Month: October 2025

5 October 2025

Lean Never Fails, People Simply Stop Practicing

Across industries, it has become common to hear that most Lean transformations fail. Some say half of them do. Others say nearly all. These claims circulate widely, shaping a belief that Lean somehow does not deliver what it promises. Yet reality tells a different story. […]

Lean Never Fails, People Simply Stop Practicing
by Surya Narayan
5 October 2025
Across industries, it has become common to hear that most Lean transformations fail. Some say half of them do. Others say nearly all. These claims circulate widely, shaping a belief that Lean somehow does not deliver what it promises. Yet reality tells a different story. […]
Thailand’s Quiet Revolution in PCB Manufacturing
by Surya Narayan
10 September 2025
In a world electrified by the promise of artificial intelligence, a quiet transformation is unfolding in Southeast Asia. While headlines often focus on chip design and semiconductor breakthroughs, another part of the supply chain is taking center stage. Thailand is emerging as a critical hub […]
Rediscovering the Lean Sensei: Learning Environments, Not Lecture Halls
by Surya Narayan
6 September 2025
Schools are often remembered as dreary places where curiosity struggled to survive under rigid teaching methods. Students developed a love for learning but grew skeptical of those responsible for guiding them. Teachers who preached from authority, claimed to be “gurus,” or began sentences with “Without […]
Overcoming Kanban Scalability Challenges through Digitalization
by Surya Narayan
2 September 2025
Lean Digitalization | Kanban | Lean Technology CASE STUDY – Reference from Planet Lean: How a manufacturing firm used digitalization to overcome the limits of manual kanban while preserving its pull-based lean culture. From Push Planning to Pull Flow Many organizations begin with a traditional […]
Driving Operational Excellence in Financial Services with True North Lean
by Surya Narayan
26 August 2025
For decades, lean was considered a manufacturing playbook. It belonged to assembly lines, production floors, and factories. Banks, insurers, and asset managers often dismissed it as irrelevant to their world of transactions, credit approvals, and investment strategies. But those perceptions are changing. Financial services firms […]
Lean Manufacturing Demands Agile Production and Support in South and Southeast Asia
by Surya Narayan
18 August 2025
For more than three decades, lean manufacturing has been the backbone of industrial growth across South and Southeast Asia. It has been the philosophy behind India’s rise as a global pharmaceutical hub, Vietnam’s ascent in electronics, Thailand’s dominance in automotive supply chains, and Bangladesh’s leadership […]
Built-in Quality – Why Doing It Right the First Time Always Wins
by Surya Narayan
6 August 2025
When you walk through a modern factory floor, it’s easy to get impressed by the speed of machines, the rhythm of assembly lines, and the sheer volume of output. However, behind all that movement, there is something far more important that keeps everything together: quality. […]
Why the Smartest Startups Think Lean from Day One
by Surya Narayan
27 July 2025
By the Editorial Team | True North Leanwww.truenorthlean.org Most startups don’t fail because they lack vision. They fail because they chase that vision without a system for learning, alignment, and execution. We romanticize the lone founder—the genius in the garage, sketching a billion-dollar idea on […]