There are many problems where we struggle with things such as creativity and breaking down the problem. One such problem that is frequently voiced is the elimination of bureaucracy. You cannot just eliminate bureaucracy. What can you do? You can break down the problem, understand the elements and contributing factors. You can also leverage creativity […]

How you start does matter, because it sets up momentum and other psychological factors to carry that momentum forward, as is also true in the reverse where a bad start can sabotage your remaining efforts. Years ago, The Onion showed a light on this fact with this hilarious story that feels all too true.  Admitting […]

Who should lead the next change your organization faces? Who should lead a transformation? A lot depends on the nature of the change. On one end, you have deterministic, programmatic, and tool- or technology-centric changes. On the other end of the spectrum, you have leading change into a VUCA world, a stochastic change, an organic […]

Whether in problem-solving, or broad lean behaviors, or seeing the customer as an entrepreneur, there is much articulated about the idea of going to see for yourself. There are many terms for it, such as “direct observation” that we articulated in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Lean, or Gemba commonly used by the lean community, or […]

It’s too complicated. I don’t understand. It doesn’t work. It’s not for me.  Whether launching a new product, or a new company initiative, these might be phrases that you’ve heard. It stems from overdesigning the solution. It shows up as the waste of over-processing, doing more than your customer requires or needs. It results in […]

Episode 35: “We’re tired, but not tired of whiskey. A Gemba walk will pick us up.”    In Episode 35, Mark is recently back from his Scotland Gemba visit. He isn’t tired from jet lag, or from whiskey, but nevertheless, Mark and Jamie both end up complaining about being tired. Maybe we’re just…old (gasp). We […]

No matter what your profession, everyone should consider at some point in time a personal work retreat. For me, it is usually about research and writing. Certainly, almost all of People Solve Problems was written across multiple retreats up to the mountains. Bill Gates would take his “think weeks” away in a cabin to read […]

Episode 34: “Crazy Ideas, From Shipping Flowers to Crab Whiskey” In Episode 34, Mark Graban and Jamie Flinchbaugh begin by belatedly celebrating the 3rd birthday of Lean Whiskey. No, this wasn’t a pandemic-launched podcast, although if we hadn’t started it yet it probably would have become one. We also learn of Mark’s pending trip to […]

In 2019 I organized an Industry 4.0 tour through southern Germany for a few friends. We called this the “Van of Nerds,” and you can read all about it in a series of blog posts starting here. The participants liked the van trip so much that we wanted to repeat this experience… and then came […]

You may have heard of Takumi at Toyota. Takumi in general are highly skilled artisans that excel in their craft. Despite Toyota mass-producing cars using lots of machines, they also employ hundreds of Takumi. This blog post takes a deeper look at what a Takumi is, and why they are so important for Toyota and […]

Recently, the Japanese word ikigai has been popping up as a way to find happiness. While not quite a manufacturing theme, it is related to industry and to Japanese culture, and hence I decided to write a blog post about it. It is a lot of hubbub around a few good (but not new) ideas, […]

In my last post I looked at how to reduce product variants, and the inevitable conflict with sales. In this post I will look at how to reduce not the number of final products, but the number of part types that go into the final product… and here you often have a conflict with product […]

Product variants drive up cost. The more variants you have for the same quantity sold, the higher your production cost. Inversely, if you can reduce your number of variants, you can reduce your cost. In this post I will give you some general suggestions on how to reduce your number of variants. Hopefully these inspire […]

While this article will focus on finding and resolving the root causes of business problems, cause analysis is something we apply to common problems in all areas of life. For example, if your car doesn’t start, you have a few options. You might take a bus to work instead or ask a friend to give […]

Lean process management is one of the most widespread methods of bringing structure to an organization’s continuous improvement efforts. The underlying concept of Lean is that empowering the people who operate each process to improve it based on some fundamental principles is the best way to inch closer to perfection. In addition, high-quality outcomes are […]

The internet is full of blog posts with productivity tips and advice about how to work smarter, not harder. There’s a lot of useful information about the best way to work, but we think it is important to keep in mind that the foundation for all of it is something called standard work.  We’ve written […]

Here is a short paper by Ken Schwaber: whatIsScrum Willem-Jan Ageling (here) says that the paper is from 2003.  So, about 10 years after Scrum was invented. Schwaber and Sutherland (and others) had written many papers by then.  And the Scrum Guide (of 2009) had not yet been written. It is interesting to see the […]

Wow, what a big topic! Jon Jorgensen put up a post on LinkedIn.  Here: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6978462442318135297/ (Jon has lots of good posts. Recommended.) I have not asked Jon exactly what he meant by his question.  I suspect a bit of mid-western sarcasm is involved. Here is my reaction, which is meant to be of some partial […]

Better Let’s agree on the obvious: The most important thing (that we will discuss) is a better life.  For each of us, for the Team, for our customers, for the organization, and more broadly.  And… we think better agile will help that. There is no doubt in my mind that we, virtually every team, can […]

ROUND-UP – In his annual review of the best content we published, our editor looks back at 2022 and what this year was like for the Lean Community. Words: Roberto Priolo, Managing Editor, Planet Lean It is now a tradition that, at the end of every year, I look back at the past 12 months’ […]

FICTION – Santa is struggling to locate the many children who are hiding from war to deliver them gifts, until the lean Time Benders come to the rescue and help him understand the problem. Words: Sharon Visser It was Friday at the North Pole, the big day when Santa goes through the operation plans for […]

This post looks at two plants we visited during our Van of Nerds tour in France in 2022. Both plants are in areas in which I have little experience. The first one was SLB, specializing in sensors for oil field exploration. The second one was the Thales Group, where we visited the location manufacturing military […]

This post looks at more plants we visited on our Van of Nerds tour in France in 2022. The focus this time is the aircraft industry, in particularly the engines. We visited a major maker of aircraft engines, or their nacelles and thrust reversers to be more precise, Safran in Le Havre. But we also […]

As part of our Van of Nerds tour through France, we also visited two research laboratories. While not shop floors, these are the places to experiment with new technologies. Campus Fab, Bondoufle The Campus Fab in Bondoufle near Paris is an innovative demonstration lab with lots of fancy technology to showcase Industry 4.0, including advanced […]

Gone are the days of maximum capacity utilization as a way to get more efficient and improve your team’s performance. With Agile transformations on the rise, not just in tech but in engineering, banking, pharma, and other fields, one of the dilemmas that leaders face is whether to turn their focus on flow or iterations […]

It comes as no surprise that as we live in the digital era, more and more companies are looking to initiate digital transformation programs. In fact, studies show that by 2026 digital transformation spending is projected to reach 3.4 trillion dollars.   But there is one recent trend which we believe grabs the attention of many, […]

Episode 37: “I’ll have a half-caff no-whip soy-milk chestnut praline latte…to-go” In Episode 37, we wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays with some new (to us) holiday cocktails. Mark tries the Bourbon Flip, and Jamie makes a Hot Buttered Bourbon. Neither will likely be in our regular rotation of cocktails, but they suit […]

The end of the year is traditionally a time to look back and reflect. One way to reflect is to evaluate popular blog posts. I have been taking time to reflect on the year that was and as part of that reflection I have flipped back through the 150 blog posts I have written so […]

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 […]

“I’ll have a half-caff no-whip soy-milk chestnut praline latte… to-go.” Listen: Here is the episode if you want to stream the audio: In Episode 37, we wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays with some new (to us) holiday cocktails. Mark tries the Bourbon Flip, and Jamie makes a Hot Buttered Bourbon. Neither will […]

Here’s a musical holiday treat for my regular Lean Blog readers and podcast listeners, a song parody, originally released in 2009, remastered a bit in 2022: “Gemba Claus is Comin’ to Town” – MP3 Gemba Claus is Comin’ to Town Lyrics by Mark GrabanPerformance by Steve Sholtes Oh, you’d better watch outYou’d better kaizenYou’d better […]

This week, I received an unexpected and incredibly specific Christmas gift from Charles Desneuf on LinkedIn. He wrote a PDF eBook about Process Behavior Charts… and Christmas! This led to Charles collaborating with me on the English version of the eBook you can read or download in this post. I’m sure this appeals to the […]

This week’s guest is Julia Goldstein. Ron and Julia discussed the concept of circular economy, what sustainability looks like in a lean context, and more. An MP3 audio version of this episode is available for download here. In this episode you’ll learn:  The quote Julia likes (2:28) Julia’s background (3:29) How Julia heard about lean […]

Understanding and measuring process time is one of the most important aspects of process improvement. Much of the waste (muda) in a process causes a process to take longer than it should. When a process takes longer, customers are waiting for their final products and services and people in the process are typically costing the […]