For the last 30 years, our eyes have told us this truth: There is a strong consensus of opinion among CEOs that if any of Lean is to be adopted, it is solely its tools. CEOs have expressed little interest in adopting Lean as a comprehensive system of management to replace Classical Management. This is […]

Small supermarket stocked using kanban cards in a pull system, to closely match supply to demand. If you boil down Toyota’s production system to its essence, its purpose is to synchronize supply to demand for buyers’ markets. The ability to do so reduces the frequency and severity of stock-out (lost sales) or overproduction of finished […]

What would happen if Lean thinking were applied to American football? American football is in trouble. The league Commissioner and team owners know there must be changes made to the game to assure a future pipeline of skilled players and to grow its fan base for generations to come. But League officials and team owners […]

In a March 2015 blog post titled “Abnormal Condition Alert,” I said: Lean people are quick to criticize organizations with no Lean. We occasionally call out and criticize someone else’s bad Lean – their Lean. But we almost never criticize our Lean. This is an abnormal condition: Overproduction of positive feedback about “our Lean.” Look at social media and you will find the […]

In today’s blog, we’ll be discussing what a connected worker platform is, and the benefits of a connected worker platform. What is a Connected Worker Platform? Connected worker platforms are digital software tools that help industrial companies improve the way their employees work. It makes it easier to control manufacturing processes by creating new connections […]

Dismantling large ships. Since publishing my latest book, The Triumph of Classical Management Over Lean Management (February 2018), I’ve spent the last 10 months thinking a lot about how Toyota’s management method (TMM) and Lean management are taught to people. The principal methods are via training and education. The former typically takes place in industry and consists […]

On Forbes: Hire Skills, Not Certifications For years, many operations and engineering jobs came with a requirement for a Six Sigma Green Belt (or Black Belt). It was an easy “check the box” requirement that allowed the human resources team to cull the herd of applicants. That particular requirement has faded in popularity, but it is not […]

System of Profound Knowledge One of W. Edwards Deming‘s great accomplishments was his creation of the “System of Profound Knowledge” (read more details here). The System of Profound Knowledge (SoPK) is described in Deming’s book, The New Economics. In its most basic terms, SoPK is a framework designed to enable progress in the practice of management, […]

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 […]

My full-time job since 1999 has been as a professor of Lean management at a university, where I teach both graduate and undergraduate courses. My areas of specialization are: Lean leadership, Lean management, management history, management decision failure analysis, and supply chain management. One of the job functions of professors is to share (and critique) […]

FEATURE – The ER of this Catalan hospital is finding great value in the application of Lean Thinking, which has already led to a dramatic change in its processes and to better care for patients. Words: Francesc Chavalés and Imma Tort Since introducing lean in 2017, the Emergency Room of the Hospital Comarcal de l’Alt […]

Don’t ignore the elephant in the room. It started with value stream maps in 1999. It was the first tool used for the purpose of generating additional interest in what was then called “Lean production.” From there, kata, A3 reports, coaching, leader standard work, gemba walks, Lean strategy deployment, and now Lean product development. One […]

Click on image to enlarge. Advancing Lean management is a relay race. The first leg is nearing completion. The baton was held by those who brought the Toyota production system (TPS) and Lean to public attention in the late-1970s through the mid-1990s. They ran the first leg well, but this first generation of Lean leaders […]

Stand-up meetings have become a sacred ritual for teams using Agile in any form. They are fantastic for keeping a company aligned and focused in the same direction. Although implementing them is not difficult, making the most of these Agile daily standups with your colleagues requires practice and nonetheless, experimentation. Over the course of the […]

For many years now, there has been a great emphasis in the Lean movement on the development of problem-solving skills. Specifically, teaching people how to think scientifically through the use of PDCA, kata, coaching, etc. Typically, the target audience for training in scientific thinking is working-level people, not managers or executives. The hope is that […]

In Lean management, we speak of the current state, the future state, and the ideal state. But what about the past state? Why isn’t the past state also of interest? It should be, because the past informs the present — the current state — which in turn determines the probability of achieving desire future states. […]

Ecologists and other environmentally aware people often talk about the goal of “Zero Waste.” But, of course, that’s an outstanding goal for business as well. Reducing waste is at the heart of the Lean business methodology. The purpose of Lean is to spend more of your time creating value for customers by reducing or eliminating […]

Fundamentally, what was the development of Toyota’s production system about? Why was there a need for it? It was about employees in a small start-up company working to find ways to produce motor vehicles in low volume and at low cost. So what? Well, what that means is TPS was (and is) a lived human […]

This week is National Nurses Week. Nurses are highly skilled and, too often, are underappreciated. Lean should be one of the best things that ever happened to nurses. In a truly Lean environment, we wouldn’t be understaffed. Nurses wouldn’t get blamed and punished for systemic problems. Hospitals and the broader healthcare system would break down […]

Why does problem-solving seem so different to many from waste elimination? Why is the creation of a standard such an act of sheer will rather than a set of skills?   If we see the creation of standards and the elimination of waste as just different types, or specific types, of problems, we can bring […]

In early January 2019, I decided to conduct an experiment to test if a great advocate of human and technical progress is just that, or if it is more comfortable with the status quo. My new book, The Triumph of Classical Management Over Lean Management: How Tradition Prevails and What to Do About It, was […]

Who doesn’t admire Art Byrne, Orry Fiume, and the other members of the Wiremold senior management team? I’ve known Art and Orry for many years and continue to be captivated by their accomplishments and that of the entire Wiremold workforce. The Wiremold Company’s transformation remains a classic blueprint for success. Since retiring from Wiremold in […]

“A real irony is that ‘respect for people’ requires that people feel the pain of critical feedback.” — Akio Toyoda Illustration by Julia Yes, that’s me; the Bad Boy of Lean, el chico malo de Lean. I am an irritant to some Lean movement leaders because I freely challenge their work. As a result, I […]

Lean continuous improvement is a systematic approach to perfecting business processes and operations by eliminating waste, increasing efficiency, and delivering more value to customers. The “lean” philosophy emphasizes eliminating non-value-added activities and processes to create more value with fewer resources. Lean is built on best practices for continuous improvement, including employee engagement and focusing on […]

If you observe carefully, you will notice that the people with the best problem-solving skills tend to have poor social skills, while those with the best social skills tend to be poor problem-solvers. The former are curious and go deep into their analysis of a problem to understand its root causes and identify solutions that […]

These discs are “visual controls.” They remind people that if their Lean efforts are not living up to expectations, then they are trapped in BAU (Business as Usual) and the status quo, and must regain their focus on kaizen. A hallmark of classical management, rooted in batch-and-queue material and information processing, is the existence of […]

Over the decades, Lean has turned into something very messy and confusing. And lots of bad advice is dispensed for organizations that are starting their so-called “Lean journey,” such as shown in the image at right. Below are brief explanations why each piece of advice is bad. Don’t Copy Toyota People learn by copying — […]

Thank you Matt Turner both for inviting me and for sharing so promptly the video of last night’s talk: Between spaces, scopes, and scales: What the scaling frameworks don’t tell you (linkedin.com) PDF, references, and other goodies here. The talk continues to iterate rapidly towards the keynote I need it to be! Tomorrow, courtesy Bill […]

Physical books are still a good thing! And Lean books should be paired with Lean bookmarks — including my books. I created these unique bookmarks for you to use. Tuck one of these two-sided beauties into your books or your boss’s Lean books. But these are more than just bookmarks. You can also use them […]

When the topic of sense of urgency comes up, most leaders would agree it’s a discriminator which can mean the difference between thriving or surviving. It shows drive and purpose in an individual or business. It’s usually contagious, so the display of urgency will influence others to demonstrate drive as well. As a leader, I’ve […]

The two major forms of progressive management practice that emerged over last 100-plus years both struggled to survive. Why does today’s form of progressive management, Lean management — something with proven benefits and so much potential to do good for humanity — struggle to survive against the long-established practice of classical management? The image above […]

In business, the word “unicorn” means a startup company that has a billion-dollar valuation. Unlike the mythical beast, unicorn companies do exist but are rare. Much like unicorn companies, Lean companies are also rare, as are their CEOs. Lean companies are a different kind of company and Lean CEOs are a different kind of CEO. […]

Thursday, I’m hosting and moderating the third and final webinar about “Habit Loops” as part of the KaiNexus Continuous Improvement Webinar Series, to be presented by Morgan Wright (Customer Marketing Manager) and Greg Jacobson, MD (co-founder and CEO), both from KaiNexus. Come join us! Sustaining Continuous Improvement with Habit Science The first two webinars about […]

The big benefit of TPS and Lean is the change from batch-and-queue processing to one-piece flow. This is what generates huge business impact in terms of lower cost, higher quality, shorter lead-times, higher throughput, better safety, and so on. But over the years, the focus on Lean tools, driven by conservative business leaders, has led to […]