Art Smalley, Author at Art of Lean

4 Types of Problems

Posted on October 8, 2018October 8, 2018 by Art Smalley

Now available at the LEI bookstore!

4 Types of Problems Ready for Order

Posted on October 2, 2018October 14, 2018 by Art Smalley

I am very happy to announce that after a couple years of hard work my latest book entitled 4 Types of Problems is now available for order through the Lean Enterprise Institute. I will be posting some updates, excerpts, and conducting some podcasts in the upcoming month. Thanks to John Shook for helping see this book through and all the folks at LEI getting it ready for publish...

Practice Over Theory

Posted on October 18, 2016October 18, 2016 by Art Smalley

Here is a bit of history for those interested. I received a question about the first Toyota Production System manual ever written. For many years the primary driver of the Lean / TPS efforts inside of Toyota was of course Taiichi Ohno. However for almost two decades he opposed the codification of the system into any type of manual. Some people have interpreted that reluctance o...

John Shook, President & Chairman LEI

Posted on September 22, 2016September 22, 2016 by Art Smalley

ArtofLean.com with its substantive content both historical and up-to-date is a great place to go to verify the consistency of your lean activities with the original source.

Russ Scaffede, Retired VP Toyota Motor Manufacturing

Posted on September 22, 2016September 22, 2016 by Art Smalley

This is one of the most dynamic websites for lean practitioners I have ever seen. This site is loaded with first had information accumulated and presented by one of the leading experts on the Toyota Production System in the U.S.

Marek Piatkowski, Former Manager Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada

Posted on September 22, 2016September 22, 2016 by Art Smalley

A great resource and highly valuable for anyone interested in applying Toyota Production System / Lean Transformation principles.

Problem Solving Interview with LEI

Posted on September 13, 2016September 21, 2016 by Art Smalley

Chet Marchwinski of LEI conducted a short interview with Art Smalley regarding problem solving and improvement. The video was just posted on-line by LEI at the following link: http://www.lean.org/LeanPost/Posting.cfm?LeanPostId=628 The book on the 4 Types of Problems is due to be published by LEI later this year. I will announce any updates when we hear of a release date ...

Monterrey Mexico Lean Conference 2016

Posted on September 13, 2016September 21, 2016 by Art Smalley

I accepted an invitation to speak at a lean conference in Monterrey Mexico on September 6th and 7th. I delivered the opening keynote and two workshops all on the topic of 4 Types of Problems. The book will be published in a couple more months (I hope) by the Lean Enterprise Institute. I will post updates as soon as I am informed of any release dates. In the mean time for those ...

2016 Lean Management Conference Wroklaw Poland

Posted on June 24, 2016September 13, 2016 by Art Smalley

Here are copies of the four presentations I presented earlier this month at the 2016 Lean Management Conference in Wroklaw Poland. Over 450 people attended the conference and the feedback was quite positive. I delivered the opening keynote presentation on Leadership Shaping Principles in addition to learning sessions on Toyota Kaizen Methods and The Four Types of Problems. My n...

Continuous Improvement

Posted on June 24, 2016September 22, 2016 by Art Smalley

Call it kaizen or continuous improvement or whatever term you prefer. In the end if you don't deliver results you won't be in business for long. The two pillars of the Toyota system are respect for people and continuous improvement for this reason. Processes, equipment, tools, or assets don't improve on their own. It takes the structured work of teams to drive and sustain impro...