Case studies

Bringing lean to the people

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Case studiesDec 16, 2019
Vagner Agostinho Junior
CASE STUDY – This article briefly outlines the different stages of the lean transformation at Mercedes Benz Brazil, as the company looked for the best approach to engage everyone in continuous improvement.

Daily management in construction

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    string(1440) "The construction industry has a reputation for delays, bad quality and unsafe working conditions. This makes it a prime candidate for the implementation of lean principles and techniques. The idea of 'lean construction' has been around since the early 1990s, when a group of academics in California started to look at opportunities for the application of lean in the sector. One of the results of this early work was the introduction of the Last Planner System to better manage construction sites.

The lean construction movement soon spread to other parts of the world, starting with the UK - where it influenced a number of organizations and large projects, like the construction of St Pancras station in London. Large construction companies quickly took on lean management. Like in other industries, at the beginning the adoption of lean focused heavily on the application of tools, whereas more recently the strategic importance of lean management has been recognized by the industry.

Technology is providing new opportunities for the sector, with 3D and 4D software tools taking the lead. Technological advances, coupled with the adoption of solid improvement practices, like lean construction methodology, in the construction industry, means we can design and build better, safer and lasting buildings - also guaranteeing working infrastructure for our increasingly urban world."
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Case studiesDec 9, 2019
Renato Mariz et al
FEATURE – How lean daily management helped a Brazilian construction company to stabilize production in a tailing dam elevation project.

Attorney at lean

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Case studiesNov 21, 2019
Eulalia Malimpensa
CASE STUDY – A boutique law firm in Milan has initiated a lean transformation to turn around its processes, improve service to its clients and make life easier for the team.  

Safari, so good

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Case studiesNov 14, 2019
Sharon Visser
CASE STUDY – This company in Botswana has embraced lean thinking passionately to build the capacity and ability to deal with higher demand for its converted vehicles. The author tells us about their journey.

Re-start with a clean slate

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Case studiesOct 17, 2019
Jonny Mooi, Willem Nieuwenhuis & René Aernoudts
CASE STUDY – From client and supplier to partners-in-lean: how solving a problem together transformed the relationship between a Dutch hospital and the laundry supplying clean garments to it.

A journey of mind-blowing improvement

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The superiority of the Toyota Production System is now a recognized fact (Toyota has been profitable every year but one, for half a century), which means that today most manufacturing organizations around the world practice lean manufacturing thinking to some extent. The prevalence of this alternative way of thinking and managing in the manufacturing sector often generates confusion in other industries, in which people’s first reaction to improvement attempts is the now proverbial “We don’t make cars. Lean is a manufacturing thing.”

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Case studiesOct 3, 2019
Sergio Ferigo
CASE STUDY – Seven years ago, this Italian manufacturer ran an experiment to reduce inventory in its warehouse. Today, lean thinking permeates every aspect of life at FPZ.

Leadership development at Volvo Cars

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Case studiesSep 16, 2019
Eivind Reke and Gert Frick
CASE STUDY – What is the approach to people development used at Volvo Cars? The authors explain how the organization has created a production system fully owned by operators and managers.

Daily management in the ICU

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Case studiesAug 29, 2019
A. Fátima De Sousa, A. Matheus Basgal and R. Gouveia
CASE STUDY – Effectively deploying and executing your strategy requires mastering quick follow-ups at different levels of the organization – in other words, Daily Management.

Lean logistics for better customer service

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Case studiesAug 6, 2019
Alexandre Cardoso and Cauim Lopes
CASE STUDY – Logistics can be the key to achieving success and creating a competitive advantage in a company. This case study tells the story of a port terminal in Brazil that has used lean to achieve significant gains in managing its road flow.

Through hardship to the stars

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Case studiesJul 25, 2019
Vicenç Martínez Ibañez and Antoni Campos Rubiño
CASE STUDY – Catalonia's largest hospital is undergoing a successful transformation - supported by pioneering hoshin experiments - that has already turned it into a poster child for lean healthcare in the region.

Benefits and difficulties of using a Concept Paper

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    string(1553) "This is another new frontier for lean thinking, not because lean efforts in engineering have only begun recently but because it wasn’t until the last few years that a systematic attempt to codify these techniques has been made. These techniques and ideas are loosely brought together under the concept of Lean Product and Process Development (LPPD).

At a time when innovation is the biggest factor behind the success or failure of an organization, finding ways to speed up the development of new products and to ensure these products correspond to actual customer needs is of the utmost importance.

At its core, Lean Product and Process Development aims to create the exact product that people want. And it is clear that developing better products reaching the market faster means profitability into the future. In general terms, lean product development achieves this by creating reusable knowledge that can be used in future iterations of a product and by deployment set-based concurrent engineering (which entails considering sets of designs at once to quickly eliminate inferior solutions, thus shortening development times). It is also useful to integrate the work of engineers with that of the manufacturing department, so that shop floor receives a well-researched, mistake-proof product that is ready for production without the need for extensive and expensive rework.

Interesting contamination exists here with improvement approaches like Lean Startup and Design for Manufacturing."
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Case studiesJul 23, 2019
José Ferro with Paulo Couto, Alan Labes & Fernando Rodrigues
CASE STUDY – TechnipFMC has introduced the Concept Paper in its lean product development process. This article shares some of the learnings resulting from the experience.

A Norwegian lean epic

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Case studiesJul 18, 2019
Eivind Reke and Daryl Powell
CASE STUDY – Thousands of kaizens, a relentless focus on learning and the determination to continuously improve have made of this Norwegian company something of a lean fairytale.

Cancelling the distance

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When applied to manufacturing, lean tools like heijunka, SMED or Kanban cards allow for the optimization of production processes and the systematic elimination of waste (in its three incarnations of muda, muri and mura – respectively, non-value-adding work, overburden and unevenness). These happen by implementing the fundamental lean principles of pull and flow. However, it has now been proved that the principles characterizing lean manufacturing are universally applicable. They work in any sector and they apply to any kind of work – even though at times they require some adjustment."
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Case studiesJul 16, 2019
José Ignacio Garcia Cornejo and Francisco Soler Benito
CASE STUDY – What to do when you operate in a competitive market and are located in a remote corner of Europe, thousands of miles from your customer? One word: lean.

Determination pays

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Case studiesJul 2, 2019
Richard van Ooijen and Riegholt Hilbrands
CASE STUDY – This Dutch company awards social benefits to the unemployed. Thanks to lean thinking, they were able to radically transform the service they offer them.

Reflecting on our lean healthcare journey

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Case studiesJun 27, 2019
Grey Dube
CASE STUDY – The CEO of a hospital in Johannesburg looks back to the last five years to reflect on a lean healthcare transformation that is creating positive outcomes for patients.

A people-centric lean HR strategy

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Case studiesJun 20, 2019
Eugenio Ylleras, José Manuel Fernández and Sheila Gonzáles
CASE STUDY – This automotive parts supplier based in southwest Spain is discovering the power of lean thinking applied to recruitment and Human Resources.

Kata in the NHS

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Case studiesJun 18, 2019
Ann Hill
CASE STUDY – Starting with a series of pilot sites, the NHS is hoping to engage the Kata coaching approach to really spread an improvement culture to staff and patients. 

The path to a learning organization

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Case studiesJun 6, 2019
Steve Bell & Karen Whitley Bell
CASE STUDY – The story of this NGO shows how visualizing the work enables improvement and removes barriers among teams. It is a first, fundamental step towards a lean transformation.