This post looks at two plants we visited during our Van of Nerds tour in France in 2022. Both plants are in areas in which I have little experience. The first one was SLB, specializing in sensors for oil field exploration. The second one was the Thales Group, where we visited the location manufacturing military […]

It comes as no surprise that as we live in the digital era, more and more companies are looking to initiate digital transformation programs. In fact, studies show that by 2026 digital transformation spending is projected to reach 3.4 trillion dollars.   But there is one recent trend which we believe grabs the attention of many, […]

Gone are the days of maximum capacity utilization as a way to get more efficient and improve your team’s performance. With Agile transformations on the rise, not just in tech but in engineering, banking, pharma, and other fields, one of the dilemmas that leaders face is whether to turn their focus on flow or iterations […]

Episode 37: “I’ll have a half-caff no-whip soy-milk chestnut praline latte…to-go” In Episode 37, we wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays with some new (to us) holiday cocktails. Mark tries the Bourbon Flip, and Jamie makes a Hot Buttered Bourbon. Neither will likely be in our regular rotation of cocktails, but they suit […]

This week, I received an unexpected and incredibly specific Christmas gift from Charles Desneuf on LinkedIn. He wrote a PDF eBook about Process Behavior Charts… and Christmas! This led to Charles collaborating with me on the English version of the eBook you can read or download in this post. I’m sure this appeals to the […]

Here’s a musical holiday treat for my regular Lean Blog readers and podcast listeners, a song parody, originally released in 2009, remastered a bit in 2022: “Gemba Claus is Comin’ to Town” – MP3 Gemba Claus is Comin’ to Town Lyrics by Mark GrabanPerformance by Steve Sholtes Oh, you’d better watch outYou’d better kaizenYou’d better […]

“I’ll have a half-caff no-whip soy-milk chestnut praline latte… to-go.” Listen: Here is the episode if you want to stream the audio: In Episode 37, we wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays with some new (to us) holiday cocktails. Mark tries the Bourbon Flip, and Jamie makes a Hot Buttered Bourbon. Neither will […]

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 […]

The end of the year is traditionally a time to look back and reflect. One way to reflect is to evaluate popular blog posts. I have been taking time to reflect on the year that was and as part of that reflection I have flipped back through the 150 blog posts I have written so […]

As 2022 comes to an end and we look toward 2023 I wanted to revisit some tips. The Lean Tips published daily are meant to be advice, things I learned from experience, and some knowledgeable tidbits about Lean to help you along your journey. Here are the top 10 Lean tips from this past year: […]

Understanding and measuring process time is one of the most important aspects of process improvement. Much of the waste (muda) in a process causes a process to take longer than it should. When a process takes longer, customers are waiting for their final products and services and people in the process are typically costing the […]

This week’s guest is Julia Goldstein. Ron and Julia discussed the concept of circular economy, what sustainability looks like in a lean context, and more. An MP3 audio version of this episode is available for download here. In this episode you’ll learn:  The quote Julia likes (2:28) Julia’s background (3:29) How Julia heard about lean […]