viewing here! 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 What is OpEx? Operational Excellence is a bit of […]

Effective maintenance planning and scheduling are essential for any organization’s success and can lead to significant improvements in wrench time. Let’s explore the steps and best practices for enhancing your maintenance processes, ensuring smooth operations and maximizing productivity. Step 1: Identify and Eliminate External Distracters Start by identifying and addressing common external distracters that can […]

Effective maintenance scheduling is the backbone of efficient operations. Maintenance teams can follow a set of well-established principles to ensure that all tasks are completed on time, reducing downtime and enhancing productivity. In this post, we will explore six key principles of maintenance scheduling and how they can enhance your maintenance operations. Principle 1: Detailed […]

This post is a thought experiment. It examines the question “Why do most top leaders resist, reject, or ignore progressive management” from the direction of politics, an ever-so human predilection, rather than business. It reconsiders CEOs principally as politicians, and secondarily as businesspersons, to explain their general desire to maintain the status quo with respect […]

Register for the free live stream Next Tuesday, join me as I host a panel discussion with Josh Howell (of the Lean Enterprise Institute), Bruce Hamilton (of GBMP Consulting Group & The Northeast Lean Conference), and Ken Snyder (of Shingo Institute) to preview the upcoming “Future of People at Work” Symposium, which will be held […]

Maintaining high-quality standards is essential for success in the dynamic world of manufacturing and production. Quality Department Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are critical tools that help organizations measure and improve their processes. In this post, we’ll explore the essential KPIs for quality management and how they can be leveraged to enhance overall performance. Understanding Quality […]

Harness the Power of Kaizen What do you think of when you hear the word “kaizen”? An event? A process that you are working on improving? Something else? The Japanese word “kaizen” is usually translated to mean “continuous improvement.” But there is a deeper meaning. It’s actually the lynchpin to creating a real culture of […]

I’m thrilled to announce that my fourth book, Organizing Conversations: Preparing Groups to Take on Adaptive Challenges is out on Kindle. Fingers crossed, the print version will be out in time for Friday’s monthly roundup. This shortish book (at a little over 100 pages and a shade under 30,000 words, half the length of my other […]

When someone utters the phrase “problem solving”, what is the first image that comes to mind? For most people, those words immediately take you into problem solving tools and templates. This is because many of us have gone through training program after training program to learn various tools. For myself, just some of my tools-based […]

In today’s hyper-connected world, where digital innovation accelerates at a breakneck pace, transformation has become imperative for businesses aiming to stay competitive. However, embarking on this journey without a clear understanding of progress can lead to uncertainty and missed opportunities. 

Give them a book! When someone lower in the corporate hierarchy gives a book to someone much higher in the hierarchy (e.g., CEO, vice president, or general manager), they run a high risk of insulting the leader. Most top business leaders will accept the book with a smile and might say they can’t wait to […]

The digital business model transformation is a profound shift in how businesses operate, driven by integrating digital technologies across all aspects of an organization. This process fundamentally changes traditional business models of how companies deliver value to their customers, engage with stakeholders, and conduct internal operations. The transformation includes various technological advancements, such as cloud […]

In 2017-18, I had the chance to visit factories of all seven Japanese car makers as part of my Grand Tour of Japanese Automotive. In the last few weeks, I had the chance to repeat this for Germany and do a Grand Tour of German Automotive. Let me show you what I saw and what […]

On Forbes: Improve Your Attention Management With Three Strategies In my previous article, “Forget Time Management—Manage Your Attention,” I outlined why attention management is a powerful mechanism for effectiveness. The goal is to allocate our attention to fewer things, whether tasks or decisions. Do fewer things better. Go deeper on fewer decisions and problems. Read […]

Business owners and big company business executives often say they have a hard time finding employees or that there is a shortage of workers. Excluding the possibility that such concerns a) reflect an unwillingness to offer sufficient pay for the work, b) is not an excuse to drive down wages, or c) an excuse to […]

By Pascal Dennis (bio) Are We Ahead or Behind? And if so, why? Perhaps the most basic Lean questions & an important test in any gemba. Can the zone leader articulate the production/provision target & actual, and explain any gaps? Or does she equivocate, and say, “Well, it’s in the computer.” If the latter, Job […]

I’m very happy to announce the release of my new Mistake-Proofing course, which is available through Karen Martin and TKMG Academy. Well, it’s a mistake to call it “my” course. This course, available now, is the result of collaborating with a great team, including working with Karen on the script, Karen and her team lining […]

Every person, in their own way, marvels at the stupidity of other people, organizations, politics, laws, policies, rules, traditions, customs, processes, products, services, etc. It would not be human to do otherwise. Our brains are wired to think critically, but that is often ineffective due to deeply embedded ideologies. Nevertheless, what emerges is a heartfelt […]

What is liminality? It means “of, relating to, or being an intermediate state, phase, or condition; in-between, transitional.” It comes from the Latin, limen, meaning threshold. Liminality then, is an in-between state of being, a transition area or space between one state and another. It is often felt to be a strange, ambiguous, or paradoxical […]

Do we need a unified theory of problem solving? It sounds compelling, but that doesn’t mean it would be useful. Here’s my answer to that question.   The post Do We Need a Unified Theory of Problem Solving? appeared first on JFlinch.

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 […]

Did you notice the change? The truth lasted only one month. It looks like Lean transformation, unlike anything else in existence, is not subject to failure. 😂 This change is typical of a classically managed organization! Taiichi Ohno recognized the likelihood of failure. He said: Companies make a big mistake in implementing the Toyota production […]

Whether or not people are religious, they are deeply spiritual in any endeavour including the numbers-focused realm of business. People have unshakable beliefs in economic, social, political, and historical aspects of business even in the face of incontrovertible proof to the contrary. In fact, such proof will often backfire and further strengthen people’s spiritual beliefs […]

Take a tour through the Table of Contents of all 28 of my books. You’ll surely find many interesting things to read! The books are shown in order of publication date, 2007-2023. Check out my book recommendations. BooksToCs-1Download

Respect top business leaders by understanding their point of view. Ohno-President-Resists-TPSDownload

Reframing the problem can lead to its solution. Try it out. PM-is-TraditionDownload

On this episode of the People Solve Problems podcast, host Jamie Flinchbaugh welcomed W. Henry Yaeger, the Managing Principal of Banner Group LLC. Henry brings over 30 years of experience as an executive at global and Fortune 500 companies, and as an entrepreneur. He has held significant roles at major corporations like The Hershey Company […]

Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #505 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Art Byrne, who was a guest back in Episode 158 about 12 years ago — we discussed his book The Lean Turnaround. Today, we’re discussing his new book, The Lean Turnaround Answer Book, an […]

Exciting news! I’m celebrating 15 years of blogging this month. I launched, A Lean Journey in 2009 as a resourceful outlet to share lessons and experiences regarding Lean thinking, improvement practices, and leadership. At the time, I knew nothing about blogging, the implications of choosing a catchy name, or how to develop a following. I […]

FeudFightBattleConflictHostilityContentionRivalryBrawlAntagonismWarBitternessGrudge It seems that some or many people who follow me on social media think that I am in a blood feud with James Womack and the Lean Enterprise Institute. That is a mistaken impression. While I do not know Dr. Womack personally, I have briefly met him a few times over the last 25 […]

OpEx, a common shortening of the term Operational Excellence, has gotten plenty of traction in both program names and job titles. But what does it mean? The quick answer is…it means whatever you want it to mean. Let’s first look at the origins of OpEx. There are two primary driving factors that led people to […]

In my previous post I looked at the different 3D printing technologies available through the market leader Stratasys. In this second post, I will go much deeper into the different materials and markets where Stratasys provides solutions to customers. For me, there were quite a few surprises where I did not expect 3D printed parts… […]