Year: 2015

141 Articles

Missing the Soil, or The Inadequacy of Our Lean Management Metaphors

By Jon Miller - September 21st, 2015

The purpose of lean is to build an organization that creates value for people – its customers, employees, shareholders and community members – on a sustainable and long-term basis. If we asked a farmer, “How do we g

Standard Work Saved a Company

By Steve Kane - September 18th, 2015

By Steve Kane I’ve been an aviation enthusiast most of my life. I started flying sailplanes a couple of years ago and recently transitioned to power planes. The first lesson in flying is an introduction to standard work—specifical

GA 076 | The Courage to Lead with Simon Sinek

By Jessica Bush - September 17th, 2015

Press the play button above to listen to the episode. If you’re reading this via email or RSS click the image below to listen to the episode. Today’s episode is one of our most exciting yet. I had the privilege of interview

How to Gain Insight from Customers and Gemba

By Jon Miller - September 14th, 2015

Lean thinking places a focus on the customer and on the gemba. These are two great sources of information for innovation, increased revenues, and problem solving. The way to gain more insight from customers and from the gemba is to be

Discovering the Value of People

By Kevin Meyer - September 11th, 2015

By Kevin Meyer Big news in the business world: Wal-Mart is famous for keeping costs down, including employee-related costs. In Joplin, the company is testing a new approach: investing in workers through higher wages and training, on th

GA 075 | The Lean Frontiers Mission with Jim Huntzinger and Dwayne Butcher

By Jessica Bush - September 10th, 2015

Press the play button above to listen to the episode. If you’re reading this via email or RSS click the image below to listen to the episode. In today’s episode guests Dwayne Butcher and Jim Huntzinger of Lean Frontiers ex

Why We Do Things This Way

By Jon Miller - September 7th, 2015

I have spent much of my career in pursuit of answers to the question, “Why do you do things this way?” When I am getting to know a client, either an individual leader for coaching purposes or an business for the purpose o

Derek’s Lean Story

By Ron Pereira - September 4th, 2015

It was a Monday morning around 7:30 AM. I walked into the training room and glanced around. I’d been in this training room many times before but something felt different… I just couldn’t put my finger on what it was. I carried on

GA 074 | Creating a Culture of Kaizen with Ron Pereira

By Jessica Bush - September 3rd, 2015

Press the play button above to listen to the episode. If you’re reading this via email or RSS click the image below to listen to the episode. In today’s episode, we’re sharing a special presentation Ron gave regarding

The Pursuit of Imperfection

By Jon Miller - August 31st, 2015

One of the widely accepted guiding principles of lean thinking is to “pursue perfection”. This is rather broad and imprecise when compared to the other guidelines of identify value, map value streams, flow and pull. Pursue

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