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As my ties to Lee Iacocca include Chrysler and Lehigh University, when he passed away this week at the age of 94, I was honored when IndustryWeek asked me to write a tribute to him. Many tributes will focus on facts and events, but I wanted to focus more on

Originally Posted: by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 10/22/2009 Direct observation has been an under-appreciated aspect of lean for most of its life. It has gotten a lot more attention in recent years, unfortunately, this is thanks in part to the use of jargon, such as gemba and genchi genbutsu. For those

Have you ever delegated a task and the team or person you delegated the task to goes down the wrong path? This often happens when management delegates a problem-solving task but have already determined what they want the answer to that problem to be. There is a time for delegation

In Episode 2 of Lean Whiskey, Mark Graban and Jamie Flinchbaugh, longtime friends, lean thinkers, and whiskey enthusiasts, join forces to enjoy a casual conversation — mostly about lean and a little bit about whiskey. We start by thanking the listeners of Episode 1 who shared their response to hearing

I really enjoy connecting with the JFlinch community through my blog and through my social media channels. On occasion, my schedule allows me to provide a live lean learning experience. On June 5th I’ll be speaking at an Iowa Lean Consortium / Ciras event in Des Moines, Iowa. If you live

Ready for a culture change? You might think so, but when it comes to culture change what often gets overlooked is that you can’t just create a culture. You need to shift away from your current culture to the new culture. This starts with identifying both the behaviors you want

A couple of years ago, my friend Mark Graban asked me to contribute a chapter for his book Practicing Lean: Learning How to Learn How to Get Better… Better. The book, audiobook, and ebook have been popular and recently Mark decided to create a podcast from the book content. It’s

In the very first episode of Lean Whiskey, Mark Graban and Jamie Flinchbaugh, longtime friends, lean thinkers, and whiskey enthusiasts, join forces to enjoy a casual conversation — mostly about lean and a little bit about whiskey. In Episode 1, which we labeled as a “wet run” instead of a

How do you match your flow rate to your customer demand rate when you are executing unsteady or unpredictable work? Is it even possible? The answer is yes. Watch my video and learn how to use this lean method and eliminate waste.

Originally Posted: by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 09-29-09 If lean is about anything, it is about solving problems both large and small. Becoming a world-class problem-solving organization takes time. It requires learning new skills and developing the culture to truly invest in problem-solving as a daily practice. But as you begin