EVENT LAUNCH - Save the date! The Lean Global Connection 2024 will take place on November 21 and 22. In this article, our editor introduces the event's theme and tells us what attendees can expect from the largest online lean event in the world.
FEATURE - Looking back to her experience coaching teams in Africa, the author encourages us to introduce play in our work, as a way of teaching people and of unlocking creativity.
FEATURE - The editorial board members of Planet Lean reflect on the magazine's origin story and its role within and contribution to the Lean Community.
INTERVIEW – The UK Lean Summit 2024 is coming up in April. We speak to Dave Brunt to hear about the event and what we can expect from the presentations.
FEATURE – Fresh of a study tour in Japan, the authors wonder if there is anything left to learn from Toyota’s network of suppliers in the age of AI and digital. Hint: it’s a rethorical question.
FEATURE – The author reflects on how lean organizations are reacting to the Covid-19 crisis and discusses the tough questions they are asking themselves.
FEATURE – The authors explain why putting value at the heart of customer discussions is key to developing a successful, resilient tech firm.
CASE STUDY – By building Lean Thinking into its processes and culture and developing people’s capabilities, this Norwegian company serving the oil&gas sector achieved fantastic results.
FEATURE – Michael Ballé shares a few tricks he uses to escape his default thinking and ensure he makes the most of every gemba walk he goes on.
FEATURE – In this intimate account, the author reflects on the role of a lean sensei by looking back at what he’s learned from his own… his father.
FEATURE – Our disposition towards learning changes depending on the amount of things we don’t know. The author explores this topic and the role of the sensei in enabling learning.
FEATURE – With one of the biggest lean events of the year just four days away, John Shook tells you why you should participate and what you can expect.
INTERVIEW – A team from LGN just spent a week on the gemba with Toyota veteran Hideshi Yokoi for a jishuken exercise. We asked him to explain to us how he used this practice while at Toyota Motor Kyushu.
INTERVIEW – Three hotel directors from the same chain in the Canary Islands give us the lowdown on the company’s strategy to facilitate the transfer of lean knowledge from one location to another.
VIDEO - In this video from the recent European Lean Educator Conference, John Shook and Isao Yoshino draw on their experience at Toyota to reflect on the development of lean thinkers.
FEATURE - Mental schemas help us to process information, but they often lead us to blindly jump to solutions without understanding the problem. Here, the author explains how Lean Thinking mitigates that risk.
NOTES FROM THE GEMBA – The author visits a private engineering school to learn about their approach to teach Lean Thinking and apply it to their own work.
INTERVIEW – From hospitals to start-ups, lean principles have been applied far beyond their origins at Toyota. This article discusses how lean can be applied to learning – specifically, how we can apply lean learning to learning lean.
ROUNDUP – Our editor looks back at the best articles explaining how Lean Thinking can help in a crisis and bring an organization back from the brink of disaster.
FEATURE – The author shares a few lessons learned on his company’s journey to Industry/Quality 4.0, the foundation to 5.0 Artificial Intelligence.
FEATURE – Reflecting on the transformations he has supported, the author provides a few recommendations on how to get products to market faster.
FEATURE – Lean Thinking is about voluntary participation, not audits that are meant to ensure compliance. The authors explore the advantages of pursuing cooperation rather than control.
FEATURE – We assume that what holds our transformations back is the lack of high-price resources, but more often than not it is the simplest of items.
FEATURE – For a few years now, Theodo has made of quality and customer satisfaction the main focus of its work, and it is paying off. But what does it mean to pursue and improve quality at a digital company?
FEATURE – As South Africa fights a second Covid-19 wave, the CEO of a hospital group shares some of the lessons learnt so far and how Lean Thinking is helping the organization resist.
FEATURE – In this personal account, the author explains how Lean Thinking inspires her painting process, debunking the myth that the methodology stifles creativity.
FEATURE – Tools and framework help us to bring lean principles to life and act on our strategies. The author introduces the Lean Marketing Canvas.
NOTES FROM THE VIRTUAL GEMBA – Despite a 40% drop in sales and the looming prospect of having to furlough part of its staff, this French company is finding in lean manufacturing an ally to fight the current crisis.
NOTES FROM THE (VIRTUAL) GEMBA – In the last of her series of virtual gemba walks, the author learns how a hospital in the Caribbean island of Martinique relied on Lean Thinking in its fight against the Coronavirus.
CASE STUDY – This insurtech venture has found in Lean Thinking a way to tackle its many scaling issues. It’s grown from two to fifty-five people in less than four years, ultimately thanks to a strong focus on quality.
INTERVIEW – At the recent Lean Transformation Summit in New Orleans, we sat down with Richard Sheridan of Menlo Innovations to discuss the ground-breaking concept of joy in the workplace.
EVENT REVIEW – This year LGN and Ansbach University’s CEPTM co-organized the first European edition of the Lean Educator Conference. Planet Lean attended the event.
FEATURE – Introducing his book, the author tells us what his Toyota mentors taught him with their contrasting, but ultimately complimentary approaches to problem finding.
INTERVIEW – The extraordinary events of the past year have encouraged lean organizations around the world to ask deeper questions about purpose and value creation, says Josh Howell.
FEATURE – How can digital companies develop a competitive edge in the "tech first" future? By using Lean Thinking to ensure continuous learning and transform the way coders think and work.
INTERVIEW – The Lean Enterprise Academy just launched the Lean Learning Journey, an online platform from which practitioners can pull the practical knowledge they need in their lean transformation.
FEATURE – How did lean healthcare organizations respond to the most critical stage of the epidemic? We asked three hospitals in Catalonia and Toledo to share their experience.
FEATURE – It is a common misconception that our work is too unpredictable to fit into a standardized approach. The author debunks this myth.
FEATURE – How does lean apply to learning? The author reflects on the lean transformation his schools are undergoing and on its practical implications on students, staff and leaders.
INTERVIEW – Toyota’s approach to developing capabilities and its focus on life-long learning are inspirational. But how do people at Toyota actually learn?
INTERVIEW – In a chat with our editor, Priya Lakhani explains how technology can be used to understand a student’s unique learning pathway and design teaching accordingly.
INTERVIEW – A former VP of Operations from Thales tells Catherine Chabiron how he and his team turned around their department by committing to lean thinking and focusing on people development every day.
NOTES FROM THE GEMBA – This French company has completely transformed its approach to designing and introducing new products to market by embracing lean product development ideas.
FEATURE – Problem solving is a fundamental part of being a leader, which is what led this medical school in the United States to include A3 thinking in its curriculum.
NOTES FROM THE GEMBA – After re-insourcing its bike repair workshop, a distribution center of France's La Poste has begun to recover long-lost knowledge about the work of mailmen and using it to innovate.
FEATURE – The author, a lean leader from Germany, recounts his experience bringing lean change about and discusses what it takes to truly learn lean thinking.
FEATURE - Effectively dealing with a problem means learning to solve it in a variety of scenarios, not perfecting a point solution. For too long in lean we have only focused on gaining reusable knowledge... but what about reusable learning?
FEATURE – Coaching people is the only way to truly develop their capabilities, but what does it take to become a good lean coach? Josh Howell on how humility helped him to improve his ability to coach.
EDITOR'S LETTER – If you have missed any of our May articles, we come to the rescue with this monthly round-up of Planet Lean content, to provide you with the highlights and keep you up to date with the latest in lean thinking.
NEWS - Our institutes in Turkey and Israel have collaborated closely for years. A few weeks ago, the President of Lean Institute Turkey flew to Tel Aviv to learn about Israeli agriculture.
COLUMN - In political terms, is lean management more in line with conservative principles or progressive ideas? Michael Ballé reflects on a tough question.
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.
FEATURE – Too often we tend to focus on trying to replicate success, rather than analyze failure. Yet, learning from mistakes is a fundamental principle in lean. This account of a transformation gone south offers an insightful critique of lean.
PROFILE – While pioneering the application of lean thinking in healthcare, Alice Lee realized that you should always approach teaching as you do problem solving: scientifically, situationally, and with the humility of a learner.
FEATURE - Italian physicist Enrico Fermi is one of history's greatest "lean scientists," who developed a revolutionary approach to research and mentoring from which lean managers can still draw inspiration.
INTERVIEW – At the recent UK Lean Summit, Ian Hurst and Keith Edwards of the Toyota Lean Management Centre ran an insightful workshop on standard work. We sat down with them to discuss standardization, respect for people and waste elimination.
FEATURE - What do Toyota and Procter&Gamble have in common? A passion for developing people, a focus on customer satisfaction, and... enviable results that are sustained over time.
REVIEW - The Republic of Tatarstan officially endorses and funds the implementation of lean thinking in local organizations. Yalcin Ipbuken, President of Lean Institute Turkey, drops in for a visit.
OPINION – How many times, in the early stages of kaizen events, have you thought about giving up? Hang in there. As frustrating as they can be, they will also teach you a lot, says our Danish colleague.
FEATURE – Visuals are a natural way in which human beings learn and teach. The author discusses why visual thinking is part of our DNA and the implications this has on our lives at work.
FEATURE – In this interesting piece, the author explains how lean provided everyone, everywhere with a framework to work their intuition muscle and develop insights.
FEATURE – To wholeheartedly embrace lean means to accept changes in our hearts and minds. Understanding this means to finally grasp the reason why lean is only truly taken up by few.
FEATURE – They say lean is all about people, and yet emotions – something we all feel and express daily – are largely absent from the lean discourse. The authors discuss the role they play in a lean transformation.
FEATURE – Using her distinctive narrative style, the author breaks down the A3 process to help you understand how it works and how you can tap into its potential.
FEATURE – A former ops manager now tasked for improvement across IKEA looks back at what she learned in one of the company’s stores and explains how she hopes to take lean to the whole group.
SERIES – The authors discuss the third of six elements in their process development model – Converge – using experiments to test key aspects of different ideas, while objectively working towards a single design concept slated for refinement and implementation.
FEATURE – As lean thinkers, our focus is on problem-solving. The author explains why effectively solving problems depends on our ability to make the right decisions and suggests the lean community plays closer attention to this.
FEATURE – The gemba tells us more than we think. The authors discuss what we need to look at during our walks to understand the impact of non-manufacturing functions on the overall process.
FEATURE – Sharon Visser shares her leader’s standard work from when she ran the Ngami car dealership and encourages us to use what we see at gemba to shape our own.
FEATURE – Was Leonardo da Vinci a lean thinker? This thought-provoking article looks at his legacy, connects it to lean, and reminds us of how ahead of his time the Italian genius was.
FEATURE – In this call to arms, the author encourages us to fight to prove the relevance of Lean Thinking in such difficult times and explains why only mastering it can truly address our problems.
FEATURE – As she packs before leaving Botswana, the author tells us of a wonderful example of Lean Thinking that resurfaced from her past working in the Botswana tourism industry.
FEATURE – Looking at successful journeys, the authors explain why a true lean transformation requires a chain of mentoring in TPS to fulfil the promise of each person’s individual learning.
FEATURE – Employee happiness leads to greater efficiency and higher quality, which is why it’s increasingly being adopted as an indicator by firms. But how does lean relate to happiness?
FEATURE – Lean represents a strategy to understand what needs to be improved, the critical skills that must be developed to solve a specific problem – whether it’s a quality defect or a pandemic.
FEATURE – Have you ever wondered how lean tools and principles might apply to writing? To inspire you to document your learnings, our editor offers a guide for aspiring writers in our community.
VIDEO - In February, a group of Lean Global Network coaches visited Coloplast's Parts Distribution Center in Hungary to help the local team improve the internal lead-time across the facility.
FEATURE – To lean out a training organization means to both transform its internal processes and integrate Lean Thinking in its educational offering: the story of ZingTrain.
CASES STUDY – Struggling to win the hearts and minds of his people, the author took lean home, learned as much as he could about it and brought it back to his business with the idea of making everybody's lives easier.
NOTES FROM THE (VIRTUAL) GEMBA – Throughout the lockdown, this car-selling business has never lost its focus on people development. The author learns how this approach is helping the firm make the most of the crisis.
FEATURE – As businesses struggle with disruption and an uncertain future in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis, the author suggests they turn to lean daily management and get into an experimentation mindset.
CASE STUDY – This Italian manufacturer has found in lean a way to ensure business continuity and provide support to a distraught workforce in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak.
COLUMN – As individuals, how do we relate to the Lean Community? And what motivates us to stubbornly continue down the improvement path, often against all odds?
FEATURE – In this compelling read, the author discusses lean thinking as a system for learning that challenges our assumptions and tells us why blindly applying “best practices” takes us nowhere.
FEATURE – In a market where products become obsolete very fast, this Toyota supplier has learned the importance of staying true to its heritage and developing know-how and people’s capabilities.
FEATURE – What does it really mean to teach lean? The author reflects on this question and shares a few tips on how to successfully engage learners in different environments.
FEATURE – In the age of complexity and disruption, flowing value to customers as quickly as possible is critical. The new Toyota Flow System strives to address this issue.
FEATURE – What can the world of lean and the world of education learn from one another? The author reflects on the synergies between these two realities.
FEATURE – The author looks back at her time at Starbucks Coffee Company and reflects on the role of leadership in facilitating the spread of lean thinking across the organization.
NOTES FROM THE GEMBA – The author goes back to a train maintenance center she visited two years ago and finds an organization striving to learn continuously.
FEATURE – In a bid to find inspiration and new ideas to achieve excellent outcomes in patient safety, a group from a Boston hospital flew to Orlando to visit JetBlue Airways.
INTERVIEW – This cardiac laboratory in Singapore was targeting one improvement and ended up with something different, but equally impactful for its patient flow.
FEATURE – The application of lean management to education is not new, but we all know how hard changing legacy systems is. This greenfield lean school aims higher, trying to rethink learning altogether.
FEATURE – Following a recent visit to Toyota, the authors strive to challenge popular beliefs and shed a light on the underlying philosophy that has made TPS a success for over half a century.
1 QUESTION, 5 ANSWERS – Because each of us has a different learning path, “a-ha moments” come to us in a variety of shapes. We asked five practitioners when their lean epiphanies happened.
FEATURE – By looking at the state of lean management in the South African government sector, the author shares a number of important lessons that apply to public service organizations all around the world.
PROFILE – This month we meet another member of the lean community, a true pioneer of lean thinking, who contributed to introducing the methodology in Australian cities and healthcare organizations.
FEATURE – What are the immediate signs that tell us that our workplace is not conducive to kaizen? The author draws on his experience as a coach at the gemba to highlight them. Look out for them in your own company!
OPINION – It might seem like a subtlety, but the distinction between discussion and dialogue is actually fundamental as we try to find new ways to unleash organizational creativity.
VIDEO INTERVIEW - At last month's UK Lean Summit, we sat down with Dan Jones and Jim Womack, founding fathers of lean thinking, to discuss the evolution, current state and future of the methodology.
