Did you not know there were specifications for leaders? How could that be? You have probably been a participant in many leadership training courses and have had a lot of coaching, but you are likely not in spec and probably don’t even know it. Leaders, especially top leaders, have earned the status, rights, and privileges […]

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 Generative AI and Improvement Early adopters are […]

Today there are so many Japan study tours that it makes me wonder if these are not much more than the kinds of field trips we took while we were in elementary school. In elementary school, we students looked forward to field trips, as did teachers, because it was a day out of the classroom. […]

I often find myself falling into the common trap of believing that if something is worthwhile, it is necessarily difficult. I think we all expect that valuable things are hard. The truth is, however, that sometimes the most effective and impactful things we can do are really quite simple. When it comes to continuous quality […]

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 […]

What’s your purpose as a continuous improvement leader? And how can you fulfill your potential as a transformational change leader? Tune in to my conversation with master operational excellence change leader Karen Martin to find out! Move from Purpose to Greater Potential Becoming a transformational change leader means balancing your technical skills to deliver results […]

My friend Trish Wilson recently invited me to participate in a podcast hosted by Ed Brenegar. We talked a lot about artificial intelligence and the future of work. Subsequent to the podcast Trish send this New York Times article to Ed and I: “When Your Technical Skills Are Eclipsed, Your Humanity Will Matter More Than […]

The Happy Heuristics podcast was a project by Jamie Flinchbaugh and Jeff Grimshaw to explore the power of heuristics for better decision-making. The goal was to help cultivate shock-resistant leader routines and rules of thumb for a complex world. Season 1 was recorded and released in 2021 and 2022. There were plans for a Season […]

Part-way through the February Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator, I was prompted to create a new slide on the topic of breakouts. We agreed that it would be helpful to add it to every training or workshop deck – hidden by default and kept in reserve, it would be there as a reminder to the host, and […]

“The genba is the truth.” That is what Japanese kaizen consultants teach. They say this repeatedly in a deliberate effort to reorient people’s thinking away from the deeply-rooted business ideology that numbers are the truth. If we recognize the genba as the truth and make improvements there via kaizen, the numbers will follow — they […]

In my last three posts I showed you how I look at shop floors, starting with some general guidance (FOCUS!) and going into detail through the different aspects of what I try to observe on the shop floor (5S, visual management, waste, unevenness, overburden, and safety). This usually gives me a reasonable overview of what […]

As I posted recently on LinkedIn, here are some photos and a story from years ago. Signs are not mistake-proofing. Signs are not adequate process controls. “Please do not park stretchers or carts in the hallway.” I’m quite certain that stretchers and carts are ALWAYS in this hospital hallway unless they know The Joint Commission […]

By Pascal Dennis (bio) May you live in interesting times – Chinese Curse Interesting times indeed, no? The reasons are too long to recite here – changing technology, customer expectations, internationalization, rapid cultural shifts, the explosion of information… Technological change, for example, is so rapid and severe that in many industries we can no longer […]

At the recent Healthcare Systems Process Improvement conference, David B. Reid, P.E. from Chick-fil-A Restaurants brought up a very interesting point about the batch size for their pressure cookers. They don’t cook one piece of chicken at a time that way. It’s inherently a batch process that uses the same amount of oil and energy […]

Every year, Americans celebrate Presidents Day as a day of remembrance — a day to look back and learn from our nation’s greatest leaders. In today’s competitive market, business leaders are looking for the edge that will put their organization and workforce ahead of the curve. As we celebrate President’s Day today, I want discuss […]

The Lean community is forever upset with CEOs for being short-term thinkers and for their steadfast devotion to classical management. They hope for CEOs to become long-term thinkers. Of course, reality dictates that CEOs have to think short-, mid-, and long-term, though available evidence or one’s cognitive biases gives the appearance that their thinking is […]

Chief Confusion Officer (CCO) is how I think of the CEOs who persistently send out the mixed message that they want Lean management yet they restrict employees’ ability to practice Lean in such as way as to produce tangible business results. In the post “Junk Lean,” I said: Unfortunately, Lean professionals get squeezed by the […]

Improving safety on a manufacturing shop floor is crucial for the well-being of employees and the overall efficiency of operations. From heavy machinery to hazardous materials, there are numerous risks that frontline employees face daily. So, by focusing on proactive measures and fostering a culture of safety, companies can create a secure and productive environment […]

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 […]

While the Venn diagram is certainly not precise, it depicts something real: The de-evolution of Lean from generic term or synonym for TPS to a diminished form that competes against TPS. Who hasn’t been fooled by James Womack and Daniel Jones‘ longstanding characterization of “Lean” as a generic term or synonym for TPS (and many […]

In the latest episode of the “People Solve Problems” podcast, host Jamie Flinchbaugh welcomes Joshua Ehrig, Professor of Practice at Lehigh University. Joshua shares insightful perspectives on problem-solving within the realms of entrepreneurship, business model innovation, and corporate innovation. Joshua begins by highlighting the critical importance of identifying the root cause of problems. He emphasizes […]

Last week I did an Agile Release Planning workshop.  Several different kinds of people there, including from 3 different firms. And some new questions and issues. Some things I should have said: The Agile Release Planning Day is the beginning, not the end. I did say that, but not well enough. Whatever you do the […]

In today’s fast-paced work environment, maintaining high employee motivation is crucial. However, certain behaviors by management can severely dampen team spirit. This article explores key practices that negatively affect employee motivation and how they can be avoided. Punishing employees and neglecting to encourage them: Sometimes, there is punishment in the organization, and employees know that […]

It’s February 14th and if that date doesn’t ring a bell, you must live under a rock. It’s Valentine’s day! Whether you “believe” in Valentine’s Day or not, it’s the perfect occasion to show some appreciation to someone special and your employees would probably be delighted and surprised if you took the time to show […]

Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #498 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Jeffrey K. Liker. Jeff is Professor Emeritus from the University of Michigan, President of Liker Lean Advisors, and author of the great books in the Toyota Way series. He was previously a guest here […]

What early experience taught you an interesting lesson? These are always fun stories, usually share when acting as a mentor, or perhaps over a drink. Here’s an example from my history, and how this little part taught me some valuable lessons. Those lessons may have helped shape my thinking.   The post What Early Experiences […]

This post continues my series on how I try to understand an unfamiliar shop floor. In the last post I talked about how to see visual management, 5S, and waste. These are usually easy to see. This post continues with unevenness, overburden, and safety, which are usually harder to observe. Unevenness Unevenness, or in Japanese […]

The following material was cut from my latest book, The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation. It just didn’t fit the flow of how the book turned out. You’ll hear a story from one of my podcast guests, and I share some stories from my career decisions. We all make […]

In recent years there has been a big push in Lean world to characterize Lean as “all about learning” to herald a unique feature and personal benefit. This new theme quickly caught on and remains a very popular perspective. But as with most things that are popular, it misses the point. And given the current […]

Many organizations have begun the journey to make their businesses lean. Some have reported early successes while others have struggled or fallen into the rut entitled “flavor of the month.” As is usually the case with this kind of organization change, implementation precedes understanding. What follows are missteps, rework, confusion, organizational angst, and the aforementioned […]

For decades, top Lean promoters and influencers have challenged people with the question: “What problem are you trying to solve?” That’s the wrong question. It is open-ended and will include many problems that have little to do with the core business problems that determine customer satisfaction, business results, and corporate survival. When this question is […]

2024 Preface: I’m re-posting this blog post from 2012 about Lean at Boeing. The WSJ headline emphasizes “speed up,” but that could be the fault of their editors not realizing that Lean means quality and flow go hand in hand. The article shares an example where an employee-driven Kaizen improvement (a small, inexpensive improvement) would […]

When employees get laid off from a company, so do Lean tools. Fewer employees due to layoffs or reduced hiring due to the incorporation of new technologies means less demand for and use of Lean tools. And business leaders always opt for new technologies over employees. At some point, probably soon, AI will incorporate Lean […]

As a former university professor and now emeritus professor, one of my job requirements was to conduct research, write papers, and submit the papers for review and eventual publication in peer-reviewed academic and practitioner journals. I have loved doing research and writing from my days as an undergraduate student, where I did a bachelor of […]