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Leadership Development Through Toyota Kata
NOTE: This article was written by Sam Wagner of FAST Global Solutions. Sam is a TWI and Toyota Kata Thought Leader and has appeared

Top 15 Lean Conferences of 2020
There is no shortage of lean-related events in 2020, from small regional conferences, to workshops, to large international events that draw the world’s top

The Meta-Patterns of Innovation
by Mark Rosenthal When we study organizations whose performance stands out among their peers, we tend to try to understand the structural patterns of what

The Improvement Kata – A Way of Developing Scientific Thinking to Create an Agile Mindset
“You know, we often lead change through projects in our organization but about 10% of the change is technology based, the rest is people

Balancing the See-Saw of Process Changes and People
Lean or operational excellence programs tend to be strong on specifying the process or engineering angle of the future state manufacturing system. The people

Toyota Kata Illustrates Skill and “Need for Change” Obstacles
Article Note: The following article was authored by Oscar Roche and Mike Withka, hosts of a November 8, 2019 webinar titled, “Toyota Kata pulls in

How to Get Continuing Results with Job Instruction
This blog post submitted by Boyd Rice, Vice President of Global Lean Performance System at S&C Electric Company The principles of Job Instruction are

Filling the Knowledge Gap: Competency = Knowledge + Skill + Behavior
NOTE: This article was authored by Oscar Roche, Director of the TWI Institute Australia. How often do we teach someone to do something and

Respect for People: The Timeless Principles of TWI Job Relations
NOTE: The following post was authored by Boyd Rice of S&C Electric Company and was a featured presenter at the annual TWI Summit. The

Zambian Internship
By Garek Huntzinger
In June of 2017, I spent a little over five weeks in Zambia, Africa on a self-led internship. I left home on May 25th, and got home on July 6th. This was my forth time visiting Africa, but the first time I stayed more than two weeks and the first time I worked there. The previous times had been visits with my father and sister. We were visiting the Enrights. My family has been close friends with them for many years. While I worked on their farm called Rivendell, I learned many things about the culture in Zambia, and how different …

Self-Creating Capital with help from Lean and the Free Market
by Jim Huntzinger
In July 2016, my children and I returned to Zambia, Africa. The changes seem to come slow with each trip but they also come with a significant impact. The honey business is booming and has been doubling in output with each harvest (there are approximately 2.5 harvests per year). Sales internal to Zambia and several surrounding countries have substantially increased, as well as contracts with European export. As a result, the number of villagers earning income from honey harvests has increased to over 17,000; …

Spreading Hope by Creating Wealth
by Jim Huntzinger
In August 2009 and August 2013 my children and I spent two weeks in Zambia, Africa. We were visiting and helping some close family friends that are missionaries. John and Kendra Enright are not typical missionaries. While they do have a very nice training center, the Kafakumba Training Center, which is used for a pastor school, family activities and other community events, the main focus and thrust of their work is setting up indigenous economic development. John has always…