We’ve all heard the phrase “what gets measured gets done” but I also believe “what gets rewarded gets done even quicker.” Understanding how employee rewards and recognition impacts productivity, performance, and employee engagement has been the subject of many studies and experiments, ergo, the salient connection between human behavior and appreciation needs no introduction. We […]

In this post I will look at how the tractor maker Fendt handles variability in its plant in Marktoberdorf, Germany. In my view, Fendt is one of the benchmark plants in the world in handling variability. In my previous post I looked at reasons why you may (or may not) leave one part empty on […]

Ah, it’s another year of the Academy Awards. And that means, not surprisingly, another year with news articles that don’t show much understanding of performance measures over time. You might have read a very similar post in the past… because I’ve written very similar posts (like this one updated in 2021), and I wrote about […]

Here is something that I imagine could happen in the not-too-distant future… Artificial intelligence systems installed by large companies have eliminated huge numbers of jobs. This, in turn, has reduced the purchasing power of consumers resulting in year-over-year reductions in sales and profitability for the foreseeable future. Geist Products is one such company. It is […]

If you have been working for the last 30 or more years, or if you are familiar with management history, you are no doubt aware of the many management fads that have come and gone since the 1930s. These include: Human Relations Management by Objectives Matrix Management Business Process Reengineering Theory Z Empowerment Best Practices […]

By Pascal Dennis (bio) Enterprise, in all its glorious variety, cacophony & unpredictability begins and ends with value. We seek to create products, services, experiences…that elevates our fellow human beings, that make their lives easier or more enjoyable, that reduce hassle and free up their time & energy. Otherwise, why bother? We are human to […]

Larry Culp, CEO of GE, their first outside CEO in 125 years has been leading their transformation using a Lean mindset. Many Lean practitioners and business leaders have been following GE’s performance. Recently Larry released the annual report and I really appreciate the lessons I found within. You can read the full report here. 1.     […]

First off, we’re in that weird time when time zone offsets between Europe and the Americas are out of whack. I’ve updated this Thursday’s event to reflect that: 21 March, online, 15:00 GMT, 16:00 CET, 11am EDT:Experience/practice session: Outside-in Strategy Readiness Assessment While we’re looking at free events, April’s webinar features a special guest, Karl […]

Please read “Ohno’s Theory of Nonproductivity” for context before continuing. Below is a recent DM conversation that you may find interesting, followed by some insights into the Theorem of Least Work and Artificial Intelligence. Mr. D: “I made a presentation to executives a few weeks back, It was a full day meeting and I closing […]

Earlier today, during the Atlantic 10 Conference men’s basketball championship game between Duquesne and Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), celebratory confetti briefly fell with 17:54 left in the second half. CBS play-by-play announcer Kevin Harlan said, “Oh my gosh, they’ve got confetti falling right now. Confetti is falling on the floor. They’re gonna have to stop […]

Is problem-solving a technical skill? I’ve heard many people say things like “I’m an engineer, so already a good problem solver” or “I’m a doctor, what we do is solve problems.” To be certain, I’ve said that about myself. It’s just not an accurate statement. Engineers (to pick on my own kind) are not inherently […]

Here is a set of webpages (much like linked blog posts) that Martin Fowler wrote.  Looks like in 2005. https://www.martinfowler.com/articles/newMethodology.html Very good stuff. Most of it still applies.   Martin Fowler was one of the authors of the Agile Manifesto (and the Agile Principles).  agilemanifesto.org For more info on Martin Fowler see this Wikipedia article: […]

Lean Six Sigma has emerged as a powerful methodology to enhance efficiency, reduce waste, and drive continuous improvement within organizations. One of the key elements that make Lean Six Sigma so effective is the wide array of tools and techniques it offers to identify problems, analyze data, and implement solutions. In this blog post, we’ll […]

This year, 2024, is my 30-year anniversary of being seriously involved with progressive management, both Toyota Production System and Lean management. Throughout that time I have been both a practitioner and an educator — a practitioner in manufacturing, supply chain management, and higher education, and an educator, both as a manager and as a professor. […]

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 […]

We are fortunate enough to get to spend a lot of time chatting with customers and other organizations that are interested in continuous improvement about how they approach the need for constant positive change. Many techniques that are used in the Lean and Six Sigma management approaches come up during these conversations, but one that […]

The Lean community is a small special interest group, an aspirational community, bonded by some key features: Dissatisfaction with the current state Alliance with business pragmatism Belief in the need to continuously improve processes and systems Expression of authenticity Expression of personal identity The first three items reflect the mind, the last two reflect the […]

  In a recent episode of the People Solve Problems podcast, Jamie Flinchbaugh sits down with Sarah Tilkens, Senior Manager of OpEx for GE Healthcare as well as the CEO & Founder of The KPI Lab, to discuss the art and science of problem-solving within organizations. Sarah shares her journey from an early interest in […]

As part of TED’s ‘How to be a Better Human’ series, two researchers, Richard Ryan and Edward Deci, developed an idea called ‘self-determination theory’. Self-determination theory essentially argued that people are motivated when they can determine for themselves what to work on and how to work on it. Below, I’ll outline the three main drivers […]

Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #500 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is me, your usual host Mark Graban. Today, I’m mixing up the format with a solo episode that celebrates 500 episodes over almost 18 years. I’ll share some of the origin story and history of […]

Recently I have been thinking about why kata has experienced so much greater success than genba kaizen. After all, the continuous practice of kaizen is what led to the creation of TPS and the Toyota Way in just a few decades. Yet kaizen never really caught on among the organizations that pursued Lean. It should […]

Normally, assembly lines are run with a product in every slot of the line. However, for various reasons, sometimes you may have an empty spot. Depending on your assembly line, you may even play with the general distance between products on the line. The latter is called variable takt, or VarioTakt. In this post I […]

One of the difficulties with so-called “Lean transformation” is that there is no standard process that CEOs can follow for executing a Lean transformation. This surely has had an impact on organizations’ ability to transition from classical management to progressive Lean management. Additionally, a preconception was established long ago by top Lean promoters that every […]

We should all speed up our decision-making in this faster-moving world, right? Well, only partially right. In this video, we’ll explain how our decision-making should be really split into faster decisions and deliberately slower decisions. I’ll share why, and also the core methods you might consider to help. The post Is Our Thinking Wrong about […]

Updated March 11, 2024 These are  4 slide decks. As indicated they are a work-in-progress.  In draft form.  And “notes”. I use them in my Real-World Scrum workshop. And in the Diagnosis webinar.  And elsewhere. There is some repetition. Some of it on purpose, some of it I might edit out later. Each slide deck […]

Today is the 5th anniversary of the release of my book Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More!! The book was originally released as a Kindle eBook in August, 2018 as a “small test of change” before I moved forward with the print edition. And this was after I originally released it on […]

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 […]

Developing Coaching Skills: Mine, Yours, Ours REGISTER NOW I’m excited to be hosting and moderating a new webinar that’s part of the KaiNexus Continuous Improvement webinar series, to be presented by Tracy Defoe, an adult educator specializing in learning at work. Join us on March 21st at 1 pm ET. The free session will also […]

The Holy Grail of the Lean movement is Lean CEOs, which I will define here as leaders who are willing to abandon classical management and replace it with Lean management; willing to lead a so-called Lean transformation. They are eager to take on the challenge that, as Art Byrne says, “everything must change.” “Everything” means […]

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 […]

Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this… there’s always so much good reading, listening, and viewing shared here by him! 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 Here comes the (productivity) boom? AI. Remote […]

The continuous improvement methodology of Kaizen was once closely associated with industrial and automotive manufacturing. That’s because the Kaizen philosophy originated in the Japanese auto industry and was then later adopted by technology manufacturers like GE and Motorola. But if you’ve been hearing about Kaizen project management in other sectors over the last few years, […]

Lean promoters,influencers, and professionals often attribute the lack of Lean management sustainability to frequent changes in top leadership. With an average CEO tenure of 7 years, and a median tenure of 5 years, it seems logical that efforts to establish a Lean business system — which minimally takes 3 to 5 years — would suffer […]

The DMAIC process stands out as a powerful tool for achieving efficiency and quality in the world of business and process improvement. Short for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control, the DMAIC process is a structured approach used to solve problems, optimize existing processes, and drive continuous improvement within organizations. In this blog post, we’ll […]