What is the role of a professor in the Lean movement? Is it to mindlessly cheerlead Lean and accentuate only the positive? Or, is it to think critically, carefully analyze the product (based on experience using the product), and identify practical improvements? My involvement with Lean management has focused on doing the latter – which, of […]

You often hear the term Kaizen being thrown around, but what are the benefits of Kaizen? In today’s blog, we’ll get into what Kaizen is and how it can benefit your business.  What is Kaizen? Kaizen is a Japanese term that means “change for the better” or “continuous improvement”. It is a business philosophy that […]

Click on image to enlarge. Throughout my work over the last 25 years, I have always sought to better understand Toyota’s management system (TMS) and its derivative, Lean management (LM). From the beginning, the aspect that interested me most was leadership. Specifically, what leaders (CEOs, presidents) do or don’t do to advance the practice of […]

This is the back story to the book The Triumph of Classical Management Over Lean Management. The Triumph of Classical Management Over Lean Management represents the culmination of over 20 years of the study of Lean leadership. It began in the mid-1990s with a simple question: “Why don’t the leaders of large corporations flock to Lean […]

Below is a summary of my significant original contributions to the body of Lean knowledge as author or co-author. My primary focus has been Lean leadership and Lean management, as well as Lean in higher education, Lean in supply chain management, and the history of progressive management. It includes the best book ever written on […]

As you may know, one of my great interests over the last 20 years has been to understand problems such as these, especially as it pertains to large companies: Why are executives disinterested in Lean? Why do executives resist Lean? Why does Lean fail to take root in organizations? These questions have been around for a […]

A high-reliability organization (HRO) is an organization that has succeeded in avoiding catastrophes despite a high level of risk and complexity. Specific examples that have been studied, most famously by researchers Karl Weick and Kathleen Sutcliffe, include nuclear power plants, air traffic control systems, and naval aircraft carriers. Recently healthcare organizations have moved to adopt […]

One sign that medical mistakes are a systemic problem is when you see headlines like this around the world, this time in New Zealand: Elderly patient overdosed by hospital nurses on incorrect medication, died days later As I wrote on LinkedIn… When nurses have more “accountability” thrown at them than autonomy… stuff like this happens. […]

I have spoken to many people in recent years who have become disillusioned with Lean management in one way or another. In most cases, disillusionment does not lead to a complete abandonment of Lean thinking and practice. Rather, it greatly suppresses enthusiasm and limits the scope of practice to what is easiest to do – […]

Click on image to enlarge. This Warning Label should have been attached to Lean decades ago. Everything contained in the warning label was understood 25 to 30 years ago. But it was not attached to Lean. The result? Countless underdoses. Corporate leaders did not know the facts about the product, Lean, before they started using […]

In my new book, The Triumph of Classical Management Over Lean, I identified 17 bedrock assumptions that have guided the promotion and marketing of Lean to large corporations. However, there are many more assumptions than that. The assumption that I would like to focus on here is the nature of the joint-stock corporation, it’s understanding […]

Click on image to enlarge. Lean transformation is often said to be difficult. But what if that is only the apparent problem, based on our perspective as people who work to promote Lean and help organizations transform from Classical management to Lean management? The difficulty clearly looks to us like a lack of understanding among […]

We are all aware that precious few Lean transformations fulfill the vision of many Toyota-like managed companies in all industries. For decades, the prevailing wisdom was that better explanations of Lean, from Lean tools to Lean strategy, and more and more examples of Lean success, no matter how limited, would gain ever-growing numbers of CEO […]

Theodore Roosevelt once said, “In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.” It makes sense. Yet, when it comes to the decision-making process, so many of us still wind up paralyzed. […]

Time has proven that the central problem with Lean management is that most senior leaders are not interested in it. They have many other ways to achieve their business goals without needing to think about Lean. Relatedly, sooner or later Lean always loses out to Classical management. Despite these two structural problems, Lean remains important because […]

Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more Joining us for Episode #475 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Joshua Kerievsky, the founder and CEO of Industrial Logic, one of the oldest and most well-respected agile consultancies on the planet.  Since 1996, Joshua and his global network of colleagues have helped people in […]

Click on image to enlarge. The image at right shows the problem that Lean, as well as its predecessor systems of progressive management, has been unable to overcome and may never overcome: The inability to displace de jure — except in rare cases, and for only a limited time. Sooner or later, de jure wins. The image shows the […]

Get ready to mark your calendars because we have an exciting announcement! Our KanConf series is back, and we can’t wait to share the details of our next event before the summer rush hits!   So, without further ado, we’d like to invite you to KanConf#4, which we’ll be happy to host in less than a […]

My enduring curiosity and passion for problem-solving led me to work on a problem that the principal leaders of the Lean movement either ignored or told me that it would be a waste of time. I could not ignore it and I did not see it as a waste of time. My view is that […]

“At every scope and scale, developing strategy together, pursuing strategy together, (agreement on) outcomes before solutions“ Last week I shared a picture (above), around which I built a new talk on Right to Left (the title of my 2019 book and 2020 audiobook). Not only did I enjoy bringing Right to Left up to date, […]

In a fast-paced business landscape where strategic agility is key, the Objective and Key Results (OKR) framework has emerged as a vital tool for organizations, teams, and individuals. This goal-setting structure facilitates establishing and managing strategic, professional, and personal goals, propelling enterprises toward their targets with clarity and focus. In this article, we delve into […]

Two of the principal teachings of Toyota-style kaizen is to think of cost problems in terms of processes and in non-financial terms such as time, distance, space, defects, quantity, turnbacks, etc. To be able to effectively think in non-financial terms, we were taught to understand the difference between value-added work, waste, unevenness, and unreasonableness. These […]

Project management is a role often misconstrued as merely an organizational position. While it’s true that project managers must be adept at coordinating resources and driving tasks to completion, their skill set extends far beyond these functions. A project manager’s role requires a blend of technical skills, business acumen, problem-solving ability, interpersonal finesse, and most […]

Let’s take the word “leader” to mean anyone in an organization who has management responsibility, beginning with supervisors and extending to CEOs. Most leaders have good intentions when it comes to doing their job, satisfying customers, and helping the organization prosper. Yet, even leaders with good intentions have a handicap: They possess inherited knowledge from the […]

This week’s episode of the “My Favorite Mistake” podcast features Mike Kaeding, the CEO of a company, Norhart, that designs, builds, and rents apartments. They are transforming the way this is done by incorporating technologies and techniques that have revolutionized other industries. This has resulted in improved quality and reduced cost of housing. Ultimately, they […]

Click on image to download file. Gaining the attention and commitment of CEOs for Lean management requires that we understand them. We think we do. In fact, we have long thought that we do. But in truth, Lean promoters, advocates, and practitioners never have. Even accomplished Lean CEOs don’t understand their peer CEOs. The many […]

Fifty years ago, the FAMULUS industrial robot was introduced by the German machine tool maker KUKA. This articulate-arm kinematics industrial robot with six axes was the first of many modern industrial robots. This design is nowadays still the most common type of industrial robot. Pre-industrial Robots The idea of machines doing manual labor is quite […]

Click on image to enlarge. After more than three decades, we know one thing for sure: Lean management (as well as TPS) has proven itself to be inadequate as a replacement for Classical management. Why? Because Lean has failed to offer business owners and corporate executives the things that they want and need most: The […]

Every Lean promoter and advocate knows that the adoption of Lean management is in business leaders’ interests, not against their interests. The interests encompass that of the business itself and all its stakeholders: employees (executive and non-executive), suppliers, customers, investors, communities, and even competitors. Yet, business leaders, over some 30 years, have delivered a clear and […]

After nearly 25 years of study, practice, and teaching Toyota’s management system and Lean management, it is time for a quick look back. Over the years I have found that many people are confused by my work because I am neither a pure Lean promoter nor a pure Lean critic. My body of work spans […]

Corporate financial distress — the so-called “burning platform” — has long been cited as the crisis necessary to propel a management team to adopt Lean management. Is it? In my book, Triumph of Classical Management Over Lean Management, I said: “Even Lean’s supposed savior, ‘the burning platform’ – a condition of severe financial distress – […]

Being a manager can be both stimulating and challenging. Transitioning from an individual contributor to a manager comes with the opportunity to influence decision-making processes, implement business strategies, and oversee organizational change initiatives. It can also increase the likelihood that you’ll make mistakes, as you take on greater responsibility and learn how to manage not […]

Dr. Carlos E. Pabon, History Department, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras What has been Lean’s contribution to business and society over the last 35 years? Has it been great or small? And for whom? I recently read a fabulously informative and beautifully written 1992 doctoral dissertation by Carlos E. Pabon, titled: “Regulating Capitalism: The […]

By Pascal Dennis (bio) Strategy begins with our strategic & philosophical Purpose, also known as True North. True North comprises: a “Hard” goal, usually entailing critical end-of-pipe measures, e.g. Revenue, EBIT, fatalities, and, a “Broad-brush” goal (hoshin), a few words defining our purpose, vision, commitment I encourage leaders to draw a picture of where we […]