Everyone recognizes that creating a Lean culture is the responsibility of the top leaders of an organization, and that creating a Lean culture is difficult. Much has been written by me and others about the need for business leaders to do this hard work if they wish to succeed with Lean management. Yet, as we […]

Listen: In Episode 39, Mark Graban and Jamie Flinchbaugh toast the completion of Mark’s new book, The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation (coming soon!). Technical note: If you want to skip the whiskey talk, you can use the new Podbean “chapters” feature if you’re listening to the streaming player […]

Top company leaders are Genba 1. Dr. Emiliani’s interest has long been Genba1. Click on image to enlarge. When the world became aware of Toyota’s production system in the mid-1970s, there was one genba — the shop floor. I call this Genba 3. When Lean arrived in 1988, there remained just one genba — the […]

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 […]

This is the back story to the book Eliminating Waste in Teaching. For more than 15 years I have been a dedicated student of the history of management. The particular years of interest are 1890 to the early 1930s, a time known as the Progressive Era. It was during this era that a new system […]

My book, The Triumph of Classical Management Over Lean Management, analyzed the unusual phenomenon of why generations of leaders ignore, reject, or are indifferent to Lean management, and, consequently, why Lean transformation continues to be rare. Readers overwhelmingly agree that I succeeded in my analysis and provided answers to numerous critically important questions that have existed […]

Sometimes people ask me: “Do you assign books that you have written to students taking courses you teach?” The answer is no, until this past Fall semester. For the last several years the assigned reading for my graduate Lean Leadership course was The Lean Turnaround by Art Byrne and The Toyota Kaizen Continuum by John […]

FEATURE – The hardest part of a learning journey is learning to learn and figuring out what we need to learn – as opposed to we want to. The author wonders whether we are drawing the right lessons from TPS and highlights a few things we are underemphasizing. Words: Michael Ballé In 2022, Toyota sold […]

This is the back story to the book Irrational Institutions. Irrational Institutions is a follow-on to my 2018 book, The Triumph of Classical Management Over Lean Management, which meticulously examined the problem of why leaders resist or reject Lean management. It succeeded at providing a comprehensive answer that readers find both accurate and convincing. Since […]

Those of us who are fans of Toyota’s management system (TMS) and Lean management (LM) are a curious bunch. We want to learn as much as we can as fast as possible. We want to know the details of TMS and LM and how to make them work in ways that fulfill our understanding and […]

Mark Graban recently wrote a blog post that reflects the current thinking of many Lean movement leaders and influences: “It’s Hard to Ask Leaders to Change the System in Which They’ve Risen and Excelled.” The “system” in question is the management system and culture of the company or companies that leaders have worked in. Unfortunately, […]

A key part of Lean (or continuous improvement) is continuous education – learning new ideas to challenge your thinking. The Lean community of thinkers is a generous one that believes in paying it forward. Many share their knowledge and experience in blogs they write. Reading these Lean blogs can keep Lean principles and practices at […]

Anyone who has studied the history of management practice since the late 1800s eventually comes to realize that despite all the effort to advance the practice of management, surprisingly little has come of it. Even if you have no knowledge of the history of management but have worked in organizations for a decade or more, […]

In the current era of cut-throat business competition, a proficient consultant can act as a catalyst in unleashing the full potential of your organization. A top-notch consultant brings novel perspectives and invaluable insights and possesses a distinct set of skills that can create a long-lasting impact. This blog highlights the nine crucial value-added skills that […]

When the public first became aware of Lean production in 1988, and Toyota’s production system in the early 1970s, a small army of people leaped into action to do two things: 1) study TPS and Lean and 2) convince business leaders they should adopt Lean. That sounds like a reasonable plan. It was the same […]

The COVID-19 pandemic is causing a lot of business leaders to re-think many things, from paid sick leave to health insurance for all to the shortening of supply lines reducing dependence on globalized supply and the wisdom of spending cash on share buy-backs. One thing is for sure, all of this will cost a lot […]

If you’re interested in my upcoming book (available June XX, date TBD), The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation, it’s available to be pre-ordered now through Amazon! The date is set as June 27th, but it will likely be available sooner. Amazon (and their KDP platform) make it easier to […]

Political economist David Ricardo (1772-1823) coined the term “comparative advantage.” From that came the economic law of comparative advantage, and the intellectual foundation for international free trade. More familiar terms these days are “global sourcing” or “global supply chains,” which means procuring goods from the source that can produce most efficiently regardless of location. That usually […]

This is the back story to the book Management Mysterium. Management Mysterium is a follow-on to The Triumph of Classical Management Over Lean Management (2018) and Irrational Institutions (2020). It adds to this body of work by examining invisible aspects of leadership and management practice: the intangible spiritual, sacred, and the sometimes mysterious and mythical […]

COVID-19, like all emergencies, commands people to focus on shrinking the time from order to delivery. People quickly remove all the barriers to getting the job done. They eliminate bad processes and steps in processes and get rid of queue time to get material and information to flow. And we see many inspiring examples wonderful […]

In quality management and food safety, three key concepts are vital in ensuring that products and processes meet specified requirements: Validation, Monitoring, and Verification. Although these terms are often used interchangeably, they refer to distinct activities within the quality management process. This document aims to clearly compare these concepts by defining each term, discussing their […]

Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more Joining us for Episode #474 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Norbert Majerus. He has his own firm now but previously worked for Goodyear, joining the company in 1978 in his home country of Luxembourg. He moved to Akron in 1983 and worked disciplines in […]

The intellectual foundation of Lean management was built decades ago at a time when business reigned supreme. It was an engrossing mania. Celebrity CEOs, more charismatic than competent, fed everyone a steady diet of hype and spin. The focus was on quarterly earnings, growth, and, of course, the stock price. Appearances mattered more than the […]

Companies must be flexible and open to change to succeed in today’s rapidly changing business world. One practical approach that has benefited many organizations is Kaizen, a Japanese term meaning “continuous improvement.” Taiichi Ohno, the father of the Toyota Production System, popularized the concept by implementing it in his groundbreaking work in the automotive industry […]

Regardless of the Agile project management approach you follow, you’re most likely familiar with the debate over Scrum and Kanban. The argument goes way back to the rise of software development and the Agile movement. A debate that can be traced back to the end of the last century and continues to this day.  As […]

Lately I’ve been speaking to many people from around the world about Lean leadership and Lean management. The conversations were very interesting and I have learned a lot. A common theme was that people are frustrated in their efforts to advance Lean in their organization. Some are doing well relative to others, but they too […]

The world of lean manufacturing is always evolving, and today, we will introduce a groundbreaking concept set to revolutionize the industry: SMED v2. Single Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) has been a cornerstone of lean manufacturing since its inception. This new iteration, SMED v2, promises to take efficiency and waste reduction to new heights. In […]

Business transformation strategy is the comprehensive process of changing an organization’s core operations, processes, culture, and capabilities to achieve specific goals or outcomes. The strategy aims to restructure an organization’s fundamental approach to its business, often in response to new opportunities or challenges. Business transformation involves more than incremental improvements; it requires fundamental changes to […]

Reflecting over the past four decades, I have had some interesting experiences with how people have viewed me in relation to my professional work. Somehow, and remarkably consistently, people formulate their views based on an imputation of motivations and intentions of professional goals and personal attributes that, time and time again, have proven to be […]

As you may know, I have been working for the last 13 years to understand the causes of why most executives resist or reject Lean management. My research has taken me down pathways that have never been reported in the Lean literature, culminating in three books published since 2018: The Triumph of Classical Management Over […]

Click on image to enlarge. The strength of classical management lies in the confidence that is adherents have in its ever-lasting rightness. Based on ideas from 300 years ago, when business and society were markedly different, they remain with us today and are staunchly defended as correct for our time and beyond. The ideas are […]

I have written a new research paper that you may be interested in reading. It builds on my previous work (listed below) and expands the understanding of why most business leaders resist or reject Lean management. The abstract is shown in the image below. Click on the image to read or download the paper. “Feed […]

In today’s rapidly evolving manufacturing landscape, ensuring consistent product quality is more critical than ever. One effective way to maintain high standards is through routine quality audits. But what are the benefits of these regular checks? In this blog post, we explore the six game-changing advantages of routine quality audits in manufacturing, as outlined by […]

Stack lights are found everywhere in industry. And for a good reason. They are a quick and easy way to visualize the status of a machine, which otherwise would need some effort to see. They are—sort of—a mini-andon. While sometimes underappreciated, they do serve a valuable purpose in the factory, and they usually do a […]