Lean Archives | Page 28 of 68

Resources for Personal Lean Leadership

By Kevin Meyer - April 18th, 2019

Lean, and continuous improvement in general, isn’t just for the professional world. The tools and concepts can also be used to clean your garage (5S), organize your pantry (kanban), set direction (hoshin), or reduce the time it takes

Harnessing Deliberate Reflection to Create Personal Improvement

By Kevin Meyer - April 12th, 2019

My favorite part of last week’s podcast with James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, was the last five minutes when he talked about a potential downside of good habits. When we decide to improve, and create a new practice with th

GA 262 | The Next Generation of Lean with Tyler Athey

By Jessica Bush - April 11th, 2019

This week’s guest is Tyler Athey. Tyler is at the beginning of his career but has accomplished a lot in just a few years. Ron and Tyler touched on a lot of different aspects of lean, including kanban systems, flow, culture, and m

Building Lean Habits, in a Lean Way

By Jon Miller - April 8th, 2019

Our podcast with Atomic Habits author James Clear posed some interesting questions that we can ask ourselves when striving to practice and become Lean. Chiefly among them is, “Who is the type of person who could be Lean?”

GA 261 | Building the Habit of Excellence with James Clear

By Jessica Bush - April 4th, 2019

This week’s guest is James Clear. Author of the bestseller Atomic Habits, James shared a wealth of knowledge with us regarding the different kinds of habits, how they form, and how we can successfully change our behavior. A writt

Breaking the Weak Link in the Value Chain

By Jon Miller - April 1st, 2019

In the lean way of thinking, the value we deliver to the customer increases in proportion to effort when we connect processes and keep the activities moving along smoothly. Instead, Harvard Business School professor Thales Teixeira wri

GA 260 | The Secret to Excellence with Oscar Roche

By Jessica Bush - March 28th, 2019

This week’s guest is Oscar Roche, Director of the TWI Institute in Australia & New Zealand. Ron and Oscar discussed the humanity of lean, the components of TWI, and more. An MP3 version of this episode is available for down

Avoiding the Productivity Paradox

By Jon Miller - March 25th, 2019

Lean thinking and practice have the potential to improve outcomes in healthcare, software development teams, government services, business performance and even individual growth and well-being. For something that is so powerful and eff

What’s the Follow Up Plan?

By Steve Kane - March 22nd, 2019

Covey said it best: “Begin with the end in mind.” The adoption of a lean practice sometimes starts with a problem to solve. Other times it starts with a new tool (“To a man with a hammer everything looks like a nail&#

GA 259 | Using Lean to Facilitate Social Change with Jason Schulist

By Jessica Bush - March 21st, 2019

This week’s guest is Jason Schulist. Jason is President of GLCI, an organization that connects communities so they can better address social issues like homelessness. Jason shared how continuous improvement factors into this impo

Introducing the Value Stream Management Resources Page

By Jon Miller - March 20th, 2019

When Mike Rother and John Shook wrote the book Learning to See, it represented a major step forward in the awareness among practitioners in the lean community. Prior to the activity of Value Steam Mapping, it was more challenging for

Lean Literacy

By Jon Miller - March 18th, 2019

Michael Ballé wrote a thoughtful reply to the question of what should be included in an MBA-level course to teach Lean concepts. It is a tough question because as Michael points out, there are some deep differences that must be recon

GA 258 | Creating a Common Meaning with Billy Taylor

By Jessica Bush - March 14th, 2019

This week’s guest is Billy Taylor. Billy is a Senior Operations Executive at Goodyear and is known worldwide for his work in operational excellence. Also famous for his storytelling abilities, Billy shared some truly powerful ane

What Meetings Reveal About a Leader’s Beliefs

By Jon Miller - March 11th, 2019

One of the simplest and most impactful things an organization can do in the pursuit of excellence is to reform how they hold meetings. And yet this is one of the most challenging changes. A recent conversation reminded me of this. The

The Most Important Lesson I’ve Learned the Past 20 Years

By Ron Pereira - March 8th, 2019

My kids range in age from 3 to 16. And, as long time Gemba Academy followers may know, I have quite a few kids in between these two. And while my wife and I have learned a lot about parenting over the years we’re still learning.

GA 257 | Sharing the Power of Lean with Bill Kraus

By Jessica Bush - March 7th, 2019

This week’s guest is Bill Kraus. Recorded live at KataCon5, Bill and Ron talked all about Bill’s impressive background and what he’s learned about kata, leadership, and scientific thinking. An MP3 version of this epis

Amazon’s New Waste Reduction Strategy: Batching

By Jon Miller - March 4th, 2019

Amazon is trying something new in an effort to reduce packaging materials as well as the amount of fuel burned by making fewer deliveries. According to the article Amazon’s new waste reduction strategy: deliver only once a week, whe

The Limits of Learning From Failure

By Kevin Meyer - March 1st, 2019

Experienced leaders know that failure is not necessarily a negative, and can lead to both individual and organizational learning. We try to embrace failure and create a culture where appropriate failure is accepted as long as it̵

GA 256 | Reflecting on a Career in Continuous Improvement with Jon Miller

By Jessica Bush - February 28th, 2019

This episode is Part 2 of last week’s conversation with GA Co-Founder Jon Miller. Jon discussed his career thus far, sharing some of the valuable lessons he’s learned along the way. An MP3 version of this episode is availab

What is the Right Amount of Slack?

By Jon Miller - February 25th, 2019

The Kraft Heinz company reported poor financial performance this past week, causing its stock price to dive more than 20%. It has lost nearly half of its value over the past year. A Wall Street Journal article said of Kraft’s man

GA 255 | The Elements of a Sustainable Lean System with Jon Miller

By Jessica Bush - February 21st, 2019

This week’s guest is GA Co-Founder Jon Miller. Jon has been a guest of the podcast many times, and in this episode he describes the various elements he believes are necessary for creating a successful, sustainable lean system. An

Vision, Values, and Principles

By Steve Kane - February 20th, 2019

Labor and work environments have continually changed since the dawn of employment. These topics are like just about any other aspect of the human experience in that they have changed more rapidly over the past century than any other pe

Words of Taiichi Ohno: Build a System that Loses Money

By Jon Miller - February 18th, 2019

At one level, a lean transformation means improving existing systems and building new systems where required. People and organizations cannot avoid systems. We all work within systems, be they regulatory, financial, logistical, politic

GA 254 | Discovering Lean with Ryan and Louise Tierney

By Jessica Bush - February 14th, 2019

This week’s guests are Ryan and Louise Tierney. We recently went to Northern Ireland to tour and film at their company, Seating Matters. In this episode, they share how they learned about lean, and why they decided to embark on a

Not All Costs Exist To Be Reduced

By Jon Miller - February 11th, 2019

Taiichi Ohno declared, “Costs don’t exist to be calculated, costs exist to be reduced.” His point was that traditional accounting can fool us into justifying inefficient operations, building up inventory or acquiring

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