We have many dozens of articles dealing with operational excellence topics: lean manufacturing, lean six sigma, lean healthcare, lean supply chain, lean office, value stream mapping, 5S, continuous flow, kanban and pull systems, and much more. We have divided the articles into a number of categories below. Click on the name of the article to read it. Please also follow us on Twitter for updates, connect to our Sr. Partner on LinkedIn, subscribe to our channel on Youtube for videos, and/or subscribe to our Learning to Lean newsletter using the buttons below.
Executive Point of View
For senior leaders focused on execution reliability
Explore EMS executive perspectives on leadership systems, decision clarity, operating cadence, and why improvement activity does not always become sustained business performance.
Lean Basics and Lean Leadership
- What is Lean Manufacturing?
- Lean and Six Sigma: Which One Should You Choose?
- What is Kaizen?
- The 7 Manufacturing Wastes: Muda
- The 7 Wastes in Administrative Processes
- Implementing Lean Manufacturing
- Can a Lean Transformation Help Manage Growth?
- 5 Things MedTech Leaders Need to Know About Lean
- 7 Critical Success Factors for Lean Leaders
- Lean Transformation Action Plan
- Lean Manufacturing Versus Six Sigma
- Lean Manufacturing Overview
- Lean Leadership: Factors Undermining Your Lean Transformation
- Lean Leadership: A Tale of Two Companies
- Lean Works in Any Organization
- Lean Improvement Model
- Lean in an Office Environment
- Lean in a Growing Economy
- Lean and Operational Excellence for Healthcare
- Lean Strategy Deployment
- Lean Standard Work
- Lean Manufacturing and the Toyota Recall Crisis Part 1
- Lean Manufacturing and the Toyota Recall Crisis Part 2
- Turning Executive Vision into Action
Lean Culture
- Creating an Environment for Continuous Improvement
- Developing a Foundation for Lean
- Generating Ideas: Kaizen and Lean Culture
- The Improvement Kata
- Lean Culture
- Lean Culture at Toyota
- Lean and the Learning Organization
- Lean Daily Management: Daily Huddles
- Toyota's Learning Organization
- Training and Education in a Lean Enterprise
- Lean Meetings: 5 Ideas for More Efficient Meetings
- Lean and COVID: Lessons Learned
- Lean Training Approaches
Lean Problem Solving and Mistake Proofing
- Lean Problem Solving and Culture Change
- PDCA and A3 Reporting
- A3 Problem Solving with Example (Medical Device Online Magazine)
- 8D Problem Solving and Root Cause Analysis
- Problem Solving and Lean
- Problem Solving: Defining the Problem
- Problem Solving: Gap Analysis
- Problem Solving: Countermeasures
- Mistake Proofing Overview
- 7 Keys to Mistake Proofing
- Using Mistake Proofing in Product Design
- Webinar: ABC's of Problem Solving Including A3 Thinking, Culture Change, Defining Problems, and Root Cause Analysis
5S, Quick Changeover, and Total Productive Maintenance
- Quick Changeover and SMED: An Overview
- How to Implement a Quick Changeover Program
- Quick Changeover for Non-traditional Applications
- Quick Changeover and EPEI
- Quick Changeover Kaizen Case Study
Kaizen Events and Value Stream Mapping
- The Power of Kaizen
- Planning and Conducting Kaizen Events
- Design for Manufacturability Kaizen Events
- How and When to Use Kaizen Events
- What is Value Stream Mapping?
- Identifying Your Value Streams
- Value Stream Mapping: Mapping the Current State
- Value Stream Mapping: Mapping the Future State
- Value Stream Mapping Administrative Processes
- Value Stream Mapping for Software Development: Part 1 (Current State)
- Value Stream Mapping for Software Development: Part 2 (Future State)
Connecting Flow: Continuous Flow and Pull Systems
- Cellular Manufacturing and Flow
- What is Continuous Flow?
- What is One Piece Flow
- One Piece Flow Kaizen Event Case Study
- Implementing Continuous Flow Cells
- Types of Manufacturing Cells
- Achieving Basic Stability to Support Flow
- Achieving One Piece Flow
- Lean Production Control: Pull Systems
- Kanban: Are You Ready?
- Heijunka: Leveling the Load
- Implementing Level Pull
- Leveling Workload: Overview plus 3 Examples
- A Case Study In Replenishment Pull
- Applying Pull Systems
Lean Supply Chain
- Supplier Relationships in a Lean Enterprise
- Make Versus Buy: Considerations When Outsourcing
- Outsourcing and the Extended Value Stream