CASE STUDY – With plans to double capacity year on year in its new precision machining business, a Turkish company found in lean a way to control growth by stabilizing old processes while new ones are introduced.
COLUMN – Want to grasp the current situation? Then you must go to the gemba, but it would be a mistake to think that alone is enough to change your business… you also have to ask why and show respect.
INTERVIEW – It might seem a paradox that the world’s largest automaker is setting the pace for corporate social responsibility. Then again, Toyota never really followed the status quo. Kelly Singer interviews Toyota's Steve Hope.
FEATURE – At Malamulele Onward in Johannesburg, a do-it-yourself lean transformation is increasing the impact the nonprofit organization is having on South African children living with cerebral palsy.
FEATURE – Designing beautiful work helps design beautiful clothes. Here’s the story of how women’s clothing brand Eileen Fisher found in lean a way to support its environmental sustainability strategy.
INTERVIEW – Last month the Museum of Failure opened in Sweden. We caught up with the curator, who tells us what the museum is all about and why failure is now “cool”.
FEATURE – We tend to take the “goodness” of lean for granted, but – the author says – we should stop and think about what makes lean a good business practice. Why is it a way of thinking all businesses should adopt?
WOMACK’S YOKOTEN – After a road trip from Boston to Philadelphia driving Toyota’s hydrogen fuel-cell Mirai, Jim reflects on lean and green and why the two are not necessarily the same.
INTERVIEW – We speak with the National Petroleum Construction Company in the Emirates, learning how improving one of their critical processes is boosting the spread of lean thinking across the business.
FEATURE – The importance of leveraging early successes to drive engagement to lean is often talked about. The story of this Brazilian hospital confirms this is the way to go.
FEATURE – The Continuous Improvements Boards at the Round Mountain mining site have been critical to shifting the company's culture... the secret, it turns out, is always providing feedback on people's suggestions.
NOTES FROM THE GEMBA – With a strong focus on quality and on solving problems once and for all, Paris Ouest Construction has managed to weather the storm of the recession, the author finds out during a gemba walk.
FEATURE – A traditional output-based mindset is not appropriate in the digital world. In this piece, the author explains why digital product teams should be managed to outcomes, instead.
FEATURE – We can't go wrong when we trust our people to take the initiative that we will improve their work... that's how Siena University Hospital cut its procurement lead-time in Surgery by two-thirds.
FEATURE – The many benefits of 5S are well known, but few people realize the positive impact the technique can have on our environmental performance, says our lean and green correspondent after visiting Tokheim Italia.
CASE STUDY – Over the past few years, DBS Bank in Singapore has undergone an extraordinary turnaround inspired by lean. Here, the COO explains how the company has become the world's "best digital bank".
COLUMN – Creating a learning environment that welcomes problems and experimentation and adapts to market changes should be our main objective. So why do we stick to obsolete ways to teach and develop people?
WOMACK'S YOKOTEN – On October 3, Toyota will cease its manufacturing operations in Australia, but the way it is managing the transition - in the leanest way possible - holds great lessons for us all.
FEATURE – Upon realizing they were struggling to engage people in continuous improvement, Fuji Xerox Australia’s IT team found a unique way to breathe new life into its lean efforts… a book club.
CASE STUDY – An Australian university has been applying lean to streamline and improve its processes, discovering along the way how big a change the methodology can affect in the organization's culture.
PROFILE – Another month, another inspiring profile of a lean practitioner. We were impressed by Dr Billi’s deep conviction in the idea that, first of all, leaders must be learners. You will be too.
INTERVIEW – Business services company Dun & Bradstreet learned that the best way to tackle organizational challenges is using a combination of agile, lean startup and more traditional lean principles.
FEATURE – The use of TWI is widespread, but course material doesn’t tell us much about rolling out programs and ensuring their sustainment over time. The authors come to the rescue, discussing how we can ensure the success of TWI.
NOTES FROM THE GEMBA – This month, Catherine visits a metal injection moulding specialist and hears about the strong link between growing people’s capabilities with lean thinking and staying competitive in a complex market.
FEATURE – Having dedicated clinical paths for specific types of patients is a well-known method for reducing waiting times. By doing it, Siena University Hospital managed to slash delays by 80%.
INTERVIEW – One of the world's largest dairy cooperatives, FrieslandCampina, has embarked on an ambitious global lean journey. Along the way, they found how critical leadership engagement is.
FEATURE – This article shares the lean journeys of four North American hospitals, and their learning's, reminding us that being part of a network of likeminded practitioners is critical to our success.
INTERVIEW – CI&T is a very successful Brazilian IT and software engineering company that has found in lean thinking a way to build on its agile work while better approaching leadership development.
COLUMN – Last month a video surfaced of a passenger being forcibly removed from an overbooked United Airlines flight and the Internet went ablaze. What does this story tell us about the relationship between profitability and customer value?
WOMACK'S YOKOTEN – As the Lean Enterprise Institute turns 20, its founder provides us with a bit of hansei on where we are and where we are going next as a community, and on what challenges we might tackle.
PROFILE – Persevering, letting people inspire you and committing to continuous learning. These are the things you need to do to successfully embrace lean thinking and, it turns out, learn to play the violin.
CASE STUDY – Lean thinking is transforming San Diego Zoo Global, helping this century-old organization provide a better experience to its visitors and a better life to its animals.
FEATURE – Is there such a thing as a lean plan? There is, but it's not an off-the-shelf solution that will appease your boss – and that's why traditional, bureaucratic organizations continue to exist.
INTERVIEW – With more and more organizations in the service sector adopting lean thinking to turn around their modus operandi, it only makes sense to highlight the struggles and misconceptions they still encounter.
INTERVIEW – Does your company feel like a sand castle? Do you struggle to sustain lean results? At the recent Lean Transformation Summit, the CEO of Lantech told us how the firm is using daily management to prevent “deterioration”.
FEATURE – Another month, another story of a lean project told by the Siena hospital front-line folks. This time we take you to the Intensive Care Nursery, whose layout was transformed to provide better care to premature newborns.
NOTES FROM THE GEMBA – Follow Catherine on another one of her gemba walks around French companies. This time, she visits a manufacturer of inspecting machines near Bordeaux, with a visionary leader and a great story.
FEATURE – We spend a lot of time talking about innovation, but what is the actual impact of leveraging lean to achieve it? As the author points out, the potential is huge, provided certain conditions are met.
CASE STUDY – Around four years ago, classified ads magazine Auto Trader printed its final issue and moved to a web-only business model. As its digital transformation progressed, the company discovered why real innovation must become business-as-usual.
INTERVIEW – After transitioning from agile to lean kanban, French insurance comparison company LesFurets.com has found in lean management an ever stronger foundation for value creation.
WOMACK’S YOKOTEN – Somehow surprisingly, management schools teach very little about management, and when they do all learning is classroom-based. Instead, they should go to the gemba.
OPINION – Our systems to develop new products are slow and inadequate for the ever-changing markets we have to work in. The author describes the three lean elements that will unlock your potential to innovate.
INTERVIEW – When we say that lean thinking can be applied to any human endeavor, we mean it. In this Q&A we learn about how knowledge sharing has been boosting the improvement journey of Dubai Police.
FEATURE – When lean seems to fail, leaders should persist and work even harder to bring people on the journey - by observing the situation, providing clear success criteria, and learning together on the job. That's what leading with lean is about.
FEATURE – In the final article of his series on levelled production, the author debunks the belief that the Glenday Sieve is a method that can only be used in a manufacturing environment.
FEATURE – In a world of disruptive innovation, being faster and smarter at developing new products has become critical. The authors explain why set-based concurrent engineering is the answer, and why a game is the best way to learn it.
FEATURE – In the second article of our series written by the front-line staff of Siena University Hospital, we learn how the lean principles of pull and flow have transformed the blood donating process.
FEATURE – A lean journey often has more downs than ups, but it is a responsibility of management to persist and keep asking the right questions that will steer the firm in the right direction.
FEATURE – When they realized their lean efforts had overlooked the crucial aspect of management behavior, AkzoNobel senior leaders turned to a great lean book for help with leadership development.
FEATURE – Is your organization experiencing any of the strategic planning problems described in this article? If so, it might be time to tap into the potential of hoshin kanri.
WOMACK'S YOKOTEN – Effective daily management is still hard to achieve for most organizations. But until line managers start tackling problems first hand as they emerge, rather than deferring and delegating them, basic stability will remain a mirage.
VIDEO - The author of Lean with Lean explains why he published a collection of papers rather than a business novel - his signature writing style - or a manual. Experience lean through the eyes of one of its greatest students... one a-ha moment at a time.
OPINION – After reading the latest book by Edgar H. Schein, the author reflects on the nature of consulting and management, and explains why humility must become a defining trait of both.
FEATURE – As many retail giants are finding out, great customer service is no longer enough to ensure competitive advantage in a world where the digital revolution is taking no prisoners.
FEATURE – Why doesn't lean have a manifesto? The authors highlight the core principles and values of lean thinking, but warn these can only go so far without the learning that comes from working every day towards solving the next problem.
INTERVIEW – We meet one of this year's Lean IT Summit speakers to hear about her team’s effective approach to turning Nordstrom’s IT leaders into coaches and truly supporting the firm's lean transformation.
FEATURE – How do you ensure that visual management doesn’t become anything more than a way to reassure the boss, rather than foster a learning and problem solving culture? The author reflects on her company’s journey towards effective visualization.
FEATURE – Every year, Siena University Hospital runs a Lean Day to celebrate and award its best lean projects. In this new series, front-line people write about five of these initiatives: first up, Internal Medicine.
FEATURE – What does levelled production have to do with product costing? This article explains how getting your accountants to understand this link can help your company become less complex, more efficient and profitable.
RESEARCH – Human behavior tends to make change even harder to attain than it already is. This brilliant research paper looks at change from a psychological, technical and leadership point of view.
VIDEO – We constantly talk about the role of leadership, but perhaps we don't realize just how intertwined leadership transformation and business transformation really are. This short video discusses why.
INTERVIEW – The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) has been working with a lean-inspired improvement program that is gradually transforming the culture of the business – one creative idea at a time.
WOMACK'S YOKOTEN – Between the upcoming Brexit negotiations and the protectionist stance of the new US Administration, trade is making the headlines once again. But what would trade look like in a world of lean organizations?
PROFILE – We may think it is cut and dried, but lean thinking is, in fact, full of paradoxes and trade-offs. According to Cécile Roche, learning to navigate them is one of the defining traits of a lean leader.
OPINION – The digital revolution has forever changed the nature of employment: today's workers have more choice and employers competing for them than ever before. It's about time our approach to HR reflected that.
FEATURE – The banking sector is floundering in the face of heavy regulation and increased competition from fintechs. So what can banks do? The author suggests they embrace lean IT in order to change their ways.
INTERVIEW – In this interview, Michael Ballé discusses lean thinking as a strategy, how to unearth problems, and the best (or only) way to initiate a lean transformation.
OPINION – Tomorrow, January 20, Donald J. Trump will be sworn in as 45th President of the United States. What can his campaign and dumbfounding victory teach us about leadership?
INTERVIEW – In this must-read Q&A, our editor sits down with lean guru John Shook to discuss the meaning of failure, the nature of innovation, and the resilience of our movement.
NOTES FROM THE GEMBA – On this gemba walk in the cardiology department of a Parisian hospital, the author discovers how the team is changing its internal dynamics and processes to make lean their way of thinking.
FEATURE – If we have high-volume (green) and low-volume (red) items in our production schedule, doesn’t it make sense to also have dedicated green and red equipment whenever possible?
FEATURE – With an open-minded approach to improvement tools, a long history of quality and engaged top leaders, wire manufacturer Ducab aims to fulfil the strategic needs of the Emirates.
CASE STUDY – The story of how a humble leader, who recognizes the importance and contribution of each individual to the company’s success, is making a car dealership in Botswana a fantastic example of lean transformation.
CONTENT ROUNDUP - Happy New Year, readers! Before kicking things off for 2017 with new, original content, we wanted to share with you the Top 10 of the most-read Planet Lean articles from last year.
WOMACK'S YOKOTEN – Small firms represent the backbone of the economy, and there is no doubt lean can help them improve and grow – by making the jobs they offer great. Without it, countries won't be great either.
OPINION – In a competitive and unpredictable market, the temptation to rely on technology is always strong, but experience proves that there is no better support than people's ability to learn and adapt to new situations.
FEATURE – We are used to seeing the organization as a mechanical entity, but how can a machine possible change and improve? We must change our mental model and learn to see the lean enterprise as a growing plant.
INTERVIEW – For the past year, agricultural equipment manufacturer John Deere Ibérica has worked to spread lean thinking to the supply chain. We met with them in Madrid to understand how they’re going about it.
FEATURE – What if we ran our production schedule to time instead of quantity? While creating overproduction, running to time is a temporary first step to establish levelled production with fixed repetitive cycles.
FEATURE – A Michigan NGO that facilitates organ and tissue donation shares its experience with value stream mapping, reflecting on people coming together to understand the gap between current and future state.
INTERVIEW – Lean is making inroads in the Middle East! In this interview, a Senior VP of Gerab National Enterprises tells us how the company is using lean to reinvent itself as a project management firm.
FEATURE – When you are hiring 20-30 people in a week, getting them up to speed with the company’s way of working becomes critical. But how to do it effectively? A Polish factory found the answer in TWI.
WOMACK'S YOKOTEN – As a first instinct, most of us tend to provide answers and solutions rather than ask questions. In this month's Yokoten, Jim Womack provides advice on how to fight this behavior and become a coach.
OPINION – Development managers and start-up entrepreneurs are under the illusion that innovation is just the work of especially talented individuals, but in today's world resource sharing and teamwork are preferable.
ONE QUESTION, FIVE ANSWERS – Inspiration can help us solve a problem, get our colleagues interested in lean, or even pick ourselves up after a failure. But where do we get it from? We asked five practitioners.
CASE STUDY – The Finnish Broadcasting Company has been leveraging lean thinking to scale up its agile work. In the process, it has developed a greater understanding of customer value.
FEATURE – We all want to create a lean culture in our organizations, but what makes cultural change possible? And, more importantly, what are the leadership behaviors that enable a new culture to take root?
FEATURE – With lean thinking, Madrid-based Neo@Ogilvy is hoping to create a stronger connection with customers, thus learning to create value for them and redefining the overall purpose of marketing.
FEATURE – How many times do we hear people say lean is not for them because “it’s a Japanese thing”? After spending 18 months in Japan, the author explains why the country’s culture is not necessarily "lean by nature".
FEATURE – There is a form of waste – complexity in raw and packaging materials – that adds costs to manufacturing without creating value, but it is often overlooked. The author explains what it is and how to banish it.
NOTES FROM THE GEMBA - We follow the author on a visit to a train maintenance center in France. Through practical examples and pictures from the gemba, she explains how the center is transforming itself.
FEATURE – When market changes caused operational problems in their firm, two top managers decided to stick to lean thinking (and a set of specific practices) – learning to focus on what truly matters and letting their people embrace problem-solving.
FEATURE – The Palo Alto Medical Foundation has used lean to redesign workflows in its primary care clinics since late 2011. With changes now spread to a total of 17 facilities, the team started to analyze what it took to sustain the results achieved.
OPINION – The latest banking scandal had us all wonder whether Wells Fargo has lost its way. But how does a pioneering bank that once had lean at its heart betray its core values so profoundly?
WOMACK’S YOKOTEN – The rise of the robots may still belong in sci-fi books, but there is no doubt that work as we know it is fading away. What is the role of lean thinking in this world of drones and driverless taxis?
ONE QUESTION, FIVE ANSWERS – Change might be scary but, when things do work out, it also brings us incredible pride and sense of accomplishment. We asked five practitioners to tell us what the most satisfying moment in their lean journey was.
FEATURE – A French automotive supplier has been applying lean principles to transform its engineering department with great results. In the process, they have realized they could put in place a really effective system to build innovation.
RESEARCH – What kind of financial results can a SME owner expect from a lean transformation? To find out, the author of this interesting research analyzed the performance of 100 Italian small and medium-sized companies.
FEATURE - We often hear that lean is a fundamentally different approach, but what does this really mean? The authors reflect on how lean challenges and debunks our assumptions on how to run a firm, which might also explain why it meets such resistance.
FEATURE – A broken phone or a clock showing the wrong time may seem small details to you, but they actually make people's jobs more difficult. Fixing these issues improves work and boosts morale... It also says a lot about you as a company.
