The following video is based on an article I wrote on LinkedIn in Sept 2022
  / 16-surprising-powerful-concepts-ive-learne...  

When I first learned about Lean, I was just getting started in my career, so I didn't have a lot of baggage to overcome. I didn't have any internships in college due to sports, so my first "real" job was my first experience in corporate America.

What I've learned over my years of teaching and practicing Lean is that there are certain topics and concepts that are already known to most people (need to continuously improve, working as a team, using data, need to satisfy customers, etc).

However, there are other concepts that are new, surprising and counterintuitive to people learning these methods for the first time.

Here are the Top 16 topics that I have compiled over the years that seemed to be most eye-opening to those in my classes and the clients I work with:

1.One piece flow is preferred over batching

2. Managing and controlling inventory improves flow

3. Engaging people in small improvements

4. Respect for people and humanity

5. Developing people as problem solvers

6. Stop the process quickly and often

7. No blame for problems

8. Removing non-value added tasks (waste) is the best way to save time

9. Measuring customer lead time

10. Suboptimizing your time instead of improving the system

11. Daily huddles to engage workers

12. Balance the work to Takt Time

13. Confirm flow down of goals through Catchball

14. Use kaizen events to accelerate improvements

15. Leverage freed-up resources, don't lay them off

16. Solve problems at the gemba (where the work is done)

What do you think?

For those already familiar with Lean, did I leave anything off the list? What concepts get the most questions or excitement in your training and coaching?

If you'd like to learn more about these Lean concepts and principles, sign up for the "Lean Fundamentals" course below. You can even take the first 5 modules (Lean Introduction) for FREE, using coupon code "KICKSTARTLEAN-LSSE"

https://www.leansixsigmadefinition.co...