The role of monetary rewards in lean systems is controversial. Some lean advocates oppose using monetary incentives, arguing that they are ineffective and counterproductive. Others see compensation ...

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Despite the common allegation that lean improvement methods, based on the Toyota production system, must lead to layoffs at hospitals or health systems, the reality is quite different at several ...

The purpose of lean management is to sustain a lean production system. Without a lean management system, lean implementation often falters, sometimes fails, and virtually never delivers up to its long ...

For many large and midsize manufacturers, the challenge of enabling the corporatewide enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to mesh with their lean initiatives on the plant floor requires a ...

There is a dark side of lean management. Although the benefits of it are enormous, the failure rate for lean programs can be very discouraging. After recently attending a lean management conference, I ...

Picking up from last month’s discussion of the four principle elements of the Lean Management System, this month’s column will focus on the second element — visual controls. The four elements that ...

The command-and-control hierarchical organization of large companies is rapidly giving way to a more biological metaphor, one in which a corporate nervous system senses important signals from the ...

In an era of economic unpredictability and tight margins, chief financial officers are under mounting pressure to do more with less. Nearly half of C-suite executives have considered budget cuts for ...