What industries or types of companies benefit most from Lean? Lean is often thought of as being specifically for manufacturing. There is some truth to this if you think of Lean as a set of tools. Many of the tools are geared towards manufacturing. Kanban cards, SMED (Single Minute Exchange Read more…
Who is the governing body of Lean? The short answer is that there is no governing body for Lean. There are, however, quite a few powerful influencers. In terms of companies, Toyota is the company most closely associated with Lean. While they have no authority over “Lean”, when they speak, Read more…
What keeps people from trying Lean? What are the barriers? There are several reasons companies choose not to try to implement Lean. More accurately, it is the people who make decisions for the company who decide not to try it. The first common reason is reputation. Some people have heard Read more…
What books should I read first when starting out in Lean? The first and best answer is, of course, Whaddaya Mean I Gotta be Lean? Building the Bridge from Job Satisfaction to Corporate Profit. It is a great place to start. It was written by Jeff Hajek. The first half of the book Read more…
Should I believe the hype about Lean? As you research what to expect from Lean in terms of specific performance increases, you will undoubtedly come across a glut of claims. The thing to keep in mind is that many of these claims come from sources that benefit from the improvement Read more…
How successful are companies at Lean? When researching Lean, it is easy to find examples of companies that are extremely successful at Lean, but it is harder to find information about what the chance of being one of those companies is. In all the years of researching about Lean, I Read more…
How long does it take to become Lean? First, let’s define “becoming Lean” as creating a culture and system that is generally recognizable to other companies as being “Lean.” It’s a vague description, but Lean will mean different things to different people. The second complicating factor is that the pace Read more…
Can a single department implement Lean on its own? The short answer is yes, but only to a degree. Many of the problem-solving tools and leadership activities work within a group’s own boundaries. You can do 5S and implement Standard Work. You can install poka yokes, and manage with KPIs, and daily management without a whole Read more…
How Do I Start a Continuous Improvement Program? For this question, we have created a video response.
What is the best way to teach your team about Lean? Because our website provides such a wide range of Lean training materials, this is one of the most common questions that I am asked. The flexibility of our training modules means that instructors have to make more decisions about how Read more…
Where should we start our Lean effort? There are two basic ways to approach this question. The first is functional, as in which department is the best location to start with. The other is hierarchical, meaning the level within the organization. The short answer is that the best approach I Read more…
How do I “sell” Lean to my team? Like it or not, the early stage of any Lean transformation contains a sales pitch to the team. The members of the organization are being asked to take on something new. For them to fully commit, to fully buy in, they need to Read more…