Lean Archives | Page 19 of 67

GA 325 | Lean in the Non-Profit Sector with Lauren Wisniewski

By Jessica Bush - June 25th, 2020

This week’s guest is Lauren Wisniewski. Lauren shared her experiences helping non-profits incorporate lean, including the benefits and barriers they encounter. This episode is a great example of how lean applies to more than just

Better Problem Solving with Empathy Maps

By Jon Miller - June 22nd, 2020

Maybe things have always been this way. But it seems like we are increasingly shouting at each other rather than working things out. How should we respond to a pandemic? How can we revive the economy? What to do about police brutality?

Pivotal Hubris Moments – Architecting, Detecting, or Preventing Your Demise

By Jessica Bush - June 19th, 2020

The following article was written for Gemba Academy by Mohamed Saleh, PhD Do you ever look back at an event and think, “Oh, there are so many things that I would have done differently? If only I would have known what I know now while

GA 324 | From Software Engineers to Face Shield Manufacturers with Radek Pietruszewski

By Jessica Bush - June 18th, 2020

This week’s guest is Radek Pietruszewski. To help fight COVID-19 in Poland, Radek and his software engineering colleagues figured out how to quickly manufacture thousands of face shields. He and Ron discussed the details of this

Towards Non-scale Management

By Jon Miller - June 15th, 2020

People think Taiichi Ohno’s book Toyota Production is about TPS. It’s not. It’s even arguable whether he ever envisioned the Toyota method as a system or set out to build one. There is no native word in Japanese for &

Respect for Humanity: To Be Lean or Not to Be, That Is the Question

By Jessica Bush - June 12th, 2020

The following article was written for Gemba Academy by Mohamed Saleh, PhD Many of us grew up admiring figures like Gandhi, King Arthur, Michael Jordan, figures of faith, and our own parents for how they inspired us. They gathered follo

GA 323 | Pivoting From Furniture to Personal Protective Equipment with Jeff Kaas

By Jessica Bush - June 11th, 2020

This week’s guest is Jeff Kaas. Jeff explained how Kaas Tailored went from making furniture to making PPE in response to COVID-19. Jeff also shared some of the mistakes they’ve made, including reverting to batch production.

Lean Thinking for Solving Systemic Problems

By Jon Miller - June 8th, 2020

People are marching worldwide in protest of police violence. They are demanding wide-ranging changes to law enforcement and criminal justice. This is bringing the systemic problem of institutional racism into mainstream consciousness.

GA 322 | Tailoring the Kata Model with James Newell

By Jessica Bush - June 4th, 2020

This week’s guest is James Newell. Ron and James explored the ways James has tailored the kata model to better suit different teams and industries. A MP3 audio version of this episode is available for download here. In this episo

Containment at the Source

By Jon Miller - June 1st, 2020

The past few months have required us to rethink some long-held norms. What jobs are essential? How can we learn, work and play without meeting face to face? What’s the true cost of global supply chains? How tightly do we need to

GA 321 | Adapting to the Future with Rodrigo Picoli

By Jessica Bush - May 28th, 2020

This week’s guest is Rodrigo Picoli. Ron and Rodrigo discussed the future of lean, the concept of the “beginner’s mind,” and more. A MP3 audio version of this episode is available for download here. In this epis

Why Do We Disrespect the 4th S of 5S?

By Jon Miller - May 25th, 2020

The 5S method is widely recognized as a fundamental and foundational part of Lean management. Without the basic discipline to remove clutter and distractions, put things back where they belong, and plug our leaks and sources of cutter,

What Does Leadership Look Like?

By Steve Kane - May 22nd, 2020

I spoke at a Lean event last year. The audience was about 250 accomplished Lean practitioners. My session was at about 2:00 PM, which was right at the beginning of the afternoon lull. Folks were starting to feel sluggish after a lunc

GA 320 | Lean in the Legal Profession with Jaclyn Harder

By Jessica Bush - May 21st, 2020

This week’s guest is Jaclyn Harder. Ron and Jaclyn discussed how lean applies to practicing law, as well as the power of taking action. A MP3 audio version of this episode is available for download here. In this episode you’

Akio Toyoda Articulates Toyota Way Principle #15

By Jon Miller - May 18th, 2020

Imagine the head of your organization admitting, in the middle of a global crisis, that it’s become necessary to loosen strict adherence to some of your fundamental business practices. These practices are ones rooted in deeply he

GA 319 | The Danger of Expertise with Audie Penn

By Jessica Bush - May 14th, 2020

This week’s guest is Audie Penn. Ron and Audie talked about the ways that lean can be used to help teams solve unique problems. A MP3 audio version of this episode is available for download here. In this episode you’ll lear

The Point of Pointing and Calling

By Jon Miller - May 11th, 2020

A colleague pointed out and called attention to a question about the practice of shisa kanko so I thought it worth a few words. This is the safety practice of “pointing and calling”. Its roots are obscure, but it has been s

Metrics from the Perspective of the Customer

By Kevin Meyer - May 8th, 2020

A core concept of lean is that value is defined from the perspective of the customer, and therefore waste is as well. We are familiar with both types of muda, waste that is unnecessary and must be removed and waste that is necessary

GA 318 | Structuring Your Continuous Improvement Efforts with Calvin Williams

By Jessica Bush - May 7th, 2020

This week’s guest is Calvin Williams. Ron and Calvin discussed leadership standard work and how continuous improvement could be used to navigate the global COVID-19 pandemic. A MP3 audio version of this episode is available for d

Applying Lean Thinking to Demand and Supply

By Jon Miller - May 4th, 2020

Lean management is mainly associated with making operations more productive, improving safety, quality, speed and thereby lowering cost. Lean management originated from innovations in the supply chain. More recently, lean thinking has

What Are Hypothesis Tests and Why Should We Care? – Coronavirus Edition

By Ron Pereira - May 1st, 2020

As more and more medical studies related to potential Covid-19 treatments are released in the coming days, weeks, and months, you’re sure to hear terms like “significance” and “P-values” mentioned many tim

GA 317 | Implementing Lean at Starbucks with Karen Gaudet

By Jessica Bush - April 30th, 2020

This week’s guest is Karen Gaudet. Before becoming Team Leader of Operations and Personnel at LEI, she worked for Starbucks, and she shared the story of their powerful lean transformation with us. A MP3 audio version of this epis

Condition-Based Management, in Times Like These

By Jon Miller - April 27th, 2020

The format of the 2020 NFL draft was different due to social distancing requirements. Instead of players and announcers on stage, spectators in the audience, and live interviews, we tuned into the home offices of coaches, personnel man

Be Deliberate About Your New Normal

By Steve Kane - April 24th, 2020

We’re at a point with the world’s current events that some governments are beginning to relax isolation orders and business restrictions. It would be easy to think that we might be getting back to normal soon. The harsh rea

GA 316 | Leading During a Crisis with Sam MacPherson

By Jessica Bush - April 23rd, 2020

This week we’re sharing the audio of a webinar by Sam MacPherson. Sam discussed leading and communicating during a crisis, preparing for a crisis, applying SMED in a crisis, and more. A MP3 audio version of this episode is availa

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