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Category Archives: LEAN Management
Building a Better Business Through Lean Principles
“Lean” is a set of management principles based on the Toyota Production System (TPS), coined by a group of MIT researchers who wrote, “The Machine That Changed The World.” It’s been applied to manufacturing (factories, product design and administrative functions) and …
Three Ways to Encourage Lean Management
Lean works best when opportunities for continuous improvement bubble up from the bottom of an organization. Every team member should be enthusiastic about evaluating his or her performance and comfortable speaking to a manager about enhancing product flow. In order …
Economy Forces Business Schools to Go Lean
Educational facilities that prepare students to manage others are obliged to practice fiscally sound management techniques. This philosophical imperative may not have been enough to convince most business schools to stay Lean when their endowments were generating ample returns, but, …
The Seven Deadly Wastes of Lean Management
If you are a Lean manager, you can rattle off the original seven wastes, described by Taiichi Ohno, at a moment’s notice. In fact, you likely know of at least two additional wastes you would add to the master list. …
Saga of the Typewriter and Extinction of an Industry
Recently, a United Kingdom newspaper reported the last typewriter factory in the world had closed its doors. The story swept the Web within hours, triggering numerous emotional responses. Meanwhile, skeptics and typewriter enthusiasts fact-checked the original report and learned that it …
Why Lean Principles Are Ideal for Health Care
Lean management has recently been implemented by numerous hospitals and other health care providers. It seems every day a new story showcases outstanding results from a Lean transition in a hospital or clinical setting. For instance, a Canadian hospital cut …
Traits of Highly Effective Lean Managers
Lean management, unlike some other management styles, cannot succeed based on a visionary leader’s charisma and inspiration alone; it must be paired with genuine effectiveness on every level. If you are seeking a method of determining the likely effectiveness of …
Four Ways to Keep Employees Engaged to Create Efficiency
Lean managers tend to be technical thinkers with an affinity for numbers, but as we’ve discussed, the very best Lean managers are also emotionally intelligent. Companies with Lean leaders who excel at employee engagement also have loyal customers, high Net …
Is Lean Management Compatible with “Zappos-Style Service?”
In any discussion of customer service excellence, Zappos is likely to be mentioned. The online retailer has built such a reputation around its service organization that customers begged founder Tony Hsieh to start an airline. Even after being purchased by …
Four Reasons Job Seekers Should Study Lean Management
Looking for a job during an economic slowdown is not easy, even for senior managers. Unemployment has remained high and job seekers are competing with a nearly unprecedented number of highly qualified individuals. Management job seekers with no past Lean …