There’s a moment every experienced leader knows. Someone brings you a problem, and you can see the answer before they finish the sentence. You’ve been in this situation before. You know what to do. And so you tell them. It…
Here’s the most famous example of root cause analysis in the Lean world, from Taiichi Ohno’s book on the Toyota Production System. You’ve seen it in training decks, conference talks, blog posts. I’ve shared it myself plenty of times. See…
TL;DR: Lean daily management is the system that makes improvement happen between the projects — visual boards, huddles, gemba walks, leader standard work, and strategy alignment working together. The boards don’t do the work. The leadership behaviors do. Most Lean…
Jamie Bonini described a person who looks like 25% overhead to a finance team — but without whom the entire Toyota Production System falls apart. Bonini is the vice president of Toyota’s Production System Support Center (TSSC), which has spent…
TL;DR: Organizations invest in teaching people to see problems and solve problems — but skip the middle step: making it safe and worthwhile to speak up about them. I’ve seen blank huddle boards in hospitals. Cards and markers sitting untouched.…
TL;DR: Kaizen means “change for the better.” Everyone improves their own work, one small change at a time, using the scientific method. It’s not a suggestion box — it’s collaborative, fast, and action-oriented. Success depends on leadership engagement and psychological…
TL;DR: GM said it believed in long-term thinking. NUMMI actually practiced it. A 1987 GM executive summary admitted that short-term financial pressure drove decisions at GM far more than at NUMMI. The difference wasn’t philosophy — it was system design.…
One of the most overlooked–and most powerful–principles in Lean management is also the very first principle of the Toyota Way: “Base your management decisions on a long-term philosophy, even at the expense of short-term financial goals.” This principle is foundational.…
Why do so many Lean efforts fail in offices, engineering, and executive work? In this episode, Don Kieffer explains why copying Toyota’s rituals misses the point–and how Dynamic Work Design applies Toyota thinking to intellectual work, leadership systems, and real…
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #535 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Gregg Stocker, a seasoned Lean practitioner, consultant, and author. Over the past 30+ years, Gregg has worked across industries,…
I’m excited to announce that I’ll be speaking at the 2025 Lean Solutions Summit, which will take place September 24-26 in Detroit, Michigan. This year’s theme, “Catalysts of Tomorrow: Shaping Future Leaders,” is a powerful call to action–and it aligns…
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #532 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Anne Frewin, a seasoned Lean leader with over 12 years of improvement experience in healthcare, laboratories, and manufacturing. Anne’s…
