I should have been making videos six years ago, but I got paralyzed because I wanted everything to be perfect. I bought all kinds of film gear and lighting and software, but I never made a video because I was waiting for everything to be perfect. Then I realized the folly of that. If you just do it, you'll learn so much by 'just doing it.' That is really the story of 2 Second Lean. If you just make a small improvement, you'll learn so much that the next improvement will be that much better."

This is awesome. Love all the photos. Love the home applications. If all Lean ‘gurus’ practiced what they preached… hmmmm… Welcome to my world of Extreme Lean thinking. Once you have experienced the vast benefits of Lean, you will crave it, want it, and do anything to get it.Daily routine, with the whole goal of keeping the rope tight (you hear this often) and finding problems. Leads into various improvement activities or 2 second lean improvements. I said, Of course! He said, You don’t know what you’re doing and you don’t know how to manufacture. Ouch.

Lean does not make things more difficult. Lean is focused on intentionally simplifying any process....Lean is not about working harder and more frantically, but about making things simpler. It is not just about making everything faster, but about improving the quality of everything you do. It's rarely a huge or drastic change, but baby steps in an endless drive to continuously improve everything every day."

Customer reviews

We are very deliberate in how we hire people. We look for two characteristics- people who are humble and curious. We want people who don't act and feel like they know it all. We want people who are naturally curious about life." They asked questions about everything, starting with, Why are you making so much finished product? I answered, Because it takes so much time to set up the machine for each variation of our product. We might as well make a whole bunch of each type and then we can just pull from it as we need it over the next couple of months. Simplified methodology popularized by Paul Akers and the 2 second lean movement. Akers is hotly against 5S, which creates some confusion. Ten years ago I began my Lean journey. I had never even heard the word before, but what happened was nothing short of astounding. Lean thinking has propelled my business from a small operation in my garage into an international, multi-million dollar enterprise. Welcome to my world of Extreme Lean thinking. Once you have experienced the vast benefits of Lean, you will crave it, want it, and do anything to get it. Lean thinking has made an enormous difference in my life – personally and professionally.”

We were having inventory problems, specifically with managing our incoming raw materials. I hired a manufacturing consultant to see if he could suggest a software program to manage our inventory more efficiently. After touring our entire facility I asked him, So, Tracy, what do you think? Can you help me out? My mistake had to do with my incorrect focus on processes. I needed to focus on building a culture of people who understand and embrace continuous improvement." Lean thinking is fun and exciting! The ideas I have learned from my Lean friends are tectonic! I have attempted to write a Lean book - short, visual and simple. There are plenty of workshops, executive manuals and textbooks on the market. I wanted to write a book that would make Lean accessible to everyone, from homemaker to executive. He understood that if you made things simple, there was a much greater chance of people understanding and implementing the ideas."

When humility becomes a central attribute of the Lean leadership, a vortex of creativity and buy-in will follow. When there is a culture where people know there is not an egomaniac in charge, they begin to grow and thrive." This is the spirit of a Lean culture. When the leader is willing to be corrected and has no ego issues with sharing credit, that same generous and supportive spirit flows between everybody." If you think of Lean as something meant to merely increase profit in your workplace, you will fail to implement Lean. Paul shows this very well. This book teaches you how Lean is supposed to be seen and taken in your life, how Lean can be used as way to inspire people around you, how can you create a Lean culture inside of your workplace and so on.

The first three months were hard work. It was like pulling teeth to keep everybody enthusiastic or even interested. We didn’t get everybody on-board and some thought maybe we were a little crazy. Why were we “wasting” this first hour of the day not building product? Why were we standing around in a circle in this crazy morning meeting? But after three months, things started to look pretty positive and then after six months, because we didn’t give up (just like a good diet), things really started looking good. After one year, we were on fire” (p. 54).Karl Wadensten – President Vibco Vibrators and Radio Talk Show Host Lean Nation on AM790 and 790Business.com