Lean Enterprise Institute

10/20/2026

AI will hand you a root cause in seconds. Whether it is the right one is a separate question.

Art Smalley and Tyson Heaton are leading a new half-day workshop at the 2027 Lean Summit: Lean Problem Solving in the Age of AI.

Participants bring a real problem and work it with the AI model of their choice, testing where lean problem-solving discipline holds up with AI in the loop and where it breaks down.

No AI experience required. A laptop and a live problem are.

For practitioners ready to go further, Building Lean AI Workflows asks you to bring a recurring task from your own operation and leave with an AI-supported approach you can run the next day.

Monday, March 15, in Los Angeles.
Workshop details: https://hubs.ly/Q04BMmBJ0

10/19/2026

Toyota didn’t design its production system. It experimented its way there over generations, and kanban alone took almost a decade to reach companywide use.

So why does the lean community so often answer new experiments with “that isn’t real lean”?

In a new article, LEI President Josh Howell argues the habit is starving the movement. Drawing on this year’s Lean Global Network gathering in Italy, a recent obeya visit, and his own missteps, he describes three ways verdicts go wrong: judging from a distance, seeing without engaging, and critiquing without owning the outcome.

His alternative draws on LEI’s Lean Transformation Framework and a simple test for any unfamiliar approach. Is there a standard? What did the team expect? What actually happened?

Read “Lean Was Always an Experiment” by Josh Howell:

Lean was built through experiments. So why do so many of us answer what others are trying with a shrug and a “that isn’t real lean”? Josh Howell argues the habit is starving the movement.

10/18/2026

You can rent people to make AI work. You can’t rent your team’s ability to see and improve its own work.

That’s the case LEI’s Tyson Heaton will make at Lean Global Connection 2026, the 24-hour online event the Lean Global Network runs each year. This year’s theme is designing human-centered organizations as AI takes on more of the work.

Two sessions with Tyson on November 12:

→ Lean AI Hackathon (paid workshop)
4:00 to 6:00 PM ET
Bring something you’re stuck on with AI. You’ll work on it with a frontier model in breakout rooms of two or three, with Tyson coaching as you go. You’ll also learn how to run the same format with your own teams. Capped at 9 participants.

→ Deployed or Developed: Who Owns Your AI Capability?
8:00 to 8:30 PM ET
Drawing on his Lean Post series, Tyson looks at what Taylor, TWI and Toyota teach about outsourced improvement, and how to grow AI capability in the people who already run the work.

More than 100 speakers. Attendees from 120+ countries. One question running through all of it: what happens to people when the tools change?

Where are you stuck with AI right now?

Register

DESIGNING HUMAN-CENTERED ORGANIZATIONS IN THE AGE OF AI Why people—not just technology—will define the future of work

10/16/2026

At Toyota, the chief engineer carries total responsibility for a product line without formal authority over the people who build it.

Naoto Kitagawa, former chief engineer for the Camry, Avalon, Solara, and bB, developed 17 principles for the role. He built them on three attitudes he brought to every project: curiosity, empathy, and imagination.

John Shook and Jim Morgan, who wrote the foreword to Kitagawa’s book, joined Tyson Heaton on a Lean Enterprise Institute webinar to discuss the principles in practice. Shook explained why the chief engineer has to lead by influence, starting with a succinct A3. Morgan compared the role to a conductor who integrates every discipline into a single product.

Which of the 17 principles would be hardest to practice in your organization?

Read more: https://hubs.li/Q04BcXth0

Buy the book: https://hubs.li/Q04BcXR70

10/15/2026

A public hospital, a global home furnishings retailer, an insurer, and a custom window maker are on the same agenda.

That is on purpose.

Strip away the industry and the problems look familiar: work that depends on a few heroes, and improvement that stops at the edge of one department. Hearing how a hospital solved it can be more useful to a plant manager than another plant tour.

Confirmed presenters for the 2027 Lean Summit so far:
• Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital
• Fisher & Paykel Healthcare
• IKEA
• Nationwide
• Electrolab Medic
• City Home
• Viwinco Windows

More sessions will be announced in the coming weeks.
Los Angeles, March 16–17.

Learn more and register at just $1,999 for a limited time.: https://hubs.li/Q04B8zNk0

10/14/2026

When the travel budget was cut, Kitagawa fought to send a small team into customers' homes anyway. He knew the Camry would fail without understanding how people actually lived with their cars. Going to the gemba, from the chief engineer's chair.

Watch the full conversation with Jim Morgan and John Shook: https://hubs.li/Q04zt8mB0

Buy the book: https://hubs.li/Q04zt8Bz0

10/13/2026

“We make more money now in a month than we did in a year before.” That’s Viwinco CEO Mike Duncan, describing the business after five years of lean work.

Getting there meant admitting the company was not as lean as it looked. It delivered about 75% of its custom windows and doors on a one-week lead time, held no finished goods inventory, and had doubled revenue in four years. Inside, CEO Mike Duncan saw "a lot of firefighting, heroic efforts."

So Viwinco started with one production line, created a team leader role, and built a management system to hold the gains.

From 2020 to 2026:
• On-time and in-full delivery: 80% to 95%
• Defects: down 34%
• Safety incidents (DART): down 68%
• Work-in-process between stations: 40+ units to about 1
• Revenue: $62 million to $115 million

Mike Duncan, President and CEO of Viwinco Windows, will share what that took at the 2027 Lean Summit in Los Angeles, March 16–17.

Read the case study: https://hubs.li/Q04zY0fP0

Learn more and register for the 2027 Lean Summit: https://hubs.li/Q04zY0630

10/12/2026

"I need to go see. I need to go learn."

Faced with building a car for a younger generation, Kitagawa admitted his team didn't have the answer, so he went to find it. The humility behind Toyota product development.

Watch the webinar on The Work of a Chief Engineer: https://hubs.li/Q04zBNCr0

Buy the book: https://hubs.li/Q04zBNDC0

10/09/2026

A chief engineer carries full responsibility for a product with almost no formal authority over the people who build it. John Shook on the paradox at the heart of Toyota product development.

Watch the full conversation with Jim Morgan and John Shook: https://hubs.li/Q04zt1cy0

Buy the book: https://hubs.li/Q04zt18Y0

10/08/2026

"We can spend years building Lean systems, and it can all be deconstructed within weeks by a leader who no longer believes in it."

The strongest organizations don't treat Lean as an initiative. They treat it as a competitive advantage.

Join leaders from across industries at the 2027 Lean Summit and explore how continuous improvement drives long-term organizational success.

Register now:https://hubs.li/Q04zFzdf0