Lean Learning Center

20 years of consulting: Andy Carlino

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 01-26-11

Tonight I presented my partner at the Lean Learning Center, Andy Carlino, with the following gift. This year marks some milestones. One is that the Lean Learning Center has been open for 10 years. The other, just as significant, is that we mark 20 years of consulting for Andy. He’s

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Matt Wrye’s Reflections from the Lean Experience

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 12-16-10

At the moment, I am teaching a Lean Experience at our Center for a group of mixed companies that include retail, transportation, micro-brews, and more. Recently, we delivered a private session at the company where lean blogger Matt Wrye works. Matt converted several of his lessons from the class into

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4 ways our value stream training may be different than yours

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 09-23-10

Value stream mapping training is almost like six sigma training these days – a dime a dozen. There is so much content out there, and so much of it is the same. At the Lean Learning Center, we’ve always focused on solving problems that had not yet been solved, or

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How to read a book in an hour

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 06-16-10

For those of you who have taken our Lean Experience, you know we have a very structured multi-step process to kick things off in which approximately 40 people read books, distill them to key points, share them with other, build common themes and ideas and prepare a presentation. A part

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We’re always thinking about value

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 04-19-10

“Sponsor our program and reach 100s of prospective clients” – I hear it all the time. We get calls and emails and mailers to sponsor conferences, programs, special reports, and so on. But we always think in terms of value. I can’t understand what value sponsoring the continental breakfast really

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Why we won’t do 100 kaizens for you

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 04-08-10

Every day is an adventure. We approach our work with clients with an extreme bias towards flexibility. We do have standard work for activities, but how we might engage a client will be different every time. And that starts with a wide range of requests. But some of them we

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Doing More with Less

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 02-01-10

What’s your definition of lean? There are many. Personally, I think you shouldn’t focus too much energy on developing definitions. Perhaps the most common definition however is “doing more with less.” It’s cute, short, and to the point. It’s says a lot, but still leaves a little to the imagination.

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Measurement Misnomers, and Toyota Dealership Problems

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 01-29-10

On our LinkedIn Group we get many good discussions and questions. We had one from Roger Cook that I thought was worth repeating and expanding upon. Here is the question: I’m curious if any of you have foolproof ways of insuring your metrics (which lean folks are famous for measuring

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