Lean

1700 Articles

Review of The Lean CEO by Jacob Stoller

By Jon Miller - October 22nd, 2015

[Full disclosure: Jon Miller was involved in proofreading and providing suggestions to the author Jacob Stoller. Jon was not compensated and has no financial interest in the book.]   Most books about lean management are written by

Problem Solving Paradigms

By Jon Miller - October 19th, 2015

There is a story about an executive team of a certain U.S. automotive company that is very revealing about their problem solving paradigms, related in the book Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics by Richard Thaler. The au

Improvement Through Personal Fulfillment

By Steve Kane - October 16th, 2015

By Steve Kane Tony Robbins is well known for his motivational speaking, books, interviews and articles.  A consistent theme in his work is the six human needs. 1. Certainty: assurance you can avoid pain and gain pleasure 2. Uncertaint

GA 080 | Leadership in Sustaining a Kaizen Culture with Mike Wroblewski

By Jessica Bush - October 15th, 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 guest is Mike Wroblewski, lean consultant and longtime friend of Gemba Ac

Change Management Lessons from Big Trees Transplant

By Jon Miller - October 14th, 2015

This may be the best unintentional video on nemawashi ever. For those new to nemawashi, it is a Japanese word meaning “preparing roots of a tree for transplant” but is known to us as part of the consensus-building and chang

Toolkits or Aids to Knowledge and Creativity?

By Jon Miller - October 12th, 2015

The great mystery in the history of lean is not so much how and why Toyota and a handful of Japanese companies were able to make large strides in business excellence, but why so many have failed to follow their example. In a word, th

Thomas Merton and Dalai Lama

Discovering the Inner Merton

By Kevin Meyer - October 9th, 2015

By Kevin Meyer If you are too obsessed with success, you will forget to live. If you have learned only how to be a success, your life has probably been wasted. ― Thomas Merton, Love and Living Sometimes there are dots just waiting to

GA 079 | Run Improve Grow with Ray Attiyah

By Jessica Bush - October 8th, 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 guest is Ray Attiyah, author, consultant, and lean practitioner. Ray and

Ron’s Favorite Gemba Academy Podcast Episodes

By Ron Pereira - October 2nd, 2015

On April 30, 2014 we released the first two Gemba Academy podcasts. To be 100% transparent, we weren’t quite sure what to expect. When we started the download “numbers” weren’t huge but, as you can see in the graph, we’ve see

GA 078 | How Flying Relates to Lean with Steve Kane

By Jessica Bush - October 1st, 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 guest is our own Steve Kane. Formerly our Director of Sales and Marketing

A Rational Plan is a Prediction

By Jon Miller - September 28th, 2015

One question that I hear a lot is, “Can you show me an example of success in my specific environment?” with lean, continuous improvement, agile and so forth. My most common answer is, “No.” Although I would lik

GA 077 | How an Engineering Manager Practices Lean with Rob Connelly

By Jessica Bush - September 24th, 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. This episode features Rob Connelly, an Engineering Manager and fantastic lean thinker o

Mindset KPIs

By Jon Miller - September 23rd, 2015

By S.M. Junaid [Admin’s note: our friend Junaid has contributed articles on TPM, on wet blankets, the cost of poor quality, kaizen for energy-saving and team member motivation.] A Quote by Eiji Toyoda san: “Before Cars, M

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

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—specifically, the prefli

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

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

GA 073 | The Zingerman’s Approach to Lean with Tom Root

By Jessica Bush - August 27th, 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 guest is Tom Root, a Managing Partner of Zingerman’s Mail Order.

Aerofit Fittings - Courtesy of Aerofit.com

AeroFit’s Factory Improvement Team

By Steve Kane - August 21st, 2015

Chris Ferrier, Manufacturing Engineer with AeroFit, was challenged to increase production on a manufacturing line by one part per hour.  While this might sound easy, making it happen isn’t. AeroFit makes fluid fittings for aer

GA 072 | Practical Problem Solving: Part Four with Jon Miller

By Jessica Bush - August 20th, 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 this episode we continue the Practical Problem Solving series with Gemba Academy Co

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