Author: Editor

29 October 2025

Case Study: Transforming a Fresh-Produce Business Through Lean Agribusiness Management

Maintaining consistent quality and ensuring on-time delivery is crucial in the competitive world of fresh produce. A medium-sized farm and processing enterprise specializing in ready-to-eat salads recently discovered how structured agribusiness management and Lean practices could completely change the game. The Challenge The company dispersed […]

26 October 2025

Case Study: Transforming a Food Manufacturing Facility Through Lean Thinking

In the competitive world of food manufacturing, where margins are tight and customer demands are high, one company discovered that operational excellence does not have to come at the cost of employee well-being. This case study explores how a mid-sized packaged foods producer improved profitability […]

19 October 2025

Lean Thinking Beyond the Factory Walls

For many years, Lean was seen as a philosophy designed only for factories. It belonged to the world of machines, assembly lines, and production targets. But today, a quiet revolution is taking place. The same Lean ideas that once transformed manufacturing are now reshaping offices, […]

13 July 2025

Lean Without Borders: Lessons from Two Teams, Two Countries, One Spirit

In recent weeks, the True North Lean team had the opportunity to work with two distinctly different organizations—on paper. One was a Dutch-Thai joint venture in Bangkok, with a predominantly Burmese frontline. The other, an American multinational operating in Cambodia, where a U.S.-led leadership team […]

21 April 2025

Driving Vietnam’s Industrial Evolution: A Lean–Digital–Green Transformation for Sustainable Growth

Vietnam’s manufacturing sector is undergoing a quiet but powerful transformation. As global competition intensifies and supply chains demand greater transparency, resilience, and sustainability, Vietnamese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are responding—not with fragmented solutions, but through structured, integrated transformation built on three essential pillars: Lean, […]

17 March 2025

Understanding Success Factors in Lean Implementation for SMEs

Implementing lean practices in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) presents both significant opportunities and considerable challenges. Lean, which originated in the automotive industry as a means to reduce waste, has evolved into a widely used methodology for improving productivity, reducing costs, and enhancing quality. While […]

Case Study: Transforming a Fresh-Produce Business Through Lean Agribusiness Management
by Editor
29 October 2025
Maintaining consistent quality and ensuring on-time delivery is crucial in the competitive world of fresh produce. A medium-sized farm and processing enterprise specializing in ready-to-eat salads recently discovered how structured agribusiness management and Lean practices could completely change the game. The Challenge The company dispersed […]
Case Study: Transforming a Food Manufacturing Facility Through Lean Thinking
by Editor
26 October 2025
In the competitive world of food manufacturing, where margins are tight and customer demands are high, one company discovered that operational excellence does not have to come at the cost of employee well-being. This case study explores how a mid-sized packaged foods producer improved profitability […]
Lean Thinking Beyond the Factory Walls
by Editor
19 October 2025
For many years, Lean was seen as a philosophy designed only for factories. It belonged to the world of machines, assembly lines, and production targets. But today, a quiet revolution is taking place. The same Lean ideas that once transformed manufacturing are now reshaping offices, […]
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 […]