I was able to tour the NUMMI factory in 2005, which I really enjoyed (see my series of blog posts here). NUMMI was, of course, a joint venture between Toyota and GM (as John Shook talked about recently at the…
Listen: My guest for Episode 188 has been a leading voice in the Lean community for 25 years, Daniel T. Jones, founder and chairman of the Lean Enterprise Academy, based in the UK. Dan collaborated with Jim Womack on the…
Mark’s note: Christina Kach is back with a new post, this time a review of what should probably be considered a “Lean classic.” Come back tomorrow for my first podcast interview with one of the co-authors, Dan Jones. You can…
tl;dr: “Accountability” in most organizations means blame — but real accountability starts with leaders fixing systems, not punishing individuals who can’t do the right thing because the system won’t let them. One of our topics, prompted by some feedback from…
Today is, of course, the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. I wasn’t alive on that horrible day in Dallas, but I’ve visited the site recently, when living in the DFW area, and I know there’s…
TL;DR: Understanding Variation by Donald J. Wheeler is the most influential book in my Lean journey. It taught me how to distinguish signal from noise in data, avoid overreacting to normal variation, and focus leaders on improving systems instead of…
One of the more trivial things I saw on my recent vacation to Scotland and England was a badly designed toilet on a Virgin train. My wife and I were on our way to Birmingham to do a Range Rover…
Mark’s post: I’m still away on vacation, but happy to have some guest bloggers, including Chad Walters. Unlike his past posts, today’s not about Lean in sports… and I think you’ll enjoy it. Obviously one of the most important questions…
Thanks to the organizing sponsor Protegra and other sponsors, including my friends at LeanKit, for having me give a keynote talk about the Software Development and Evolution Conference (SDEC) 2013 Conference in Winnipeg yesterday (Storify summary here). I always enjoy…
Welcome to the landing page for my podcasts with CEOs and former CEOs from various industries. Click here for the most updated list of CEO podcasts, which will be updated automatically over time. Click here for the LeanBlog Podcast…
I recently received two emails that are worth sharing, in anonymous form here. One was from somebody I know who just quit a Lean role at a major academic medical center after a few years there, as he’s looking to…
TL;DR: This post revisits the origins of lean production through John Krafcik’s 1988 article, reflecting on how lean manufacturing began as an integrated management system rooted in culture, leadership, and respect for people–and why those foundations still matter more than…