Circa 2005, one of our employers, who had adopted Lean in the early 90s, decided to make Six Sigma mandatory for salaried employees. As a Lean zealot, I went kicking and screaming down the path of my Green Belt Certification. The only thing that made the experience fun was that a dear friend and colleague […]

Team Leader Skills – Team Brief I wasn’t sure he was being serious so asked James to repeat what he just said. James, by the way, is both an Airline Pilot and my next door neighbour. “Have you ever heard of N.I.T.S?” came the reply, with little facial indication that a punchline was imminent. As I stood in my kitchen […]

By Pascal Dennis (bio) A colleague of mine is launching a small business – a comic book, craft & memorabilia store in Toronto’s West end. John is a splendid artist and draftsman, as well as, a gifted renovator of houses. But he wants to do something a little different. Over a drink the other day […]

I recently finished one of the more remarkable books I’ve read in a long time: The Extended Mind – The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain, by Annie Murphy Paul.  This is a well-researched (over 250 journal citations) yet very approachable book that goes far beyond the usual self-help advice to improve blood flow and […]

The podcast episode that inspired Larry Culp, CEO of GE, to read and recommend my book Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn: Lessons from Toyota Leader Isao Yoshino on a Lifetime of Continuous Learning. Earlier this year I was invited to be a guest for an internal General Electric (GE) podcast (with the fabulous name […]

After spending 15 years in consumer products (engineer) and aerospace (engineer and manager roles), I again changed industries in 1999 and joined higher education. By 2010 I was promoted to tenured full professor and awarded the emeritus professor title soon after my retirement in May 2022. What did I learn in those 23 years of […]

Shadow boards are tools which help organize workstations, setup carts, tool cribs and practically anything that needs organizing! Let me take you through an example of how a company increased their productivity by 35% just by installing a simple shadow board. Shadow boards help find a home for every object; in other words, they help […]

Starting December 8th, a rolling series of free webinars, each taking on one of the three questions that drive Leading with Outcomes: Thursday 08 December, online, 15:00GMT, 16:00CET, 10am ET:What if we put agreement on outcomes ahead of solutions?Mike Burrows Thursday 12 January, online, 15:00GMT, 16:00CET, 10am ET:How do we keep bringing outcomes to the […]

This blog was written by Stephanie Hill, Sr. Lean Strategist on the KaiNexus Lean Strategy Team. In this blog, Stephanie shares her experience learning the importance of proving impact as a Lean professional.

The following is a proposal I made to one client.  Might be useful for you. REQUIREMENTS DISCUSSION We propose a 1-hour discussion of the following practical suggestions. NEEDS (I am guessing; these are common.) we need an agile, adaptive solution part of the adaptation is to the specific people and situation of each Team we […]

In a personal exchange, François Pellerin described our Introduction to Manufacturing as a “reference book,” which makes it sound like one of those thick tomes you put on a shelf and never open: a dictionary, an encyclopedia, or a handbook. This is 180º from our intention. We wrote it as a textbook for students of […]

FEATURE – In this interesting piece, the author explains how lean provided everyone, everywhere with a framework to work their intuition muscle and develop insights. Words : Michael Ballé By now, almost everyone is familiar with Daniel Kahneman System 1 and System 2 model. System 1 is intuitive, fast, reactive, and often wrong (although effective in […]

You’re the head of an engineering company delivering a digital ticketing system for public transport, and your goal is to expand your business and become a nationwide leader. Naturally, you’d gather everyone around and announce your long-term development plan.   Your vision is out – “becoming the main ticketing systems’ provider for public transport nationwide”, and […]

Many leaders often feel like there is an endless list of fires to put out in their business, with another popping up every time one is extinguished. They end up in a vicious cycle of knowing they need to improve, but feeling unable to get to the root cause of a problem before it bursts […]

“Having no problems is the biggest problem of all.” I’ve heard many variations of this quote from Taiichi Ohno. 

Businesses use a host of methodologies to bring structure to the process of identifying and acting upon opportunities for improvement. You may be familiar with Six Sigma, Kaizen, Lean, Toyota Production System, and others. Although these methodologies differ, the foundation of each of them is the continuous improvement model.  The continuous improvement model reflects the […]

We frequently get questions about whether the Lean process improvement methodology can be applied in the financial services sector. Because of its manufacturing roots, many people assume that Lean doesn’t apply to banking or other customer service-oriented industries. However, because banking is very process-intensive, the Lean continuous improvement approach can generate significant operational improvement and […]

Below is the first draft on this topic.  With a big need to be shorter.  I eventually wrote something shorter. *** An Agile Approach We propose that we discuss this for an hour. INTRODUCTORY THOUGHTS When we start working on a product, there are many unknowns, often including: What is the real problem? What is […]

Goethe wrote at the very end of Faust: Alles Vergängliche ist nur ein Gleichnis Das Unzulängliche, hier wird‘s Ereignis Das Unbeschreibliche, hier ist‘s getan Das Ewig-Weibliche zieht uns hinan (For those drawn to this quote, see: https://rvgeiger.blogspot.com/2015/01/das-ewig-weiblich-zieht-uns-hinan-or.html)   So, what makes us want to accomplish more?  What will make your Team want to accomplish more? […]

Agile Carolinas meeting: May 17, 2022 – at 5:30 pm.  IN-PERSON. We may try to also broadcast via Zoom.  ie, Hybrid.  (We need someone to help with that.) [Links to be added]   *** Unclear requirements are always a problem.  Always hard in a way. So, let’s discuss how we are doing “requirements” in an […]

Several sites on the Van of Nerds tour in France in 9/22 maintain skills matrices on the shop floor. It means that the value of the skills matrix is widely known. Several questions must be answered to make it effective: The size of the teams represented in one posted matrix. The types of skills that […]

FEATURE – Thanks to lean, a primary care unit in Catalonia has streamlined its blood sampling process, improving the patient experience and the life at work for its staff. Words: Raquel Tena and Anna Vila The Catalan Healthcare Service – CatSalut – is carrying out an ambitious and pioneering project to improve patient outcomes across […]

What does it mean to “lead yourself first”? How is that important to you? Where do you start and how to put it into practice? It was beyond a privilege to have Mr. Christopher Avery, founder of the Responsibility Process framework and CEO of the Responsibility company, take us on an explorational journey to agility […]

The Аgile world has spent the last 20 years evangelizing self-organizing teams. Yet, just because people learn that self-organizing is the way of Agile teams does not mean it happens. Slowly, little by little, the message has been getting through, and teams have been getting more autonomous. Of course, that can be quite frustrating if […]

Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #465 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is the legendary (my word, not his) author, consultant, and speaker — Tom Peters. His new book is Tom Peters’s Compact Guide to Excellence. Enter to Win! Click here to enter to win a paperback […]

As the holidays approach, I’m happy to be running two book giveaway contests that are running through December 20th. You might win and you might receive your prize before Christmas! You can enter to win via two separate contests (winners must have a U.S. mailing address): Win a Copy of “Tom Peters’ Compact Guide to […]

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 […]

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 […]

Going to Gemba — where the work is done — is a pretty simple concept. Go where the work is being performed and watch what is happening. What happens when the process is all online?  Where everything that is happening, is on screens and is all 1s and 0s. This is when we need to […]

This week’s guests are Scott Laundry and Marc Bicknell. Ron, Scott, and Marc discussed all things kata, including being a good coach and how kata can be “evil.” An MP3 audio version of this episode is available for download here. In this episode you’ll learn:  The quotes that Scott and Marc like (2:34) Their backgrounds […]

Warehouse management challenges aren’t new, but with increasing consumer demand for e-commerce orders and accelerated shipment scheduling, they certainly feel more pressing these days. If you’re experiencing warehouse management challenges that you know are holding back your facility’s profitability, know that there are solutions available to you. Here’s a look at 5 of the most […]

As the COVID-19 vaccine rolls out, and as government mandates and workplace safety requirements continue to shift, manufacturers across the country are wondering how best to return to work. From operating with skeleton crews to running at partial capacity for months, it can be hard to figure out how you’ll phase your team back to […]

At the time of this writing, COVID-19 is a global pandemic. This is an incredibly serious issue; hundreds of thousands of people have become ill, and many have died. Containment in the US and elsewhere is bringing businesses, governments, cities, and normal life to a halt. But there are many businesses that have to figure […]

With the Super Bowl not far behind us and discussions already underway for what to expect next season, we’ve been surrounded by talk of the teams, coaches, and strategies employed. Oftentimes, we talk about the team with the strongest offense. After all, the team with the strongest offense will likely move the ball down the […]