Only recently Michael Ballé said: “Let’s not confuse lean and TPS… they are related, but not the same.” Finally. This year is the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI). There will surely be a big celebration. But in my view, there is less to celebrate than meets the eye. Here’s […]

Monday, I gave a talk at the annual KaiNexicon (KaiNexus User Conference) on the theme of: PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY: A Pre-Condition for Continuous Improvement In advance of the conference, we invited customers who are attending to fill out a survey to gain some feedback and thoughts about how they view Psychological Safety in their workplaces. I’m […]

What standard do you hold yourself to when someone asks you questions about Lean management or Toyota management?  The standard could vary as widely for a person as it can from person-to-person. There are at least eight possible standards to choose from: Say “I don’t know” Guess at the answer Say what you heard Say […]

Being a business leader in the 21st century is a tall order. You’re responsible for the health and happiness of your staff but also need to run a profitable, efficient business. Accounting for the differences among employees can be tricky, too, as some folks appreciate a hands-on approach while others need space to spread their […]

In a previous blog post, “Final Exams, Final Mistake,” I described how students in my courses make two types of visual controls to help them remember and apply what they learned. One visual control is in the form of an 8.5×11 inch sign that reflects the 10-20 most important things they learned in the course […]

Kaizen is practical method for improving any processes, and thus it can also be applied to the design and delivery of courses. In order for kaizen to be effective, kaizen participants must be given strict conditions under which improvements are made. These conditions take the form of “Nos” or “must-nots” – things that people must […]

It’s obvious Lean and TPS are not the same. If you had to pick one, which would you choose and why?                 (Click on image to enlarge).

Higher education thought leader Jeffrey J. Selingo has a new thought: It’s time for colleges to cut costs. Hasn’t this been obvious for the last 10 or 20 years? (See my 2005 article, “Lean in Higher Education“). In his 26 May 2017 article in The Washington Post, “Forget the marketing gimmicks: It’s time for colleges […]

This is the back story to the book Conversations with Taiichi Ohno. Why write a fictional account of conversations with Taiichi Ohno (1912-1990)? There are a several reasons for doing so. The first reason is that people are losing touch with Taiichi Ohno. They don’t know who he was. They don’t know what he did. […]

Image: https://www.slideshare.net/chetanbirla/chetan-birla Professors typically give lots of feedback to students over a semester to help them learn and improve. Professors, however, often complain about the feedback that students give concerning the professor’s performance in a course. I eagerly accept student feedback because it helps me understand what I need to improve. But I also give […]

Excellence in teaching? Not quite. The results of the U.K.s 2017 Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) have been released. Click here to view the results of the Gold, Silver, and Bronze university awards (official government results are here). The purpose of TEF is to “…shin[e] a spotlight on learning and teaching in higher education, with a […]

In the 30 years since the term “lean” was introduced as an interpretation of the Toyota production system, great efforts have been made by many people to gain the interest of CEOs due to the widespread recognition that Lean must be led from the top. While there have been some notable successes in the use […]

Outliers always get lots of attention. John Smyth, the author of The Toxic University, talks about his book in this interesting article: “Author discusses ideas in his new book, ‘The Toxic University’” (IHE, 12 July 2017) My key takeaway is that those responsible for pricing tuition and fees bear full responsibility for the toxic conditions described […]

University of Miami geology department graduation ceremony circa 1979, led by Professors Emiliani, Nagle, and Stipp. My father, Cesare Emiliani (Dott., Ph.D), was a long-time chair of the Geology department at the University of Miami in Coral Gables Florida. He was a creative, outgoing, and fun person who applied his gifts to how the department […]

A new president of a public university has these four goals*: Increase student enrollment Maintain academic excellence Expand community engagement Develop additional sources of funding Notice anything odd among the four goals? It should be Goal 2, “Maintain academic excellence.” Goals 1, 3, and 4 imply some sort of improvement over time, but not Goal […]

Unfortunately, most people mindlessly believe the statement: “What gets gets measured gets managed.” Click here to learn how this statement is easily proven to be untrue. The commonly believed statement “If the worker hasn’t learned, then the instructor hasn’t taught” is also easily proven to be untrue. Statements such as these must be verified before they […]

Click on image to enlarge. I have been a professor for close to 20 years now, after having spent the previous 15 years in industry where I worked in engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain management. There are many positives associated with teaching that I would like to share with you, as well as a few frustrations. […]

In higher education, the job of a professor is well-defined. It consists of three things: teaching, research, and service to the university and one’s profession. Teaching involves three tasks: preparation (of the course), execution (delivering the course), and follow-up (guiding students’ work, feedback, grading, etc.). Teaching is usually a solitary activity, where the faculty members […]

When I worked as a supply chain manager in the mid-1990s, I faced tremendous pressure from company leaders to offshore large chunks of the $106 million in annual spend of the work supplied to us by some 50-plus first-tier manufacturers located in the Connecticut river valley. I resisted that pressure and, in the end, it […]

From 2011 through 2013, I ran weekly web advertisements on Mark Graban‘s LeanBlog to promote my books (I paid Mark an annual fee for the service). About once a month I also posted an ad that parodied or satirized something about Lean that was prevalent at that time, or poked fun at myself and other prominent Lean people. Occasionally, humor […]

WEB SERIES – Season 2 is here! In the first episode of this season, we visit a company in Chile that shows us how sustainability can be the cornerstone of an improvement project… and not just an afterthought. Scripted, edited and narrated by: Roberto Priolo In its production of packaging products and film, Winpack strives to […]

When it comes to quality assurance in manufacturing, precision is paramount. The ability to accurately measure and test is a non-negotiable tenet that is the foundation of robust quality management. Every detail matters, and the role of measurement and test processes cannot be overstated. Measuring the Vital Aspects of Quality Measurement is the bedrock of […]

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. Insights about improvement, innovation, and leadership… Operational Excellence, Improvement, and Innovation Ask your customers how you can improve – and then share the results “We […]

So here we are, 30 years into the Lean movement. That means a new generation of executives, ages 40 to 50 or so, are now beginning to lead corporations. To their predecessors, Lean “production” (as it was then known) was new and exploding with potential. Today’s leaders experienced those Lean efforts when they were in […]

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 […]

What is the role of a professor in the Lean movement? Is it to mindlessly cheerlead Lean and accentuate only the positive? Or, is it to think critically, carefully analyze the product (based on experience using the product), and identify practical improvements? My involvement with Lean management has focused on doing the latter – which, of […]

You often hear the term Kaizen being thrown around, but what are the benefits of Kaizen? In today’s blog, we’ll get into what Kaizen is and how it can benefit your business.  What is Kaizen? Kaizen is a Japanese term that means “change for the better” or “continuous improvement”. It is a business philosophy that […]

Click on image to enlarge. Throughout my work over the last 25 years, I have always sought to better understand Toyota’s management system (TMS) and its derivative, Lean management (LM). From the beginning, the aspect that interested me most was leadership. Specifically, what leaders (CEOs, presidents) do or don’t do to advance the practice of […]

This is the back story to the book The Triumph of Classical Management Over Lean Management. The Triumph of Classical Management Over Lean Management represents the culmination of over 20 years of the study of Lean leadership. It began in the mid-1990s with a simple question: “Why don’t the leaders of large corporations flock to Lean […]

Below is a summary of my significant original contributions to the body of Lean knowledge as author or co-author. My primary focus has been Lean leadership and Lean management, as well as Lean in higher education, Lean in supply chain management, and the history of progressive management. It includes the best book ever written on […]

As you may know, one of my great interests over the last 20 years has been to understand problems such as these, especially as it pertains to large companies: Why are executives disinterested in Lean? Why do executives resist Lean? Why does Lean fail to take root in organizations? These questions have been around for a […]

A high-reliability organization (HRO) is an organization that has succeeded in avoiding catastrophes despite a high level of risk and complexity. Specific examples that have been studied, most famously by researchers Karl Weick and Kathleen Sutcliffe, include nuclear power plants, air traffic control systems, and naval aircraft carriers. Recently healthcare organizations have moved to adopt […]

One sign that medical mistakes are a systemic problem is when you see headlines like this around the world, this time in New Zealand: Elderly patient overdosed by hospital nurses on incorrect medication, died days later As I wrote on LinkedIn… When nurses have more “accountability” thrown at them than autonomy… stuff like this happens. […]

I have spoken to many people in recent years who have become disillusioned with Lean management in one way or another. In most cases, disillusionment does not lead to a complete abandonment of Lean thinking and practice. Rather, it greatly suppresses enthusiasm and limits the scope of practice to what is easiest to do – […]