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… […]

This is a Chat GPT / Dall-E generated image: It’s silly, right? I’ve never seen a sign like this in an operating room. And I’m not advocating for them. It’s not the right approach for quality and patient safety. If warning signs actually prevented mistakes, and given that a vast majority of mistakes are caused […]

This month A Lean Journey Blog turns 15 and as I look back on how I got started and who influenced my journey I wanted to revisit a previous series I started in 2012 called the Meet-up. One of the things I am so found of in the Lean community is the general wiliness to […]

In this video, I clear up some persistent (decades-long) confusion about kaizen and problem-solving.

Do you ever ask yourself that question? Likely never. Is the age of your thinking the same as your age? No, definitely not. If you are like most people, you believe that your thinking is thoroughly modern; that it reflects the time you are living in, from a young age to now. But that is […]

If you run a TPS or Lean book club, these are the books everyone should read! Scroll below to learn why you should read these books. Leadership and Kaizen Better Thinking, Better Results is a detailed case study of the enterprise-wide Lean transformation, from supplier-to-customer, that The Wiremold Company achieved, led by Art Byrne. The […]

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 Mario Kart Meets Pareto Most readers are likely familiar […]

Listen: In Episode 46, Mark Graban and Jamie Flinchbaugh spend a lot of time talking about AI, but that still, as always, begins with the whiskey. We both asked ChatGPT to consider all our ingredients for making a whiskey-based cocktail, and to invent an original recipe. Jamie’s is called The Bourbon Harmony, although there was […]

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 […]

Episode 46: “AI Takes Over Lean Whiskey, Including the Role of Bartender”  In Episode 46, Mark Graban and Jamie Flinchbaugh spend a lot of time talking about AI, but that still, as always, begins with the whiskey. We both asked ChatGPT to consider all our ingredients for making a whiskey-based cocktail, and to invent an […]

“A ‘special cause’ for celebration.” Brian Buck, on LinkedIn TODAY marks the centennial of one of the most significant innovations in quality management: the control chart. 🎂 🎉 🎆 In the early 1920s, Walter A. Shewhart, working at Bell Labs, recognized the need for a statistical method to monitor and control manufacturing processes. On May […]

In the world of manufacturing and business operations, the concepts of Lean manufacturing and continuous improvement are often discussed in tandem. However, they both have unique principles and methodologies that can significantly impact a company’s performance. In this blog post, we’ll clarify continuous improvement vs Lean manufacturing by exploring their unique characteristics, how they compare, […]

I spoke a few months ago with Olivier Bertrand and a couple of his colleagues who were looking into using phylogenetic techniques to analyse the results of organisational assessments. It seemed that Agendashift’s assessments were ideal for the purpose, and when we met for a second time, the team’s analysis of data captured via the […]

I’m really excited to host and moderate the latest webinar in the KaiNexus Continuous Improvement Webinar series, which will be presented by my friend Dr. William Harvey. REGISTER I saw William give a great presentation at the Society for Health Systems conference (Healthcare Systems Process Improvement) in February and I asked him to give the […]

Can you influence change from the middle? Does successful change always have to start from the top? How can you stop pushing change on your leaders and instead create pull from them for the organizational culture you envision? If you’re leading continuous improvement internally, these questions are crucial because they address the challenge of how […]

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 […]

Unicorns are companies that reach a $1B valuation while still being privately held. Giants can often be summarized originally as FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google) and now MAMAA (Meta, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet). These companies are often referenced as examples to follow. Learn from their success. After all, who doesn’t want to […]

Research by Ethan Burris shows that the top two reasons employees choose to keep quiet in the workplace are: 1️⃣ Futility2️⃣ Fear Fear of getting in trouble is a big problem. But there are also many workplaces where people say, quite literally, “I’m not afraid to speak up, it just isn’t worth the effort.” That’s […]

Recently I had a chance to visit the world market leader in 3D printing, Stratasys, together with my students. We went to their location in Rheinmünster, Germany, near the Baden-Baden airport. While I always keep a bit of an eye on new developments in 3D printing, it was quite refreshing to get an update on […]

This month A Lean Journey Blog turns 15 and as I look back on how I got started and who influenced my journey I wanted to revisit a previous series I started in 2012 called the Meet-up. One of the things I am so found of in the Lean community is the general wiliness to […]

By Pascal Dennis (bio) Strategy Deployment begins with True North — our strategic and philosophical purpose. True North entails developing a clear picture of Ideal condition, and
 Target condition. At the process level, this means answering questions like: “Is the process behaving as expected?” Corollaries: Do I understand my process? Is our hypothesis sound? If […]