If you are striving to become a Lean organization, waste elimination is probably near the top of your list. In fact, Lean practitioners have identified very specific types of waste, known collectively as the 8 Wastes of Lean. Certain types of waste are really easy to spot and fix, while others can remain unnoticed. We thought it might be helpful to share some practical examples of how each type of waste occurs in business and in the larger world.

One of the most critical responsibilities of leadership teams in organizations of all types and sizes is to set the strategic direction and develop an executable plan to achieve the most important key performance indicators. Unfortunately, until recently, the data used to drive strategy execution was limited to lagging indicators like financial performance and customer satisfaction ratings. 

Today, a new option that allows management with leading indicators of success is available. Rather than a rearview mirror, strategy execution software provides management teams with a dashboard to help them drive toward the results they need to achieve.

Organizations of all types and sizes have realized that continuous quality improvement is easiest to spread and sustain if a software platform is used to support it. If you are ready to take your organization's approach to positive change to the next level by doing so, congratulations! Our customers have found that the benefits of using technology to support improvement are vast.

Many of the people who come to us to talk about our Lean improvement management software are not implementing an improvement program for the first time. In fact, in many cases, the very reason they are turning to us is that previous attempts to implement Lean project management have been disappointing.

Here are our best tips for avoiding the common problems that lead to sub-par results.

The traditional siloed approach to business operations where everyone stays in their "lane" is giving way to a more cooperative, collaborative approach. Organizations have found that cross-training employees lead to a more innovative take on improvement and waste reduction. Not only does it offer the opportunity for employees to learn new skills, but it also gives everyone a more holistic view of the business.

Although the Lean quality improvement methodology was initially developed to improve the quality and productivity of automotive factories, it has been used with great success in industries and settings of all types, including software development, government, retail, and other service settings.

Healthcare organizations, in particular, have found that the approach can be used to reduce costs and improve quality of care, patient safety, and satisfaction at the same time.

The internet is full of free Kanban Excel templates that you can download. That’s not surprising because the format of a Kanban board can be very simple, and Excel is attractive because most people know how to use its basic features, and everyone in the company probably already has access to it. Setting up a Kanban board in Excel and emailing it out to everyone is easy. That’s why we aren’t surprised that so many organizations start out on this road.

Very few, however, reach their goals with this approach. Here’s why.

It is relatively common for people to use the terms "employee engagement" and "employee satisfaction" interchangeably. However, we have never been comfortable with that framing, especially when it comes to software to measure and improve engagement. Tools like employee NPS and employee pulse surveys do an excellent job of measuring employee satisfaction, but they don't have features likely to increase employee engagement. Understanding the difference can help organizations that want to attract, retain, and develop talent find the tools that can help them do so.

Companies around the world have spent the last year learning how to manage a remote workforce as the COVID-19 pandemic swept the globe. While many are looking forward to life getting back to normal, the KaiNexus team is looking to go in a different direction.

“Our Austin office lease expired while our team was working fully remote last summer, and we realized that we had a golden opportunity to finally take the leap we’ve been dreaming about for years,” said KaiNexus CEO Greg Jacobson. Jacobson first visited Antarctica back in 2012, where he fell in love with the solitude and expansive views. “There’s room to think out here.”

The Lean methodology is an evolution of the Toyota Production System that the Japanese automaker implemented following World War II to improve the efficiency and flexibility of its manufacturing. Two important books, The Machine That Changed the World (1990) by James P. Womack, Daniel Roos, and Daniel T. Jone and Lean Thinking (1996) by James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones, outlined the structure and principles for the Lean method.

Although Lean got its start in manufacturing, today it is widely used across the globe in every sector including logistics and distribution, services, retail, healthcare, construction, maintenance, and even higher education.