Principles of Lean Thinking

Manufacturing Leaders Love Talking About Lean—But Who’s Actually Doing It? Everyone loves to talk about Lean. Lean principles. Lean thinking. Lean transformation. But when it’s time to make real changes—where does all that talk go? I’ve seen it too many times: A company maps its value stream, holds a big workshop, talks about reducing waste… and then? Nothing. The shop floor stays the same. Cycle times don’t improve. Bottlenecks remain bottlenecks. Why? Because real Lean isn’t about PowerPoint slides or whiteboard exercises. It’s about getting your hands dirty and fixing what’s broken. It means making practical, real-world changes—not just talking about them in meetings. Here’s what actually moves the needle: ✅ Cutting redundant inspections only where it makes sense, not blindly eliminating quality checks. ✅ Moving tools closer without disrupting ergonomics or safety. ✅ Automating material flow where volume justifies the investment, not just for the sake of automation. ✅ Reducing lead time by fixing scheduling bottlenecks, not just tweaking processes that aren’t the real problem. ✅ Managing inventory to avoid both excess and shortages, instead of forcing a one-size-fits-all JIT approach. ✅ Standardizing work only where it helps, while keeping flexibility where needed. ✅ Fixing quality at the source but making sure operators have the training to do it right. ✅ Empowering frontline workers with real authority to improve processes, not just asking for their “input.” ✅ Synchronizing production with demand without creating unrealistic targets that break the system. ✅ Using real-time data that’s actually useful for decision-making, not just flooding dashboards with numbers no one acts on. Lean isn’t about buzzwords. It’s about execution. The best manufacturers don’t just talk about Lean. They live it. They enforce it. They make it happen. They do VST (Value Stream Transformation), not just VSM! - If it’s not executed, it’s not Lean. ♻️Repost to lead real change!

The uncomfortable truth: Most "lean transformations" would make these masters cringe Look at these six fundamental quotes from the legends of continuous improvement. Now ask yourself - does your organization truly live by any of them? 1/ When Deming said quality is "a habit," he meant daily discipline - not quarterly reviews 2/ Ohno's focus on the entire value stream challenges our functional silos and handoffs 3/ Shingo warned about invisible waste - which now hides in our spreadsheets, meetings, and approval processes 4/ Imai's "everybody" means everybody - not just your improvement specialists 5/ Juran defined quality by customer needs - not internal specifications 6/ Womack's definition of waste would eliminate half the activities in most companies The hard truth: most organizations claim to follow these principles while systematically violating them daily. I've seen countless "lean initiatives" that completely miss these fundamental insights. We've turned revolutionary thinking into superficial tools, checklists and certifications. These masters weren't suggesting minor adjustments - they were challenging the entire way we think about work. P.S. What would change if your organization truly embraced even ONE of these principles completely? --- Follow me Angad S. for more!

🔍 Have you ever wondered how some companies keep things running smoothly, even when challenges pop up? Here’s a little insight: They’re often using Lean principles, a set of practices focused on making things simpler, faster, and more effective by cutting out the clutter. But Lean is about more than just efficiency; it’s about connecting people with their work in meaningful ways. Take visual management as an example. It’s all about making information visible and accessible. Imagine Walking into an office and immediately seeing a Kanban board showing where each project stands or an “out-of-stock” card on an inventory shelf. These aren’t just clever tools—they make work easier to understand and create a sense of ownership and accountability. And the results? Employees feel empowered to make decisions on the spot, without waiting for formal reports or meetings. According to recent studies, visual management can increase task accuracy by up to 60% in workplaces that adopt it. Then there’s gemba, or what Toyota calls the “go-and-see” mindset. Instead of guessing what’s going on from an office, managers head to the shop floor. They observe, listen, and understand what’s happening right at the point of action. Toyota Motor Corporation leads the way here, with most of its supervisors spending time on the production floor daily. And it pays off—problems get resolved faster, and solutions are based on firsthand observations, not assumptions. Finally, Continuous improvement is at the heart of Lean. It’s the mindset of always looking for ways to do things better, even if only by a tiny bit. Every tweak, every little fix, adds up over time, ensuring that the company is always moving toward giving customers more value. In fact, companies that embrace continuous improvement report a 15-20% increase in productivity over time, as noted by the Lean Enterprise Institute. And here’s what often goes unnoticed: Lean only works because it values people. Real, day-to-day improvements come from the employees who are involved in the work and whose insights and ideas shape better processes. When people feel heard, productivity grows—by as much as 30% in companies with strong employee engagement practices. So, Next time you hear about Lean, think beyond the jargon. At its core, it’s about creating a work environment where people feel connected to their roles, confident in their abilities, and motivated to make a difference every day. That’s the real impact of Lean.

This is the sneakiest trap entrepreneurs fall into: (I've personally fallen into this one multiple times) It's called: Optimizing the Useless Elon was once asked: "what's the biggest mistake engineers make?" He said: "Optimizing that which shouldn't exist." Now, if you find it really easy to fall into this trap (like me), then here's a simple framework that we used to build our first 8-figure business that I think you'll find useful. It's called D.O.W.N.T.I.M.E. This framework (borrowed from Lean Manufacturing) is all about learning to identify and eliminate WASTE within your business. Here's how to use this acronym to optimize your business: 1. DEFECTS If you don't have time to do something right, then when will you ever have the time to fix it? Defective products are a margin killer. Defects costs material, time, energy, morale, customer satisfaction, reputation, and more... 2. OVERPROCESSING Determine the customer's expectation of quality. Exceed it by ~15%. Diminishing returns kick in beyond this point. Want to increase quality? Increase price and your customer's corresponding expectation. Want to decrease quality? Decrease price. 3. WAITING Teams become increasing inefficient as they grow. People waste large amounts of time waiting for somebody in some other department to complete a task before they can move forward. Combat this by creating "simultaneous" (not "sequential") processes whenever possible. 4. Non-Used Employee Genius Your people are your most valuable resource. Treat them as such. Make sure they're not only sitting on the right seat, but that you're tapping into their unique genius (whatever that may be). 5. TRANSPORTATION The excessive movement of a "product" or "material" through a process. When moving things through a facility, straight lines are your friend. When moving things through a work cell, the "u" is your friend. 6. INVENTORY Necessary evil, especially in a world with next day delivery expectations. We're a "just in time" manufacturer, so balancing "enough" inventory with "too much" is one of the hardest problems we've had to solve for. 7. MOTION The excessive movement of yourself through a process. Example: Walking 10 steps to get the hammer 10 times per day. 10 x 10 x 280 (working days /year) = 28,000 steps 2,000 steps/mile 28,000/2,000 = 14 miles /year Move the tool. 8. Excess Production This gets turned into Inventory, but it's the unintended result of a process exceeding demand. Don't get this one figured out and you'll drown in inventory. This concept of D.O.W.N.T.I.M.E. works in ANY business, but it all comes down to culture. Training new employees in this concept is the most important thing we do. Why? Because once you know how to identify waste, you start to see it everywhere... Even in areas you know nothing about (like me in manufacturing). And once you control for DOWNTIME... your UPSIDE is practically unlimited.

𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘁 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀. We’ve seen it again and again. Boards. Charts. Kaizen events. And yet… no change in thinking. No learning. Lean is not a program. It’s not a system of tools. It’s a system of learning, and that learning happens at the Gemba, not in PowerPoint. You don’t become Lean by doing 5S. You become Lean by asking better questions: 🔍 What is the problem? 🔍 Where is the waste? 🔍 What is the standard? 🔍 How do we help people think deeply about their work? "𝙐𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙡 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚 𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙂𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙖, 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙬𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙩, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙥𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙠𝙖𝙞𝙯𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙫𝙚𝙨, 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙣𝙤 𝙇𝙚𝙖𝙣". There is only pretend Lean. And pretend Lean kills culture. It teaches teams that nothing really changes. That “continuous improvement” is just this year’s initiative. The hard truth? 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲. It forces us to confront what we don’t know and how we lead. 👉But when we commit to learning, really learning, with our people… That’s when everything starts to change. 💬 What’s the most important lesson you had to unlearn to lead with Lean? #LeanThinking #Gemba #RespectForPeople #LeanLeadership #ContinuousImprovement #LeanNotTools