Dr Deming once said: “We know what we said, we don’t know what they heard.” In the evolution from believing lean is merely a set of tools to learning that it all starts at the point where we understand the bigger picture, John helps us to better understand the message.

In the third article of his series, Roddy Martin, senior vice president, global supply chain at Competitive Capabilities International, draws the conclusions on how to fully transform a supply chain into a demand-driven system that can ensure sustained competitiveness.

This month we focus on measures and assessment.

If you think lean is difficult to adapt to nonmanufacturing businesses, think again.

Joseph Paris, chairman of XONITEK, says continuous improvement initiatives need stewardship to be successful.

Shane Maher MBA shares with LMJ readers a research investigating the current thinking on supply chain integration by offering a case study of a leading orthopaedic manufacturer.

Matt van Wyck, a graduate at the MSc in Lean Operations at Cardiff University and a former metallurgical engineer, designed and deployed a lean transformation programme across the South African operations of DeBeers.

Bob Miller is the executive director of The Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence at Utah State University.

Tim Clancy and Adam Sommers of IBM Global Business Services explain how an approach called Critical Initiative Support (CIS) can help bring change about in difficult situations where results are needed quickly.