Even on LinkedIn, you still see posts and comments asserting that the COVID-19 vaccines aren’t “real” and alleging that they do more harm than good. This is usually based on articles of questionable value and the author’s brother-in-law catching COVID-19 while vaccinated. Public health, however, warrants serious research and is not a matter of anecdotes. […]

Click on image to enlarge. For many years, certain people have proclaimed that Lean is a corporate strategy. In support of that claim, a book titled The Lean Strategy: Using Lean to Create Competitive Advantage, Unleash Innovation, and Deliver Sustainable Growth was recently published (click here to read my book review). But there are two things […]

Prior to around 1980, the leaders of large corporations had a strong affection for manufacturing operations — the part of the business that makes money for the company by producing the goods that people want and pay for. Operations was widely seen as a noble part of the company that employees were proud to be […]

“Every organization constantly deteriorates. And this is especially true of a business organization. It loses customers — through death, through change in location, through the lures of competitors. It loses its personnel from the same causes. Its physical equipment is constantly wearing out and becoming obsolete… It is the primary function of management to rebuild […]

Thanks to my book coach Cathy Fyock for the “Ask Me About My Book” coffee mug and for the coaching she’s provided along the way for The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation. She’s also provided me a button that she encourages authors to wear that says, “Ask Me About My Book,” […]

There is a continuing, decades-long, lamentation in the Lean community, that leaders do not understand Lean and that they misuse Lean for cost cutting which results in layoffs and other zero-sum outcomes. There is a belief that if only leaders understood the true intent of Lean, then they would adopt it and realize great outcomes […]

“…the outcome of any serious research can only be to make two questions grow where one question grew before.” – Thorstein Veblen in “The Evolution of the Scientific Point of View,” University of California Chronicle, Vol. X, No. 4, October 1908, pp. 395-416 Click on image to enlarge. The initial research question (purple), grows into […]

“OKR” stands for Objectives and Key Results. It is a strategic framework that organizations design to achieve goals and success. Companies often use OKR to define and track objectives and measure their outcomes. “Objectives” refer to desire goals and outcomes that every organization wants to reach, whereas “Key Results” are specific and measurable milestones that […]

For many years, a large army of dedicated people have toiled to sell Lean management to the top leaders of businesses. Many different approaches have been tried, yet all have yielded virtually the same results. In most cases, we have been unsuccessful in selling top leaders the entire management system. Success has been limited to […]

A fundamental feature of Toyota’s management system (and its derivative, Lean management) is the search for the truth. Why? In order to make real improvement – versus merely the appearance of improvement – one must know what is actually happening. And herein lies a problem: People often do not want to know what is actually happening. […]

Technical report writing is crucial in various professions, including engineering, computer science, and business analysis. These reports present complex information clearly and concisely, enabling readers to understand, evaluate, and apply the findings. Here, we provide a step-by-step guide on how to write an effective technical report. Understand the Purpose and Audience Before writing, clarify the […]

Toyota’s management system is built on the true premise, concluded deductively, that problems are integrant to humanity. Because problems diminish human happiness and threaten survival – whether in life or in business – methods must be developed to do two things: solve problems and assure human progress. The principal method used by Toyota is inductive […]

Understanding the dynamics of project management begins with the rudimentary question – what exactly is a project? A project, as formally defined, is a temporary endeavour with a unique goal and typically a pre-determined budget. However, this definition only scratches the surface of the comprehensive nature of a project. Let’s delve deeper to understand the […]

For the last 30 years, our eyes have told us this truth: There is a strong consensus of opinion among CEOs that if any of Lean is to be adopted, it is solely its tools. CEOs have expressed little interest in adopting Lean as a comprehensive system of management to replace Classical Management. This is […]

Small supermarket stocked using kanban cards in a pull system, to closely match supply to demand. If you boil down Toyota’s production system to its essence, its purpose is to synchronize supply to demand for buyers’ markets. The ability to do so reduces the frequency and severity of stock-out (lost sales) or overproduction of finished […]

What would happen if Lean thinking were applied to American football? American football is in trouble. The league Commissioner and team owners know there must be changes made to the game to assure a future pipeline of skilled players and to grow its fan base for generations to come. But League officials and team owners […]

In a March 2015 blog post titled “Abnormal Condition Alert,” I said: Lean people are quick to criticize organizations with no Lean. We occasionally call out and criticize someone else’s bad Lean – their Lean. But we almost never criticize our Lean. This is an abnormal condition: Overproduction of positive feedback about “our Lean.” Look at social media and you will find the […]

In today’s blog, we’ll be discussing what a connected worker platform is, and the benefits of a connected worker platform. What is a Connected Worker Platform? Connected worker platforms are digital software tools that help industrial companies improve the way their employees work. It makes it easier to control manufacturing processes by creating new connections […]

Dismantling large ships. Since publishing my latest book, The Triumph of Classical Management Over Lean Management (February 2018), I’ve spent the last 10 months thinking a lot about how Toyota’s management method (TMM) and Lean management are taught to people. The principal methods are via training and education. The former typically takes place in industry and consists […]

On Forbes: Hire Skills, Not Certifications For years, many operations and engineering jobs came with a requirement for a Six Sigma Green Belt (or Black Belt). It was an easy “check the box” requirement that allowed the human resources team to cull the herd of applicants. That particular requirement has faded in popularity, but it is not […]

System of Profound Knowledge One of W. Edwards Deming‘s great accomplishments was his creation of the “System of Profound Knowledge” (read more details here). The System of Profound Knowledge (SoPK) is described in Deming’s book, The New Economics. In its most basic terms, SoPK is a framework designed to enable progress in the practice of management, […]

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 […]

My full-time job since 1999 has been as a professor of Lean management at a university, where I teach both graduate and undergraduate courses. My areas of specialization are: Lean leadership, Lean management, management history, management decision failure analysis, and supply chain management. One of the job functions of professors is to share (and critique) […]

FEATURE – The ER of this Catalan hospital is finding great value in the application of Lean Thinking, which has already led to a dramatic change in its processes and to better care for patients. Words: Francesc Chavalés and Imma Tort Since introducing lean in 2017, the Emergency Room of the Hospital Comarcal de l’Alt […]

Don’t ignore the elephant in the room. It started with value stream maps in 1999. It was the first tool used for the purpose of generating additional interest in what was then called “Lean production.” From there, kata, A3 reports, coaching, leader standard work, gemba walks, Lean strategy deployment, and now Lean product development. One […]

Click on image to enlarge. Advancing Lean management is a relay race. The first leg is nearing completion. The baton was held by those who brought the Toyota production system (TPS) and Lean to public attention in the late-1970s through the mid-1990s. They ran the first leg well, but this first generation of Lean leaders […]

Stand-up meetings have become a sacred ritual for teams using Agile in any form. They are fantastic for keeping a company aligned and focused in the same direction. Although implementing them is not difficult, making the most of these Agile daily standups with your colleagues requires practice and nonetheless, experimentation. Over the course of the […]

For many years now, there has been a great emphasis in the Lean movement on the development of problem-solving skills. Specifically, teaching people how to think scientifically through the use of PDCA, kata, coaching, etc. Typically, the target audience for training in scientific thinking is working-level people, not managers or executives. The hope is that […]

In Lean management, we speak of the current state, the future state, and the ideal state. But what about the past state? Why isn’t the past state also of interest? It should be, because the past informs the present — the current state — which in turn determines the probability of achieving desire future states. […]

Ecologists and other environmentally aware people often talk about the goal of “Zero Waste.” But, of course, that’s an outstanding goal for business as well. Reducing waste is at the heart of the Lean business methodology. The purpose of Lean is to spend more of your time creating value for customers by reducing or eliminating […]

Fundamentally, what was the development of Toyota’s production system about? Why was there a need for it? It was about employees in a small start-up company working to find ways to produce motor vehicles in low volume and at low cost. So what? Well, what that means is TPS was (and is) a lived human […]

This week is National Nurses Week. Nurses are highly skilled and, too often, are underappreciated. Lean should be one of the best things that ever happened to nurses. In a truly Lean environment, we wouldn’t be understaffed. Nurses wouldn’t get blamed and punished for systemic problems. Hospitals and the broader healthcare system would break down […]

Why does problem-solving seem so different to many from waste elimination? Why is the creation of a standard such an act of sheer will rather than a set of skills?   If we see the creation of standards and the elimination of waste as just different types, or specific types, of problems, we can bring […]

In early January 2019, I decided to conduct an experiment to test if a great advocate of human and technical progress is just that, or if it is more comfortable with the status quo. My new book, The Triumph of Classical Management Over Lean Management: How Tradition Prevails and What to Do About It, was […]